One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”--ED. _A Poet!_--He hath put his heart to school, Nor dares to move unpropped upon the staff Which Art hath lodged within his hand--must laugh By precept only, and shed tears by rule. Thy Art be Nature; the live current quaff, 5 And let the groveller sip his stagnant pool, In fear that else, when Critics grave and cool Have killed him, Scorn should write his epitaph.[222] How does the Meadow-flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely little flower is free 10 Down to its root, and, in that freedom, bold; And so the grandeur of the Forest-tree Comes not by casting in a formal mould, But from its _own_ divine vitality. [222] Compare _A Poet’s Epitaph_ (vol. ii. p. 75).--ED. “THE MOST ALLURING CLOUDS THAT MOUNT THE SKY” Published 1842 [Hundreds of times have I seen, hanging about and above the vale of Rydal, clouds that might have given birth to this sonnet, which was thrown off on the impulse of the moment one evening when I was returning from the favourite walk of ours, along the Rotha, under Loughrigg.--I.F.] One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”--ED. The most alluring clouds that mount the sky Owe to a troubled element their forms, Their hues to sunset. If with raptured eye We watch their splendour, shall we covet storms, And wish the Lord of day his slow decline 5 Would hasten, that such pomp may float on high? Behold, already they forget to shine, Dissolve--and leave to him who gazed a sigh. Not loth to thank each moment for its boon Of pure delight, come whensoe’er[223] it may, 10 Peace let us seek,--to stedfast things attune Calm expectations, leaving to the gay And volatile their love of transient bowers, The house that cannot pass away be ours.[224] [223] 1849 … whencesoe’er … 1842. [224] Compare _To the Clouds_, I. 94, p. 145.--ED. “FEEL FOR THE WRONGS TO UNIVERSAL KEN” Published 1842 [This Sonnet is recommended to the perusal of those who consider that the evils under which we groan are to be removed or palliated by measures ungoverned by moral and religious principles.--I.F.] One of the “Sonnets dedicated to Liberty and Order.”--ED.