Dejection: An Ode

Written April 4, 1802
  1. 1Late, late yestreen I saw the new Moon, With the old Moon in her arms;
  2. 2And I fear, I fear, my Master dear! We shall have a deadly storm.
Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence.
  1. 3Well! If the Bard was weather-wise, who made
  2. 4The grand old ballad of Sir Patrick Spence,
  3. 5This night, so tranquil now, will not go hence
  4. 6Unroused by winds, that ply a busier trade
  5. 7Than those which mould yon cloud in lazy flakes,
  6. 8Or the dull sobbing draft, that moans and rakes
  7. 9Upon the strings of this Æolian lute,
  8. 10Which better far were mute.
  9. 11For lo! the New-moon winter-bright!
  10. 12And overspread with phantom light,
  11. 13(With swimming phantom light o'erspread
  12. 14But rimmed and circled by a silver thread)
  13. 15I see the old Moon in her lap, foretelling
  14. 16The coming-on of rain and squally blast.
  15. 17And oh! that even now the gust were swelling,
  16. 18And the slant night-shower driving loud and fast!
  17. 19Those sounds which oft have raised me, whilst they awed,
  18. 20And sent my soul abroad,
  19. 21Might now perhaps their wonted impulse give,
  20. 22Might startle this dull pain, and make it move and live!
  1. 23A grief without a pang, void, dark, and drear,
  2. 24A stifled, drowsy, unimpassioned grief,
  3. 25Which finds no natural outlet, no relief,
  4. 26In word, or sigh, or tear--
  5. 27O Lady! in this wan and heartless mood,
  6. 28To other thoughts by yonder throstle woo'd,
  7. 29All this long eve, so balmy and serene,
  8. 30Have I been gazing on the western sky,
  9. 31And its peculiar tint of yellow green:
  10. 32And still I gaze--and with how blank an eye!
  11. 33And those thin clouds above, in flakes and bars,
  12. 34That give away their motion to the stars;
  13. 35Those stars, that glide behind them or between,
  14. 36Now sparkling, now bedimmed, but always seen:
  15. 37Yon crescent Moon, as fixed as if it grew
  16. 38In its own cloudless, starless lake of blue;
  17. 39I see them all so excellently fair,
  18. 40I see, not feel, how beautiful they are!
  1. 41My genial spirits fail;
  2. 42And what can these avail
  3. 43To lift the smothering weight from off my breast?
  4. 44It were a vain endeavour,
  5. 45Though I should gaze for ever
  6. 46On that green light that lingers in the west:
  7. 47I may not hope from outward forms to win
  8. 48The passion and the Life, whose fountains are within.
  1. 49O Lady! we receive but what we give,
  2. 50And in our life alone does Nature live:
  3. 51Ours is her wedding garment, ours her shroud!
  4. 52And would we aught behold, of higher worth,
  5. 53Than that inanimate cold world allowed
  6. 54To the poor loveless ever-anxious crowd,
  7. 55Ah! from the soul itself must issue forth
  8. 56A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud
  9. 57Enveloping the Earth--
  10. 58And from the soul itself must there be sent
  11. 59A sweet and potent voice, of its own birth,
  12. 60Of all sweet sounds the life and element!
  1. 61O pure of heart! thou need'st not ask of me
  2. 62What this strong music in the soul may be!
  3. 63What, and wherein it doth exist,
  4. 64This light, this glory, this fair luminous mist,
  5. 65This beautiful and beauty-making power.
  6. 66Joy, virtuous Lady! Joy that ne'er was given,
  7. 67Save to the pure, and in their purest hour,
  8. 68Life, and Life's effluence, cloud at once and shower,
  9. 69Joy, Lady! is the spirit and the power,
  10. 70Which wedding Nature to us gives in dower
  11. 71A new Earth and new Heaven,
  12. 72Undreamt of by the sensual and the proud--
  13. 73Joy is the sweet voice, Joy the luminous cloud--
  14. 74We in ourselves rejoice!
  15. 75And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight,
  16. 76All melodies the echoes of that voice,
  17. 77All colours a suffusion from that light.
  1. 78There was a time when, though my path was rough,
  2. 79This joy within me dallied with distress,
  3. 80And all misfortunes were but as the stuff
  4. 81Whence Fancy made me dreams of happiness:
  5. 82For hope grew round me, like the twining vine,
  6. 83And fruits, and foliage, not my own, seemed mine.
  7. 84But now afflictions bow me down to earth:
  8. 85Nor care I that they rob me of my mirth;
  9. 86But oh! each visitation
  10. 87Suspends what nature gave me at my birth,
  11. 88My shaping spirit of Imagination.
  12. 89For not to think of what I needs must feel,
  13. 90But to be still and patient, all I can;
  14. 91And haply by abstruse research to steal
  15. 92From my own nature all the natural man--
  16. 93This was my sole resource, my only plan:
  17. 94Till that which suits a part infects the whole,
  18. 95And now is almost grown the habit of my soul.
  1. 96Hence, viper thoughts, that coil around my mind,
  2. 97Reality's dark dream!
  3. 98I turn from you, and listen to the wind,
  4. 99Which long has raved unnoticed. What a scream
  5. 100Of agony by torture lengthened out
  6. 101That lute sent forth! Thou Wind, that rav'st without,
  7. 102Bare crag, or mountain-tairn,or blasted tree,
  8. 103Or pine-grove whither woodman never clomb,
  9. 104Or lonely house, long held the witches' home,
  10. 105Methinks were fitter instruments for thee,
  11. 106Mad Lutanist! who in this month of showers,
  12. 107Of dark-brown gardens, and of peeping flowers,
  13. 108Mak'st Devils' yule, with worse than wintry song,
  14. 109The blossoms, buds, and timorous leaves among.
  15. 110Thou Actor, perfect in all tragic sounds!
  16. 111Thou mighty Poet, e'en to frenzy bold!
  17. 112What tell'st thou now about?
  18. 113'Tis of the rushing of an host in rout,
  19. 114With groans, of trampled men, with smarting wounds--
  20. 115At once they groan with pain, and shudder with the cold!
  21. 116But hush! there is a pause of deepest silence!
  22. 117And all that noise, as of a rushing crowd,
  23. 118With groans, and tremulous shudderings--all is over--
  24. 119It tells another tale, with sounds less deep and loud!
  25. 120A tale, of less affright,
  26. 121And tempered with delight,
  27. 122As Otway's self had framed the tender lay,--
  28. 123'Tis of a little child
  29. 124Upon a lonesome wild,
  30. 125Not far from home, but she hath lost her way:
  31. 126And now moans low in bitter grief and fear,
  32. 127And now screams loud, and hopes to make her mother hear.
  1. 128'Tis midnight, but small thoughts have I of sleep:
  2. 129Full seldom may my friend such vigils keep!
  3. 130Visit her, gentle Sleep! with wings of healing,
  4. 131And may this storm be but a mountain-birth,
  5. 132May all the stars hang bright above her dwelling,
  6. 133Silent as though they watched the sleeping Earth!
  7. 134With light heart may she rise,
  8. 135Gay fancy, cheerful eyes,
  9. 136Joy lift her spirit, joy attune her voice;
  10. 137To her may all things live, from pole to pole,
  11. 138Their life the eddying of her living soul!
  12. 139O simple spirit, guided from above,
  13. 140Dear Lady! friend devoutest of my choice,
  14. 141Thus mayest thou ever, evermore rejoice.