Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE ITALIAN ITINERANT, AND THE SWISS GOATHERD, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Now that the farewell tear is dried Last Line: Grant to the morn of life its natural blessedness! | ||||||||
PART I I NOW that the farewell tear is dried, Heaven prosper thee, be hope thy guide Hope be thy guide, adventurous Boy; The wages of thy travel, joy! Whether for London bound -- to trill Thy mountain notes with simple skill; Or on thy head to poise a show Of Images in seemly row; The graceful form of milk-white Steed, Or Bird that soared with Ganymede; Or through our hamlets thou wilt bear The sightless Milton, with his hair Around his placid temples curled; And Shakspeare at his side -- a freight, If clay could think and mind were weight, For him who bore the world! Hope be thy guide, adventurous Boy; The wages of thy travel, joy! II But thou, perhaps, (alert as free Though serving sage philosophy) Wilt ramble over hill and dale, A Vender of the well-wrought Scale, Whose sentient tube instructs to time A purpose to a fickle clime: Whether thou choose this useful part, Or minister to finer art, Though robbed of many a cherished dream, And crossed by many a shattered scheme, What stirring wonders wilt thou see In the proud Isle of liberty! Yet will the Wanderer sometimes pine With thoughts which no delights can chase, Recall a Sister's last embrace, His Mother's neck entwine; Nor shall forget the Maiden coy That 'would' have loved the bright-haired Boy! III My Song, encouraged by the grace That beams from his ingenuous face, For this Adventurer scruples not To prophesy a golden lot; Due recompence, and safe return TO COMO'S steeps -- his happy bourne! Where he, aloft in garden glade, Shall tend, with his own dark-eyed Maid, The towering maize, and prop the twig That ill supports the luscious fig; Or feed his eye in paths sun-proof With purple of the trellis-roof, That through the jealous leaves escapes From Cadenabbia's pendent grapes. -- Oh might he tempt that Goatherd-child To share his wanderings! him whose look Even yet my heart can scarcely brook, So touchingly he smiled -- As with a rapture caught from heaven -- For unasked alms in pity given. PART II I WITH nodding plumes, and lightly drest Like foresters in leaf-green vest, The Helvetian Mountaineers, on ground For Tell's dread archery renowned, Before the target stood -- to claim The guerdon of the steadiest aim. Loud was the rifle-gun's report -- A startling thunder quick and short! But, flying through the heights around, Echo prolonged a tell-tale sound Of hearts and hands alike "prepared The treasures they enjoy to guard!" And, if there be a favoured hour When Heroes are allowed to quit The tomb, and on the clouds to sit With tutelary power, On their Descendants shedding grace -- This was the hour, and that the place. II But Truth inspired the Bards of old When of an iron age they told, Which to unequal laws gave birth, And drove Astraea from the earth. -- A gentle Boy (perchance with blood As noble as the best endued, But seemingly a Thing despised; Even by the sun and air unprized; For not a tinge or flowery streak Appeared upon his tender cheek) Heart-deaf to those rebounding notes, Apart, beside his silent goats, Sate watching in a forest shed, Pale, ragged, with bare feet and head; Mute as the snow upon the hill, And, as the saint he prays to, still. Ah, what avails heroic deed? What liberty? if no defence Be won for feeble Innocence. Father of all! though wilful Manhood read His punishment in soul-distress, Grant to the morn of life its natural blessedness! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A JEWISH FAMILY; IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ADMONITION [TO A TRAVELLER] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AN APRIL MORNING by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ANIMAL TRANQUILITY AND DECAY; A SKETCH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AT FLORENCE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AT THE GRAVE OF BURNS; SEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH BUONAPARTE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH COMPOSED AT NEIDPATH CASTLE, 1803 by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH COMPOSED BY THE SEA-SIDE NEAR CALAIS [AUGUST 1802] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |
|