The Golden Age.
The father sits, and marks his child1
Through the clover racing wild ;2
And then as if he sweetly dream’d,3
He half remembers how it seem’d4
When he, too, was a reckless rover5
Amongst the bee-beloved clover :6
Pure airs, from heavenly places, rise7
Breathing the blindness from his eyes,8
Until, with rapture, grief, and awe,9
He sees again as then he saw.10
As then he saw, he sees again11
The heavy-loaded harvest wain,12
Hanging tokens of its pride13
In the trees on either side ;14
Daisies, coming out at dawn,15
In constellations, on the lawn ;16
The glory of the daffodil ;17
The three black windmills on the hill,18
Whose magic arms fling wildly by,19
With magic shadows on the rye20
In the leafy coppice, lo,21
More wealth than miser’s dreams can show,22
The blackbird’s warm and woolly brood,23
With golden beaks agape for food !24
Gipsies, all the summer seen,25
Native as poppies to the green ;26
Winter, with its frosts and thaws,27
And opulence of hips and haws ;28
The mighty marvel of the snow ;29
The happy, happy ships that go,30
Sailing up and sailing down,31
Through the fields and by the town ;32
All the thousand dear events33
That fell when days were incidents.34
And, then, his meek and loving mother—35
Oh, what speeehless feelings smother36
In his heart at thought of her !37
What sacred, piercing sorrow mounts,38
From new or unremembered founts,39
While to thought her ways recur.40
He hears the songs she used to sing ;41
His tears in scalding torrents spring ;42
Oh, might he hope that ’twould be given,43
Either in this world, or in heaven,44
To hear such songs as those again !45
—But life is deep and words are vain.46
Mark yonder hedgerow, here and there47
Sprinkled with Spring, but mainly bare ;48
The wither’d bank beneath, where blows,49
In yellow crowds, the fresh primrose :50
What skill of colour thus could smite51
The troubled heart-strings thro’ the sight ;52
What magic of sweet speech express53
Their primeveral tenderness ?54
Can these not utter’d be, and can55
The day-spring of immortal man ?56