1 My sister! my sweet sister! if a name
\n2 Dearer and purer were, it should be thine.
\n3 Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim
\n4 No tears, but tenderness to answer mine:
\n5 Go where I will, to me thou art the same
\n6 A lov’d regret which I would not resign.
\n7 There yet are two things in my destiny–
\n8 A world to roam through, and a home with thee.<\/p>\n
9 The first were nothing–had I still the last,
\n10 It were the haven of my happiness;
\n11 But other claims and other ties thou hast,
\n12 And mine is not the wish to make them less.
\n13 A strange doom is thy father’s son’s, and past
\n14 Recalling, as it lies beyond redress;
\n15 Revers’d for him our grandsire’s fate of yore–
\n16 He had no rest at sea, nor I on shore.<\/p>\n
17 If my inheritance of storms hath been
\n18 In other elements, and on the rocks
\n19 Of perils, overlook’d or unforeseen,
\n20 I have sustain’d my share of worldly shocks,
\n21 The fault was mine; nor do I seek to screen
\n22 My errors with defensive paradox;
\n23 I have been cunning in mine overthrow,
\n24 The careful pilot of my proper woe.<\/p>\n
25 Mine were my faults, and mine be their reward.
\n26 My whole life was a contest, since the day
\n27 That gave me being, gave me that which marr’d
\n28 The gift–a fate, or will, that walk’d astray;
\n29 And I at times have found the struggle hard,
\n30 And thought of shaking off my bonds of clay:
\n31 But now I fain would for a time survive,
\n32 If but to see what next can well arrive.<\/p>\n
33 Kingdoms and empires in my little day
\n34 I have outliv’d, and yet I am not old;
\n35 And when I look on this, the petty spray
\n36 Of my own years of trouble, which have roll’d
\n37 Like a wild bay of breakers, melts away:
\n38 Something–I know not what–does still uphold
\n39 A spirit of slight patience; not in vain,
\n40 Even for its own sake, do we purchase pain.<\/p>\n
41 Perhaps the workings of defiance stir
\n42 Within me–or perhaps a cold despair,
\n43 Brought on when ills habitually recur,
\n44 Perhaps a kinder clime, or purer air
\n45 (For even to this may change of soul refer,
\n46 And with light armour we may learn to bear),
\n47 Have taught me a strange quiet, which was not
\n48 The chief companion of a calmer lot.<\/p>\n
49 I feel almost at times as I have felt
\n50 In happy childhood; trees, and flowers, and brooks,
\n51 Which do remember me of where I dwelt
\n52 Ere my young mind was sacrific’d to books,
\n53 Come as of yore upon me, and can melt
\n54 My heart with recognition of their looks;
\n55 And even at moments I could think I see
\n56 Some living thing to love–but none like thee.<\/p>\n
57 Here are the Alpine landscapes which create
\n58 A fund for contemplation; to admire
\n59 Is a brief feeling of a trivial date;
\n60 But something worthier do such scenes inspire:
\n61 Here to be lonely is not desolate,
\n62 For much I view which I could most desire,
\n63 And, above all, a lake I can behold
\n64 Lovelier, not dearer, than our own of old.<\/p>\n
65 Oh that thou wert but with me!–but I grow
\n66 The fool of my own wishes, and forget
\n67 The solitude which I have vaunted so
\n68 Has lost its praise in this but one regret;
\n69 There may be others which I less may show;
\n70 I am not of the plaintive mood, and yet
\n71 I feel an ebb in my philosophy,
\n72 And the tide rising in my alter’d eye.<\/p>\n
73 I did remind thee of our own dear Lake,
\n74 By the old Hall which may be mine no more.
\n75 Leman’s is fair; but think not I forsake
\n76 The sweet remembrance of a dearer shore:
\n77 Sad havoc Time must with my memory make
\n78 Ere that or thou can fade these eyes before;
\n79 Though, like all things which I have lov’d, they are
\n80 Resign’d for ever, or divided far.<\/p>\n
81 The world is all before me; I but ask
\n82 Of Nature that with which she will comply–
\n83 It is but in her summer’s sun to bask,
\n84 To mingle with the quiet of her sky,
\n85 To see her gentle face without a mask,
\n86 And never gaze on it with apathy.
\n87 She was my early friend, and now shall be
\n88 My sister–till I look again on thee.<\/p>\n
89 I can reduce all feelings but this one;
\n90 And that I would not; for at length I see
\n91 Such scenes as those wherein my life begun,
\n92 The earliest–even the only paths for me–
\n93 Had I but sooner learnt the crowd to shun,
\n94 I had been better than I now can be;
\n95 The passions which have torn me would have slept;
\n96 I had not suffer’d, and thou hadst not wept.<\/p>\n
97 With false Ambition what had I to do?
\n98 Little with Love, and least of all with Fame;
\n99 And yet they came unsought, and with me grew,
\n100 And made me all which they can make–a name,
\n101 Yet this was not the end I did pursue;
\n102 Surely I once beheld a nobler aim.
\n103 But all is over–I am one the more
\n104 To baffled millions which have gone before.<\/p>\n
105 And for the future, this world’s future may
\n106 From me demand but little of my care;
\n107 I have outliv’d myself by many a day,
\n108 Having surviv’d so many things that were;
\n109 My years have been no slumber, but the prey
\n110 Of ceaseless vigils; for I had the share
\n111 Of life which might have fill’d a century,
\n112 Before its fourth in time had pass’d me by.<\/p>\n
113 And for the remnant which may be to come
\n114 I am content; and for the past I feel
\n115 Not thankless, for within the crowded sum
\n116 Of struggles, happiness at times would steal,
\n117 And for the present, I would not benumb
\n118 My feelings further. Nor shall I conceal
\n119 That with all this I still can look around,
\n120 And worship Nature with a thought profound.<\/p>\n
121 For thee, my own sweet sister, in thy heart
\n122 I know myself secure, as thou in mine;
\n123 We were and are–I am, even as thou art–
\n124 Beings who ne’er each other can resign;
\n125 It is the same, together or apart,
\n126 From life’s commencement to its slow decline
\n127 We are entwin’d–let death come slow or fast,
\n128 The tie which bound the first endures the last!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Published 1830 1 My sister! my sweet sister! if a name 2 Dearer and purer were, it should be thine. 3 Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim 4 No tears, but tenderness to answer mine: 5 Go where I will, to me thou art the same 6 A lov’d regret which I would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}