kiss that lacked not power to spread
Faint colour over both their pallid cheeks,
And stilled his tremulous lip. Thus they were calmed
And cheered; and now together breathe fresh air
In open fields; and when the glare of day 65
Is gone, and twilight to the Mother's wish
Befriends the observance, readily they join
In walks whose boundary is the lost One's grave,
Which he with flowers hath planted, finding there
Amusement, where the Mother does not miss 70
Dear consolation, kneeling on the turf
In prayer, yet blending with that solemn rite
Of pious faith the vanities of grief;
For such, by pitying Angels and by Spirits
Transferred to regions upon which the clouds 75
Of our weak nature rest not, must be deemed
Those willing tears, and unforbidden sighs,
And all those tokens of a cherished sorrow,
Which, soothed and sweetened by the grace of Heaven
As now it is, seems to her own fond heart, 80
Immortal as the love that gave it being.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Compare the _Ode, Intimations of Immortality_, l. 4, and _passim_
(vol. viii.)--ED.

1811

In the spring of 1811 Wordsworth left Allan Bank, to reside for two
years in the Rectory, Grasmere. A small fragment on his daughter
Catherine, the _Epistle to Sir George Beaumont, Bart., from the
south-west coast of Cumberland_, the lines _To the Poet, John Dyer_, and
four sonnets (mainly suggested by the events of the year in Spain)
comprise all the poems belonging to 1811.--ED.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHILD THREE YEARS OLD

Composed 1811.--Published 1815

[Written at Allanbank, Grasmere. Picture of my daughter, Catherine, who
died the year after.--I. F.]

Classed among the "Poems referring to the Period of Childhood."--ED.

Loving she is, and tractable, though wild;
And Innocence hath privilege in her
To dignify arch looks and laughing eyes;
And feats of cunning; and the pretty round
Of trespasses, affected to provoke 5
Mock-chastisement and partnership in play.
And, as a faggot sparkles on the hearth,
Not less if unattended and alone
Than when both young and old sit gathered round
And take delight in its activity; 10
Even so this happy Creature of herself
Is all-sufficient; solitude to her
Is blithe