Those steps I mounted, as the vapours gave 1837.

... while the vapours gave 1838.

Those steps I clomb; the opening vapours gave
C. and 1840.

LINES

Composed at Grasmere, during a walk one Evening, after a stormy day,
the Author having just read in a Newspaper that the dissolution of
Mr. Fox was hourly expected.

Composed September 1806.--Published 1807

This poem was ranked among the "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."--ED.

Loud is the Vale! the Voice is up
With which she speaks when storms are gone,
A mighty unison of streams!
Of all her Voices, One!

Loud is the Vale;--this inland Depth 5
In peace is roaring like the Sea;
Yon star upon the mountain-top
Is listening quietly.

Sad was I, even to pain deprest,
Importunate and heavy load![A] 10
The Comforter hath found me here,
Upon this lonely road;

And many thousands now are sad--
Wait the fulfilment of their fear;
For he must die who is their stay, 15
Their glory disappear.

A Power is passing from the earth
To breathless Nature's dark abyss;
But when the great and good depart[1]
What is it more than this-- 20

That Man, who is from God sent forth,
Doth yet again to God return?--
Such ebb and flow must ever be,
Then wherefore should we mourn?

Charles James Fox died September 13, 1806. He was Minister for Foreign
Affairs at the time, having assumed office on the 5th February, shortly
after the death of William Pitt. Wordsworth's sadness on this occasion,
his recognition of Fox as great and good, and as "a Power" that was
"passing from the earth," may have been due partly to personal and
political sympathy, but also probably to Fox's appreciation of the
better side of the French Revolution, and to his welcoming the pacific
proposals of Talleyrand, perhaps also to his efforts for the abolition
of slavery.

The "lonely road" referred to in these _Lines_, was, in all likelihood,
the path from Town-end towards the Swan Inn past the Hollins, Grasmere.
A "mighty unison of streams" may be heard there any autumn evening after
a stormy day, and especially after long continued rain, the sound of
waters from Easdale, from Greenhead Ghyll, and