The English Poets, Selections, Ed. by T.H. Ward. Wordsworth to Dobell. Wordsworth to Rossetti

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883 Excerpt: ...gone, the old familiar faces. The Grandame. On the green hill top, Hard by the house of prayer, a modest roof, And not distinguished from its neighbour-barn, Save by a slender-tapering length of spire, The Grandame sleeps. A plain stone barely tells The name and date to the chance passenger. For lowly born was she, and long had eat, Well-earned, the bread of service: --hers was else A mounting spirit, one that entertained Scorn of base action, deed dishonourable, Or aught unseemly. I remember well Her reverend image: I remember, too, With what a zeal she served her master's house: And how the prattling tongue of garrulous age Delighted to recount the oft-told tale Or anecdote domestic. Wise she was, And wondrous skilled in genealogies, And could in apt and voluble terms discourse Of births, of titles, and alliances; Of marriages, and intermarriages; Relationship remote, or near of kin; Of friends offended, family disgraced--Maiden high-born, but wayward, disobeying Parental strict injunction, and regardless Of unmixed blood, and ancestry remote, Stooping to wed with one of low degree. But these are not thy praises; and I wrong Thy honoured memory, recording chiefly Things light or trivial. Better 'twere to tell, How with a nobler zeal, and warmer love, She served her heavenly master. I have seen That reverend form bent down with age and pain, And rankling malady. Yet not for this Ceased she to praise her Maker, or withdrew Her trust in him, her faith, and humble hope--So meekly had she learned to bear her cress--For she had studied patience in the school Of Christ, much comfort she had thence derived, And was a follower of the Nazarene. On An Infant Dying As Soon As Born. I saw where in the shroud did lurk A curious frame of Nature's work. A floweret crushed...