Iii

But why that prayer? as if to her could come No good but by the way that leads to bliss Through Death,--so judging we should judge amiss. Since reason failed want is her threatened doom, Yet frequent transports mitigate the gloom: Nor of those maniacs is she one that kiss The air or laugh upon a precipice; No, passing through strange sufferings toward the tomb, She smiles as if a martyr’s crown were won: Oft, when light breaks through clouds or waving trees, With outspread arms and fallen upon her knees The Mother hails in her descending Son An Angel, and in earthly ecstasies Her own angelic glory seems begun.

The late Archdeacon of Dublin, author of Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, etc. He gives the date of the composition of the poem as 1837.--ED.

1838

In 1838 Wordsworth wrote ten sonnets. These were published (along with the one suggested by Mrs. Southey) for the first time in the volume of collected Sonnets, several being inserted out of their intended place, while the book was passing through the press.

The Protest against the Ballot, which appeared in 1838, was never republished.--ED.