To Enterprise

Composed 1820.--Published 1822.

The Italian Itinerant, etc. [see p. 338], led to the train of thought which produced the annexed piece.--W. W. 1822.

This poem having risen out of the Italian Itinerant, etc., it is here annexed.--W. W. 1827.

From 1822 this poem was included in the "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent." In 1845 it was placed among the "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.

Keep for the Young the impassioned smile Shed from thy countenance, as I see thee stand High on that chalky cliff of Britain's Isle, A slender volume grasping in thy hand-- (Perchance the pages that relate The various turns of Crusoe's fate)-- Ah, spare the exulting smile, And drop thy pointing finger bright As the first flash of beacon light, But neither veil thy head in shadows dim, Nor turn thy face away From One who, in the evening of his day, To thee would offer no presumptuous hymn!