POEMS
COMPOSED OR SUGGESTED DURING A TOUR IN THE SUMMER OF 1833
My companions were H. C. Robinson and my son John.
Having been prevented by the lateness of the season, in 1831,
from visiting Staffa and Iona, the author made these the principal
objects of a short tour in the summer of 1833, of which the
following series of poems is a Memorial. The course pursued was
down the Cumberland river Derwent, and to Whitehaven; thence (by
the Isle of Man, where a few days were passed) up the Frith of
Clyde to Greenock, then to Oban, Staffa, Iona; and back towards
England, by Loch Awe, Inverary, Loch Goil-head, Greenock, and
through parts of Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and Dumfriesshire to
Carlisle, and thence up the river Eden, and homewards by
Ullswater.
I
ADIEU, Rydalian Laurels! that have grown
And spread as if ye knew that days might come
When ye would shelter in a happy home,
On this fair Mount, a Poet of your own,
One who ne'er ventured for a Delphic crown
To sue the God; but, haunting your green shade
All seasons through, is humbly pleased to braid
Ground-flowers, beneath your guardianship, self-sown.
Farewell! no Minstrels now with harp new-strung
For summer wandering quit their household bowers;
Yet not for this wants Poesy a tongue
To cheer the Itinerant on whom she pours
Her spirit, while he crosses lonely moors,
Or musing sits forsaken halls among.
