No More Learning

All vanished in a single word, 35
A breath, a sound, and scarcely heard.
Sea--Ship--drowned--Shipwreck--so it came,
The meek, the brave, the good, was gone;
He who had been our living John
Was nothing but a name. 40

V That was indeed a parting! oh,
Glad am I, glad that it is past;
For there were some on whom it cast
Unutterable woe.
But they as well as I have gains;--45
From many a humble source, to pains
Like these, there comes a mild release;
Even here I feel it, even this Plant
Is in its beauty ministrant
To comfort and to peace. 50

VI He would have loved thy modest grace,
Meek Flower! To Him I would have said,
"It grows upon its native bed
Beside our Parting-place;
There, cleaving to the ground, it lies 55
With multitude of purple eyes,
Spangling a cushion green like moss;
But we will see it, joyful tide!
Some day, to see it in its pride,
The mountain will we cross. " 60

VII--Brother and friend, if verse of mine
Have power to make thy virtues known,
Here let a monumental Stone
Stand--sacred as a Shrine;
And to the few who pass this way, 65
Traveller or Shepherd, let it say,
Long as these mighty rocks endure,--
Oh do not Thou too fondly brood,
Although deserving of all good,
On any earthly hope, however pure! [A] 70


* * * * *

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: See 2nd vol. of the Author's Poems, page 298, and 5th vol. ,
pages 311 and 314, among Elegiac Pieces. --W. W. 1842.
These poems are those respectively beginning:

"When, to the attractions of the busy world . . . "

"I was thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile! . . . "

"Sweet Flower! belike one day to have . . . "

Ed.


The plant alluded to is the Moss Campion (Silene acaulis, of Linnaeus).
See note at the end of the volume. --W. W.