Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/656

 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Stern Lawgiver' yet thou dost wear The Godhead's most benignant grace; Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, And fragrance in thy footing treads, Thou dobt preserve the stars from wrong; And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong.

To humbler functions, awful Power'

I call thce. I myself commend

Unto thy guidance from this hour;

O, let my weakness have an end'

Give unto me, made lowly wise,

The spint of self-sacrifice;

The confidence of reason give;

And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live'

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��54 6 The Rainbow

rY heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man; So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die'

The Child is father of the Man, And I could wibh my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety.

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