Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 1.djvu/164

104 Yet not while Walter lived:—for, though their parents

Lay buried side by side as now they lie,

The old Man was a father to the boys,

Two fathers in one father: and if tears,

Shed when he talked of them where they were not,

And hauntings from the infirmity of love,

Are aught of what makes up a mother's heart,

This old Man in the day of his old age

Was half a mother to them.—If you weep, Sir,

To hear a Stranger talking about Strangers,

Heaven bless you when you are among your kindred!

Ay—You may turn that way—it is a grave

Which will bear looking at.

.

These Boys—I hope

They loved this good old Man?—

.

They did—and truly:

But that was what we almost overlooked,

They were such darlings of each other. For

Though from their cradles they had lived with Walter,

The only Kinsman near them, and though he

Inclined to them, by reason of his age,

With a more fond, familiar tenderness,

They, notwithstanding, had much love to spare,