| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Passing of the Elder Bards |
| | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | | | | From the “Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg” |
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| THE MIGHTY Minstrel breathes no longer, | |
| Mid mouldering ruins low he lies; | |
| And death upon the braes of Yarrow | |
| Has closed the Shepherd-poet’s eyes: | |
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| Nor has the rolling year twice measured, | 5 |
| From sign to sign, its steadfast course, | |
| Since every mortal power of Coleridge | |
| Was frozen at its marvellous source; | |
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| The ’rapt One, of the godlike forehead, | |
| The heaven-eyed creature sleeps in earth: | 10 |
| And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle, | |
| Has vanished from his lonely hearth. | |
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| Like clouds that rake the mountain-summits, | |
| Or waves that own no curbing hand, | |
| How fast has brother followed brother, | 15 |
| From sunshine to the sunless land! | |
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| Yet I, whose lids from infant slumber | |
| Were earlier raised, remain to hear | |
| A timid voice, that asks in whispers, | |
“Who next will drop and disappear?”
November, 1835. | 20 |
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