Poem by William Wordsworth

On Revisiting Dunolly Castle

THE CAPTIVE bird was gone;—to cliff or moor
Perchance had flown, delivered by the storm;
Or he had pined, and sunk to feed the worm:
Him found we not; but, climbing a tall tower,
There saw, impaved with rude fidelity
Of art mosaic, in a roofless floor,
An eagle with stretched wings, but beamless eye,—
An eagle that could neither wail nor soar.
Effigy of the vanished, (shall I dare
To call thee so?) or symbol of fierce deeds
And of the towering courage which past times
Rejoiced in, take, whate’er thou be, a share,
Not undeserved, of the memorial rhymes
That animate my way where’er it leads!

1. To the Sons of Burns
2. Monument of Mrs. Howard
3. Suggested at Tyndrum in a Storm
4. Roman Antiquities
5. Roman Antiquities Discovered at Bishopstone, Herefordshire

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