Dedication
TO
GROSVENOR CHARLES BEDFORD,
THIS POEM IS INSCRIBED,
IN LASTING MEMORIAL OF A LONG AND UNINTERRUPTED FRIENDSHIP,
BY HIS OLD SCHOOLFELLOW,
ROBERT SOUTHEY.
Epigraph
As the ample Moon,
In the deep stillness of a summer even
Rising behind a thick and lofty Grove,
Burns like an unconsuming fire of light
In the green trees; and kindling on all sides
Their leafy umbrage, turns the dusky veil
Into a substance glorious as her own,
Yea, with her own incorporated, by power
Capacious and serene: Like power abides
In Man’s celestial Spirit; Virtue thus
Sets forth and magnifies herself: thus feeds
A calm, a beautiful and silent fire,
From the incumbrances of mortal life,
From error, disappointment,... nay from guilt;
And sometimes, so relenting Justice wills,
From palpable oppressions of Despair.
Wordsworth.