Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

XI.] THE THREE YARROWS. 339
No wonder that some shadows overspread their mental
prospect that day, for, as regarded Scott,
' . . . . Sickness lingering yet
Has o'er his pillow brooded ;
And Care waylays his steps, — a Sprite
Not easily eluded.'
Against these forebodings of decay Wordsworth, through-
out the poem, contends with wonderful buoyancy. But
the pressure of fact was too heavy to be put by. It
required something more than the soothing influences
of nature, or even the faith which Wordsworth so
cherished,
' Naught shall prevail against us, or disturb
The cheerful faith that all which we behold
Is full of goodness,'
to have enabled Scott or his friends to bear his then
condition. From the sight of that inevitable decay
Wordsworth turned, and tried to soothe himself and
his friends with the hope that, though he was compelled
to leave his Tweed and Teviot, ' Sorento's breezy waves '
would give him gracious welcome, and Tiber before his
eyes ' with unimagined beauty shine.'
' For Thou, upon a hundred streams,
By tales of love and sorrow,
Of faithful love, undaunted truth,
Hast shed the power of Yarrow ;
Z 1