Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

Alexander Smith (1830–1867)

Sonnet: ‘Like clouds or streams we wandered on at will’

LIKE clouds or streams we wandered on at will,

Three glorious days, till, near our journey’s end,

As down the moorland road we straight did wend,

To Wordsworth’s “Inversneyd,” talking to kill

The cold and cheerless drizzle in the air,

’Bove me I saw, at pointing of my friend,

An old Fort like a ghost upon the hill,

Stare in blank misery through the blinding rain,

So human-like it seemed in its despair—

So stunned with grief—long gazed at it we twain.

Weary and damp we reached our poor abode,

I, warmly seated in the chimney-nook,

Still saw that old Fort o’er the moorland road

Stare through the rain with strange woe-wildered look.