[This Ode is on the model of Gray’s ‘Ode to Adversity’, which is copied from Horace’s Ode to Fortune.  Many and many a time have I been twitted by my wife and sister for having forgotten this dedication of myself to the stern law-giver.  Transgressor indeed I have been from hour to hour, from day to day:  I would fain hope, however, not more flagrantly, or in a worse way than most of my tuneful brethren.  But these last words are in a wrong strain.  We should be rigorous to ourselves, and forbearing, if not indulgent, to others; and, if we make comparison at all, it ought to be with those who have morally excelled us.—­I.  F.]

In pencil on the Ms.,

  “But is not the first stanza of Gray’s from a chorus of AEschylus?  And
  is not Horace’s Ode also modelled on the Greek?”

This poem was placed by Wordsworth among his “Poems of Sentiment and Reflection.”—­Ed.

  Stern Daughter of the Voice of God! 
  O Duty! if that name thou love
  Who art a light to guide, a rod
  To check the erring, and reprove;
  Thou, who art victory and law 5
  When empty terrors overawe;
  From vain temptations dost set free;
  And calm’st the weary strife of frail humanity! [1]

  There are who ask not if thine eye
  Be on them; who, in love and truth, 10
  Where no misgiving is, rely
  Upon the genial sense of youth:  [B]
  Glad Hearts! without reproach or blot;
  Who do thy work, [2] and know it not: 
  Oh, if through confidence misplaced 15
  They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast. [3]

  Serene will be our days and bright,
  And happy will our nature be,
  When love is an unerring light,
  And joy its own security. 20
  And they a blissful course may hold
  Even now, who, not unwisely bold, [4]
  Live in the spirit of this creed;
  Yet seek thy firm support, [5] according to their need.

  I, loving freedom, and untried; 25
  No sport of every random gust,
  Yet being to myself a guide,
  Too blindly have reposed my trust: 
  And oft, when in my heart was heard
  Thy timely mandate, I deferred 30
  The task, in smoother walks to stray; [6]
  But thee I now [7] would serve more strictly, if I may.

Through no disturbance of my soul, Or strong compunction in me wrought, I supplicate for thy control; 35 But in the quietness of thought:  Me this unchartered freedom tires; [C] I feel the weight of chance-desires:  My hopes no more must change their name, I long for a repose that [8] ever is the same. 40 [9] Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear The Godhead’s most benignant