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the night,

Scudding away from snare to snare, I plied That anxious visitation; moon and stars Were shining o'er my head. I was alone, And seemed to be a trouble to the peace That dwelt among them. Sometimes it befell

In these night wanderings, that a strong desire

O'erpowered my better reason, and the bird Which was the captive of another's toil 320 Became my prey; and when the deed was done

I heard among the solitary hills
Low breathings coming after me, and
sounds

Of undistinguishable motion, steps
Almost as silent as the turf they trod.

Nor less, when spring had warmed the
cultured Vale,

Moved we as plunderers where the mother

bird

Had in high places built her lodge; though

mean

Our object and inglorious, yet the end

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340

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music; there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant elements, makes them cling together

In one society. How strange, that all
The terrors, pains, and early miseries,
Regrets, vexations, lassitudes interfused
Within my mind, should e'er have borne a
part,

And that a needful part, in making up
The calm existence that is mine when I
Am worthy of myself! Praise to the end!
Thanks to the means which Nature deigned
to employ;

351

Whether her fearless visitings, or those That came with soft alarm, like hurtless

light Opening the peaceful clouds; or she would

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Of unknown modes of being; o'er my thoughts

There hung a darkness, call it solitude
Or blank desertion. No familiar shapes
Remained, no pleasant images of trees,
Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;
But huge and mighty forms, that do not
live

Like living men, moved slowly through the

mind

By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.

401

Wisdom and Spirit of the universe! Thou Soul that art the eternity of thought That givest to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion, not in vain By day or star-light thus from my first dawn

Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me The passions that build up our human soul;

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Beneath the gloomy hills homeward I went In solitude, such intercourse was mine; Mine was it in the fields both day and night, And by the waters, all the summer long.

And in the frosty season, when the sun Was set, and visible for many a mile The cottage windows blazed through twilight gloom,

I heeded not their summons: happy time It was indeed for all of us - for me

It was a time of rapture! Clear and loud 430 The village clock tolled six, — I wheeled

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420

If this be error, and another faith Find easier access to the pious mind, Yet were I grossly destitute of all Those human sentiments that make this earth

So dear, if I should fail with grateful voice To speak of you, ye mountains, and ye lakes And sounding cataracts, ye mists and winds That dwell among the hills where I was born.

If in my youth I have been pure in heart, If, mingling with the world, I am content With my own modest pleasures, and have lived

With God and Nature communing, removed

430

From little enmities and low desires
The gift is yours; if in these times of fear,
This melancholy waste of hopes o'erthrown,
If, 'mid indifference and apathy,
And wicked exultation when good men
On every side fall off, we know not how,
To selfishness, disguised in gentle names
Of
peace and quiet and domestic love
Yet mingled not unwillingly with sneers
On visionary minds; if, in this time
Of dereliction and dismay, I yet
Despair not of our nature, but retain
A more than Roman confidence, a faith

440

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