watched

While every bush and tree, the country through,

90

From Book IX

RESIDENCE IN FRANCE

A band of military Officers, Then stationed in the city, were the chief

125

swords

That had been seasoned in the wars, and

clad Alps.

Associate with his children and his wife
In bondage; and the palace, lately stormed
With roar of cannon by a furious host.
I crossed the square (an empty area then!)
Of the Carrousel, where so late had lain 56
The dead, upon the dying heaped, and
gazed

On this and other spots, as doth a man
Upon a volume whose contents he knows
Are memorable, but from him locked up,

431

mirth Resounding at all hours, and innocent yet Of civil slaughter, was our frequent walk. And when we chanced

One day to meet a hunger-bitten girl, 510 Who crept along fitting her languid gait Unto a heifer's motion, by a cord

Of wildest course but treads back his own steps;

For the spent hurricane the air provides 80
As fierce a successor; the tide retreats
But to return out of its hiding-place
In the great deep; all things have second
birth;

The earthquake is not satisfied at once;
And in this way I wrought upon myself, 85
Until I seemed to hear a voice that cried,
To the whole city, "Sleep no more."
The trance

Fled with the voice to which it had given birth;

But vainly comments of a calmer mind Promised soft peace and sweet forgetful

Where was their occupation and abode. And hence this Tale, while I was yet a boy Careless of books, yet having felt the power

30

Of Nature, by the gentle agency
Of natural objects, led me on to feel
For passions that were not my own, and
think

(At random and imperfectly indeed)
On man, the heart of man, and human
life.

Therefore, although it be a history Homely and rude, I will relate the same 35 For the delight of a few natural hearts; And, with yet fonder feeling, for the sake Of youthful Poets who among these hills Will be my second self when I am gone.

Upon the forest-side in Grasmere Vale There dwelt a Shepherd, Michael was his

An old man, stout of heart, and strong of limb.

His bodily frame had been from youth to age

Of an unusual strength: his mind was keen, Intense, and frugal, apt for all affairs, 45 And in his shepherd's calling he was prompt