The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and | The village clock tolled six,-I wheeled about, huge, Proud and exulting like an untired horse That cares not for his home. All shod with steel, As if with voluntary power instinct, 390 Of melancholy not unnoticed, while the stars And serious mood; but after I had seen 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 400 410 By day or star-light thus from my first dawn 450 Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng, The rapid line of motion, then at once 460 Ye Presences of Nature in the sky And on the earth! Ye Visions of the hills! And Souls of lonely places! can I think A vulgar hope was yours when ye employed Such ministry, when ye, through many a year Haunting me thus among my boyish sports, On caves and trees, upon the woods and hills, 470 Impressed, upon all forms, the characters Of danger or desire; and thus did make The surface of the universal earth, With triumph and delight, with hope and fear, Work like a sea? Not uselessly employed, Might I pursue this theme through every change Of exercise and play, to which the year Did summon us in his delightful round. FROM BOOK V There was a Boy: ye knew him well, ye cliffs And islands of Winander! 2-many a time 2 Winandermere, now Windermere, a lake in Westmoreland. At evening, when the earliest stars began That they might answer him; and they would shout 380 Across the watery vale, and shout again, Alone she cuts and binds the grain, listen! for the Vale profound 3 religious regard for nature And I can listen to thee yet; Can lie upon the plain That golden time again. O blessed Bird! the earth we pace An unsubstantial, faery place; That is fit home for Thee! 32 Ten thousand saw I at a glance, The waves beside them danced; but they A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed-and gazed-but little thought SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT* For oft, when on my couch I lie 12 18 24 7 And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity! There are who ask not if thine eye Be on them; who, in love and truth, Where no misgiving is, rely Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 20 Upon the genial sense of youth: Up with me! up with me into the clouds! Up with me, up with me into the clouds! With clouds and sky about thee ringing, That spot which seems so to thy mind! I have walked through wildernesses dreary And to-day my heart is weary; Had I now the wings of a Faery, Up to thee would I fly. There is madness about thee, and joy divine In that song of thine; Lift me, guide me high and high To thy banqueting-place in the sky. Joyous as morning Thou art laughing and scorning; Thou hast a nest for thy love and thy rest. Happy, happy Liver, With a soul as strong as a mountain river Pouring out praise to the Almighty Giver, Joy and jollity be with us both! 10 20 INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD* I There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, The earth, and every common sight, Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. It is not now as it hath been of yore;Turn wheresoe'er I may, By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more. "To that dream-like vividness and splendour which invest objects of sight in childhood, every one, I believe, if he would look back, could bear testimony, and I need not dwell upon it here; but having in the poem regarded it as presumptive evidence of a prior state of existence, I think it right to protest against a conclusion, which has given pain to some good and pious persons, that I meant to inculcate such a belief. It is far too shadowy a notion to be recommended to faith, as more than an element in our instincts of immortality. A pre-existent state has entered into the popular creeds of many nations; and, among all persons acquainted with classic literature, is known as an ingredient in Platonic philosophy."-Extract from Wordsworth's note. Compare Henry Vaughan's The Retreat, p. 223, II The Rainbow comes and goes, The Moon doth with delight Look round her when the heavens are bare; Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth; 10 V Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: And cometh from afar: But trailing clouds of glory do we come That there hath past away a glory from the Heaven lies about us in our infancy! earth. Shades of the prison-house begin to close Upon the growing Boy, But he beholds the light, and whence it flows, He sees it in his joy; The Youth, who daily farther from the east Must travel, still is Nature's Priest, And by the vision splendid Is on his way attended; At length the Man perceives it die away, VI 60 71 Behold the Child among his new-born blisses, A wedding or a festival, A mourning or a funeral; And this hath now his heart, To dialogues of business, love, or strife; Ere this be thrown aside, And with new joy and pride The little Actor cons another part; 90 100 |