The Prelude, Book 1: Childhood And School-time Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSB TUHIVIOUIWXIIY ZA2B2SIC2D2IE2F2G2H2 SI2IJ2K2WL2UYIM2N2O2 P2Q2IR2S2T2VU2V2C2IS W2SIC2X2C2ISY2 Z2SA3B3UC3UIZSID3QC2 Y2E3B2IULL YIIF3UG3H3C2I3J3IA2K 3C2C2L3M3EC2IC2SELIN 3O3ISUSIC2C2I3IC2I3U SIILSP3C2C2EEIEEEQ3I E EIZ2C2C2LUC2EEIC2EI LEIEESIEWas it for this | A |
That one the fairest of all Rivers lov'd | B |
To blend his murmurs with my Nurse's song | C |
And from his alder shades and rocky falls | D |
And from his fords and shallows sent a voice | E |
That flow'd along my dreams For this didst Thou | F |
O Derwent travelling over the green Plains | G |
Near my 'sweet Birthplace' didst thou beauteous Stream | H |
Make ceaseless music through the night and day | I |
Which with its steady cadence tempering | J |
Our human waywardness compos'd my thoughts | K |
To more than infant softness giving me | L |
Among the fretful dwellings of mankind | M |
A knowledge a dim earnest of the calm | N |
That Nature breathes among the hills and groves | O |
When having left his Mountains to the Towers | P |
Of Cockermouth that beauteous River came | Q |
Behind my Father's House he pass'd close by | R |
Along the margin of our Terrace Walk | S |
He was a Playmate whom we dearly lov'd | B |
Oh many a time have I a five years' Child | T |
A naked Boy in one delightful Rill | U |
A little Mill race sever'd from his stream | H |
Made one long bathing of a summer's day | I |
Bask'd in the sun and plunged and bask'd again | V |
Alternate all a summer's day or cours'd | I |
Over the sandy fields leaping through groves | O |
Of yellow grunsel or when crag and hill | U |
The woods and distant Skiddaw's lofty height | I |
Were bronz'd with a deep radiance stood alone | W |
Beneath the sky as if I had been born | X |
On Indian Plains and from my Mother's hut | I |
Had run abroad in wantonness to sport | I |
A naked Savage in the thunder shower | Y |
- | |
- | |
Fair seed time had my soul and I grew up | Z |
Foster'd alike by beauty and by fear | A2 |
Much favour'd in my birthplace and no less | B2 |
In that beloved Vale to which erelong | S |
I was transplanted Well I call to mind | I |
'Twas at an early age ere I had seen | C2 |
Nine summers when upon the mountain slope | D2 |
The frost and breath of frosty wind had snapp'd | I |
The last autumnal crocus 'twas my joy | E2 |
To wander half the night among the Cliffs | F2 |
And the smooth Hollows where the woodcocks ran | G2 |
Along the open turf In thought and wish | H2 |
That time my shoulder all with springes hung | S |
I was a fell destroyer On the heights | I2 |
Scudding away from snare to snare I plied | I |
My anxious visitation hurrying on | J2 |
Still hurrying hurrying onward moon and stars | K2 |
Were shining o'er my head I was alone | W |
And seem'd to be a trouble to the peace | L2 |
That was among them Sometimes it befel | U |
In these night wanderings that a strong desire | Y |
O'erpower'd my better reason and the bird | I |
Which was the captive of another's toils | M2 |
Became my prey and when the deed was done | N2 |
I heard among the solitary hills | O2 |
Low breathings coming after me and sounds | P2 |
Of undistinguishable motion steps | Q2 |
Almost as silent as the turf they trod | I |
Nor less in springtime when on southern banks | R2 |
The shining sun had from his knot of leaves | S2 |
Decoy'd the primrose flower and when the Vales | T2 |
And woods were warm was I a plunderer then | V |
In the high places on the lonesome peaks | U2 |
Where'er among the mountains and the winds | V2 |
The Mother Bird had built her lodge Though mean | C2 |
My object and inglorious yet the end | I |
Was not ignoble Oh when I have hung | S |
Above the raven's nest by knots of grass | W2 |
And half inch fissures in the slippery rock | S |
But ill sustain'd and almost as it seem'd | I |
Suspended by the blast which blew amain | C2 |
Shouldering the naked crag Oh at that time | X2 |
While on the perilous ridge I hung alone | C2 |
With what strange utterance did the loud dry wind | I |
Blow through my ears the sky seem'd not a sky | S |
Of earth and with what motion mov'd the clouds | Y2 |
- | |
- | |
The mind of Man is fram'd even like the breath | Z2 |
And harmony of music There is a dark | S |
Invisible workmanship that reconciles | A3 |
Discordant elements and makes them move | B3 |
In one society Ah me that all | U |
The terrors all the early miseries | C3 |
Regrets vexations lassitudes that all | U |
The thoughts and feelings which have been infus'd | I |
Into my mind should ever have made up | Z |
The calm existence that is mine when I | S |
Am worthy of myself Praise to the end | I |
Thanks likewise for the means But I believe | D3 |
That Nature oftentimes when she would frame | Q |
A favor'd Being from his earliest dawn | C2 |
Of infancy doth open out the clouds | Y2 |
As at the touch of lightning seeking him | E3 |
With gentlest visitation not the less | B2 |
Though haply aiming at the self same end | I |
Does it delight her sometimes to employ | U |
Severer interventions ministry | L |
More palpable and so she dealt with me | L |
- | |
- | |
One evening surely I was led by her | Y |
I went alone into a Shepherd's Boat | I |
A Skiff that to a Willow tree was tied | I |
Within a rocky Cave its usual home | F3 |
'Twas by the shores of Patterdale a Vale | U |
Wherein I was a Stranger thither come | G3 |
A School boy Traveller at the Holidays | H3 |
Forth rambled from the Village Inn alone | C2 |
No sooner had I sight of this small Skiff | I3 |
Discover'd thus by unexpected chance | J3 |
Than I unloos'd her tether and embark'd | I |
The moon was up the Lake was shining clear | A2 |
Among the hoary mountains from the Shore | K3 |
I push'd and struck the oars and struck again | C2 |
In cadence and my little Boat mov'd on | C2 |
Even like a Man who walks with stately step | L3 |
Though bent on speed It was an act of stealth | M3 |
And troubled pleasure not without the voice | E |
Of mountain echoes did my Boat move on | C2 |
Leaving behind her still on either side | I |
Small circles glittering idly in the moon | C2 |
Until they melted all into one track | S |
Of sparkling light A rocky Steep uprose | E |
Above the Cavern of the Willow tree | L |
And now as suited one who proudly row'd | I |
With his best skill I fix'd a steady view | N3 |
Upon the top of that same craggy ridge | O3 |
The bound of the horizon for behind | I |
Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky | S |
She was an elfin Pinnace lustily | U |
I dipp'd my oars into the silent Lake | S |
And as I rose upon the stroke my Boat | I |
Went heaving through the water like a Swan | C2 |
When from behind that craggy Steep till then | C2 |
The bound of the horizon a huge Cliff | I3 |
As if with voluntary power instinct | I |
Uprear'd its head I struck and struck again | C2 |
And growing still in stature the huge Cliff | I3 |
Rose up between me and the stars and still | U |
With measur'd motion like a living thing | S |
Strode after me With trembling hands I turn'd | I |
And through the silent water stole my way | I |
Back to the Cavern of the Willow tree | L |
There in her mooring place I left my Bark | S |
And through the meadows homeward went with grave | P3 |
And serious thoughts and after I had seen | C2 |
That spectacle for many days my brain | C2 |
Work'd with a dim and undetermin'd sense | E |
Of unknown modes of being in my thoughts | E |
There was a darkness call it solitude | I |
Or blank desertion no familiar shapes | E |
Of hourly objects images of trees | E |
Of sea or sky no colours of green fields | E |
But huge and mighty Forms that do not live | Q3 |
Like living men mov'd slowly through the mind | I |
By day and were the trouble of my dreams | E |
- | |
- | |
Wisdom and Spirit of the universe | E |
Thou Soul that art the eternity of thought | I |
That giv'st to forms and images a breath | Z2 |
And everlasting motion not in vain | C2 |
By day or star light thus from my first dawn | C2 |
Of Childhood didst Thou intertwine for me | L |
The passions that build up our human Soul | U |
Not with the mean and vulgar works of Man | C2 |
But with high objects with enduring things | E |
With life and nature purifying thus | E |
The elements of feeling and of thought | I |
And sanctifying by such discipline | C2 |
Both pain and fear until we recognize | E |
A grandeur in the beatings of the heart | I |
- | |
- | |
Nor was this fellowship vouchsaf'd to me | L |
With stinted kindness In November days | E |
When vapours rolling down the valleys made | I |
A lonely scene more lonesome among woods | E |
At noon and 'mid the calm of summer nights | E |
When by the margin of the trembling Lake | S |
Beneath the gloomy hills I homeward went | I |
In solitude such intercourse was | E |
William Wordsworth
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about The Prelude, Book 1: Childhood And School-time poem by William Wordsworth
Best Poems of William Wordsworth