The Prelude, Book 2: School-time (continued) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABCDEFFGHIJKLMNOPQRS TUVWXYZA2B2QC2D2E2F2 G2H2I2J2I2K2C2L2MSLM 2A2 K2N2YO2P2Q2R2SS2YT2U 2FE2V2W2X2BY2MZ2A3FB 3C3D3E3F3MAB3 A3G3H3B3GYFB2J2I3B2J 3K3L3B2K2K3B2Y2M3 FB2N3O3P3XQ3K2YR3B2F S3T3B2U3B2V3B2W3Z2AB 2 Y2FQ2G3X2B2X3B2B2FY3 Z3YFZ3A4B2YB4C4G3B2N 3 YD4V3B2EE4F4S3E4G4Z3 H4B2I4J4N3YD4K4L4B2M 4C2Z3PFH2N4Y2YO4P4QQ 4R4S4Thus far O Friend have we though leaving much | A |
Unvisited endeavour'd to retrace | B |
My life through its first years and measured back | C |
The way I travell'd when I first began | D |
To love the woods and fields the passion yet | E |
Was in its birth sustain'd as might befal | F |
By nourishment that came unsought for still | F |
From week to week from month to month we liv'd | G |
A round of tumult duly were our games | H |
Prolong'd in summer till the day light fail'd | I |
No chair remain'd before the doors the bench | J |
And threshold steps were empty fast asleep | K |
The Labourer and the old Man who had sate | L |
A later lingerer yet the revelry | M |
Continued and the loud uproar at last | N |
When all the ground was dark and the huge clouds | O |
Were edged with twinkling stars to bed we went | P |
With weary joints and with a beating mind | Q |
Ah is there one who ever has been young | R |
Nor needs a monitory voice to tame | S |
The pride of virtue and of intellect | T |
And is there one the wisest and the best | U |
Of all mankind who does not sometimes wish | V |
For things which cannot be who would not give | W |
If so he might to duty and to truth | X |
The eagerness of infantine desire | Y |
A tranquillizing spirit presses now | Z |
On my corporeal frame so wide appears | A2 |
The vacancy between me and those days | B2 |
Which yet have such self presence in my mind | Q |
That sometimes when I think of them I seem | C2 |
Two consciousnesses conscious of myself | D2 |
And of some other Being A grey Stone | E2 |
Of native rock left midway in the Square | F2 |
Of our small market Village was the home | G2 |
And centre of these joys and when return'd | H2 |
After long absence thither I repair'd | I2 |
I found that it was split and gone to build | J2 |
A smart Assembly room that perk'd and flar'd | I2 |
With wash and rough cast elbowing the ground | K2 |
Which had been ours But let the fiddle scream | C2 |
And be ye happy yet my Friends I know | L2 |
That more than one of you will think with me | M |
Of those soft starry nights and that old Dame | S |
From whom the stone was nam'd who there had sate | L |
And watch'd her Table with its huckster's wares | M2 |
Assiduous thro' the length of sixty years | A2 |
- | |
We ran a boisterous race the year span round | K2 |
With giddy motion But the time approach'd | N2 |
That brought with it a regular desire | Y |
For calmer pleasures when the beauteous forms | O2 |
Of Nature were collaterally attach'd | P2 |
To every scheme of holiday delight | Q2 |
And every boyish sport less grateful else | R2 |
And languidly pursued When summer came | S |
It was the pastime of our afternoons | S2 |
To beat along the plain of Windermere | Y |
With rival oars and the selected bourne | T2 |
Was now an Island musical with birds | U2 |
That sang for ever now a Sister Isle | F |
Beneath the oaks' umbrageous covert sown | E2 |
With lillies of the valley like a field | V2 |
And now a third small Island where remain'd | W2 |
An old stone Table and a moulder'd Cave | X2 |
A Hermit's history In such a race | B |
So ended disappointment could be none | Y2 |
Uneasiness or pain or jealousy | M |
We rested in the shade all pleas'd alike | Z2 |
Conquer'd and Conqueror Thus the pride of strength | A3 |
And the vain glory of superior skill | F |
Were interfus'd with objects which subdu'd | B3 |
And temper'd them and gradually produc'd | C3 |
A quiet independence of the heart | D3 |
And to my Friend who knows me I may add | E3 |
Unapprehensive of reproof that hence | F3 |
Ensu'd a diffidence and modesty | M |
And I was taught to feel perhaps too much | A |
The self sufficing power of solitude | B3 |
- | |
No delicate viands sapp'd our bodily strength | A3 |
More than we wish'd we knew the blessing then | G3 |
Of vigorous hunger for our daily meals | H3 |
Were frugal Sabine fare and then exclude | B3 |
A little weekly stipend and we lived | G |
Through three divisions of the quarter'd year | Y |
In pennyless poverty But now to School | F |
Return'd from the half yearly holidays | B2 |
We came with purses more profusely fill'd | J2 |
Allowance which abundantly suffic'd | I3 |
To gratify the palate with repasts | B2 |
More costly than the Dame of whom I spake | J3 |
That ancient Woman and her board supplied | K3 |
Hence inroads into distant Vales and long | L3 |
Excursions far away among the hills | B2 |
Hence rustic dinners on the cool green ground | K2 |
Or in the woods or near a river side | K3 |
Or by some shady fountain while soft airs | B2 |
Among the leaves were stirring and the sun | Y2 |
Unfelt shone sweetly round us in our joy | M3 |
- | |
Nor is my aim neglected if I tell | F |
How twice in the long length of those half years | B2 |
We from our funds perhaps with bolder hand | N3 |
Drew largely anxious for one day at least | O3 |
To feel the motion of the galloping Steed | P3 |
And with the good old Inn keeper in truth | X |
On such occasion sometimes we employ'd | Q3 |
Sly subterfuge for the intended bound | K2 |
Of the day's journey was too distant far | Y |
For any cautious man a Structure famed | R3 |
Beyond its neighbourhood the antique Walls | B2 |
Of that large Abbey which within the vale | F |
Of Nightshade to St Mary's honour built | S3 |
Stands yet a mouldering Pile with fractured Arch | T3 |
Belfry and Images and living Trees | B2 |
A holy Scene along the smooth green turf | U3 |
Our Horses grazed to more than inland peace | B2 |
Left by the sea wind passing overhead | V3 |
Though wind of roughest temper trees and towers | B2 |
May in that Valley oftentimes be seen | W3 |
Both silent and both motionless alike | Z2 |
Such is the shelter that is there and such | A |
The safeguard for repose and quietness | B2 |
- | |
- | |
Our steeds remounted and the summons given | Y2 |
With whip and spur we by the Chauntry flew | F |
In uncouth race and left the cross legg'd Knight | Q2 |
And the stone Abbot and that single Wren | G3 |
Which one day sang so sweetly in the Nave | X2 |
Of the old Church that though from recent showers | B2 |
The earth was comfortless and touch'd by faint | X3 |
Internal breezes sobbings of the place | B2 |
And respirations from the roofless walls | B2 |
The shuddering ivy dripp'd large drops yet still | F |
So sweetly 'mid the gloom the invisible Bird | Y3 |
Sang to itself that there I could have made | Z3 |
My dwelling place and liv'd for ever there | Y |
To hear such music Through the Walls we flew | F |
And down the valley and a circuit made | Z3 |
In wantonness of heart through rough and smooth | A4 |
We scamper'd homeward Oh ye Rocks and Streams | B2 |
And that still Spirit of the evening air | Y |
Even in this joyous time I sometimes felt | B4 |
Your presence when with slacken'd step we breath'd | C4 |
Along the sides of the steep hills or when | G3 |
Lighted by gleams of moonlight from the sea | B2 |
We beat with thundering hoofs the level sand | N3 |
- | |
- | |
Upon the Eastern Shore of Windermere | Y |
Above the crescent of a pleasant Bay | D4 |
There stood an Inn no homely featured Shed | V3 |
Brother of the surrounding Cottages | B2 |
But 'twas a splendid place the door beset | E |
With Chaises Grooms and Liveries and within | E4 |
Decanters Glasses and the blood red Wine | F4 |
In ancient times or ere the Hall was built | S3 |
On the large Island had this Dwelling been | E4 |
More worthy of a Poet's love a Hut | G4 |
Proud of its one bright fire and sycamore shade | Z3 |
But though the rhymes were gone which once inscribed | H4 |
The threshold and large golden characters | B2 |
On the blue frosted Signboard had usurp'd | I4 |
The place of the old Lion in contempt | J4 |
And mockery of the rustic painter's hand | N3 |
Yet to this hour the spot to me is dear | Y |
With all its foolish pomp The garden lay | D4 |
Upon a slope surmounted by the plain | K4 |
Of a small Bowling green beneath us stood | L4 |
A grove with gleams of water through the trees | B2 |
And over the tree tops nor did we want | M4 |
Refreshment strawberries and mellow cream | C2 |
And there through half an afternoon we play'd | Z3 |
On the smooth platform and the shouts we sent | P |
Made all the mountains ring But ere the fall | F |
Of night when in our pinnace we return'd | H2 |
Over the dusky Lake and to the beach | N4 |
Of some small Island steer'd our course with one | Y2 |
The Minstrel of our troop and left him there | Y |
And row'd off gently while he blew his flute | O4 |
Alone upon the rock Oh then the calm | P4 |
And dead still water lay upon my mind | Q |
Even with a weight of pleasure and the sky | Q4 |
Never before so beautiful sank down | R4 |
Into my heart and held me like a | S4 |
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 2: School-time (continued) poem by William Wordsworth
Best Poems of William Wordsworth