The Prelude - Book Eighth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHIIJKLIMNIOPGQ RNIESTUVIHUUWXGUYUZI UUGUUCIA2B2C2ND2E2F2 IUUG2H2UC2UUIZIIDU I2UUIUCIUUIJ2K2NL2II IIUIIM2N2UIYUR IIIZO2CIIIIP2GI IUIIIQ2AUUK2UR2S2UUI UUIIUT2IIUNIIUIUYU2I FV2IIIUUIW2IYIWUIX2B 2IUIIR2GIIIII Y2IIIUIH2UIUIVZ2UUFU IIP2CA3UB3C3ISD3V2IE 3IF3YIYB2IUP2UG3UIII IIIIN2H3IIIUU2IIII3C 3NUJ3NY2D3UIUK3IC2J3 IYIIIL3UC2IP2DUUCIII IJ3UUUNJ3Y2IJ3AUUIM3 UIUV2M3IDUAUUC2UUIN3 AL2IO3J3UUUIUUGUIUUP 3SB2Q3UCIIIR3UUAUYUD IC2J3IB2IJ3UNUIU GUY2IYUUHIUIIGD3UIHU D3UIA2IP2U GC2YYIUS3B2UUT3DUHUU HUUUIUP2UCUI UNU3IUUIUYYIUIUL3UUF IV3J3US2UUUW3J3UUUUD UHM3X3UUUIUUUIIVIUID 3J3AUUIYYUUUYUY3Z3YV IIDIIUUUA4IUIUJ3YVDI I YIM2UUIYUGAUK3J3UDD3 UYV UIUK3UIUU IB3UB2IQ3UDIB2VIVYU IUUUUIUP2B4YD3U IDT3IUJ3HUDC4UD4UE4U IIUUO2UIUUDYIUIF4 UW3HX3UIUIYUO3O2VIA3 UJ3HUUIIM2IO3YJ3G4UD UUIIIVI UIVVDUIS2UUN3UD3UUUU VA3U UVIB2IIUIINYUJ3T3DII UIIIUUDUDH4IUUUUUI4U IIUF4UVUIIUUUU IFDAIIJ3IDIU UA3YX2UK2UID3UU

RETROSPECT LOVE OF NATURE LEADING TO LOVE OF MAN	A
	-
What sounds are those Helvellyn that are heard	B
Up to thy summit through the depth of air	C
Ascending as if distance had the power	D
To make the sounds more audible What crowd	E
Covers or sprinkles o'er yon village green	F
Crowd seems it solitary hill to thee	G
Though but a little family of men	H
Shepherds and tillers of the ground betimes	I
Assembled with their children and their wives	I
And here and there a stranger interspersed	J
They hold a rustic fair a festival	K
Such as on this side now and now on that	L
Repeated through his tributary vales	I
Helvellyn in the silence of his rest	M
Sees annually if clouds towards either ocean	N
Blown from their favourite resting place or mists	I
Dissolved have left him an unshrouded head	O
Delightful day it is for all who dwell	P
In this secluded glen and eagerly	G
They give it welcome Long ere heat of noon	Q
From byre or field the kine were brought the sheep	R
Are penned in cotes the chaffering is begun	N
The heifer lows uneasy at the voice	I
Of a new master bleat the flocks aloud	E
Booths are there none a stall or two is here	S
A lame man or a blind the one to beg	T
The other to make music hither too	U
From far with basket slung upon her arm	V
Of hawker's wares books pictures combs and pins	I
Some aged woman finds her way again	H
Year after year a punctual visitant	U
There also stands a speech maker by rote	U
Pulling the strings of his boxed raree show	W
And in the lapse of many years may come	X
Prouder itinerant mountebank or he	G
Whose wonders in a covered wain lie hid	U
But one there is the loveliest of them all	Y
Some sweet lass of the valley looking out	U
For gains and who that sees her would not buy	Z
Fruits of her father's orchard are her wares	I
And with the ruddy produce she walks round	U
Among the crowd half pleased with half ashamed	U
Of her new office blushing restlessly	G
The children now are rich for the old to day	U
Are generous as the young and if content	U
With looking on some ancient wedded pair	C
Sit in the shade together while they gaze	I
A cheerful smile unbends the wrinkled brow	A2
The days departed start again to life	B2
And all the scenes of childhood reappear	C2
Faint but more tranquil like the changing sun	N
To him who slept at noon and wakes at eve	D2
Thus gaiety and cheerfulness prevail	E2
Spreading from young to old from old to young	F2
And no one seems to want his share Immense	I
Is the recess the circumambient world	U
Magnificent by which they are embraced	U
They move about upon the soft green turf	G2
How little they they and their doings seem	H2
And all that they can further or obstruct	U
Through utter weakness pitiably dear	C2
As tender infants are and yet how great	U
For all things serve them them the morning light	U
Loves as it glistens on the silent rocks	I
And them the silent rocks which now from high	Z
Look down upon them the reposing clouds	I
The wild brooks prattling from invisible haunts	I
And old Helvellyn conscious of the stir	D
Which animates this day their calm abode	U
	-
With deep devotion Nature did I feel	I2
In that enormous City's turbulent world	U
Of men and things what benefit I owed	U
To thee and those domains of rural peace	I
Where to the sense of beauty first my heart	U
Was opened tract more exquisitely fair	C
Than that famed paradise of ten thousand trees	I
Or Gehol's matchless gardens for delight	U
Of the Tartarian dynasty composed	U
Beyond that mighty wall not fabulous	I
China's stupendous mound by patient toil	J2
Of myriads and boon nature's lavish help	K2
There in a clime from widest empire chosen	N
Fulfilling could enchantment have done more	L2
A sumptuous dream of flowery lawns with domes	I
Of pleasure sprinkled over shady dells	I
For eastern monasteries sunny mounts	I
With temples crested bridges gondolas	I
Rocks dens and groves of foliage taught to melt	U
Into each other their obsequious hues	I
Vanished and vanishing in subtle chase	I
Too fine to be pursued or standing forth	M2
In no discordant opposition strong	N2
And gorgeous as the colours side by side	U
Bedded among rich plumes of tropic birds	I
And mountains over all embracing all	Y
And all the landscape endlessly enriched	U
With waters running falling or asleep	R
	-
But lovelier far than this the paradise	I
Where I was reared in Nature's primitive gifts	I
Favoured no less and more to every sense	I
Delicious seeing that the sun and sky	Z
The elements and seasons as they change	O2
Do find a worthy fellow labourer there	C
Man free man working for himself with choice	I
Of time and place and object by his wants	I
His comforts native occupations cares	I
Cheerfully led to individual ends	I
Or social and still followed by a train	P2
Unwooed unthought of even simplicity	G
And beauty and inevitable grace	I
	-
Yea when a glimpse of those imperial bowers	I
Would to a child be transport over great	U
When but a half hour's roam through such a place	I
Would leave behind a dance of images	I
That shall break in upon his sleep for weeks	I
Even then the common haunts of the green earth	Q2
And ordinary interests of man	A
Which they embosom all without regard	U
As both may seem are fastening on the heart	U
Insensibly each with the other's help	K2
For me when my affections first were led	U
From kindred friends and playmates to partake	R2
Love for the human creature's absolute self	S2
That noticeable kindliness of heart	U
Sprang out of fountains there abounding most	U
Where sovereign Nature dictated the tasks	I
And occupations which her beauty adorned	U
And Shepherds were the men that pleased me first	U
Not such as Saturn ruled 'mid Latian wilds	I
With arts and laws so tempered that their lives	I
Left even to us toiling in this late day	U
A bright tradition of the golden age	T2
Not such as 'mid Arcadian fastnesses	I
Sequestered handed down among themselves	I
Felicity in Grecian song renowned	U
Nor such as when an adverse fate had driven	N
From house and home the courtly band whose fortunes	I
Entered with Shakspeare's genius the wild woods	I
Of Arden amid sunshine or in shade	U
Culled the best fruits of Time's uncounted hours	I
Ere Phoebe sighed for the false Ganymede	U
Or there where Perdita and Florizel	Y
Together danced Queen of the feast and King	U2
Nor such as Spenser fabled True it is	I
That I had heard what he perhaps had seen	F
Of maids at sunrise bringing in from far	V2
Their May bush and along the streets in flocks	I
Parading with a song of taunting rhymes	I
Aimed at the laggards slumbering within doors	I
Had also heard from those who yet remembered	U
Tales of the May pole dance and wreaths that decked	U
Porch door way or kirk pillar and of youths	I
Each with his maid before the sun was up	W2
By annual custom issuing forth in troops	I
To drink the waters of some sainted well	Y
And hang it round with garlands Love survives	I
But for such purpose flowers no longer grow	W
The times too sage perhaps too proud have dropped	U
These lighter graces and the rural ways	I
And manners which my childhood looked upon	X2
Were the unluxuriant produce of a life	B2
Intent on little but substantial needs	I
Yet rich in beauty beauty that was felt	U
But images of danger and distress	I
Man suffering among awful Powers and Forms	I
Of this I heard and saw enough to make	R2
Imagination restless nor was free	G
Myself from frequent perils nor were tales	I
Wanting the tragedies of former times	I
Hazards and strange escapes of which the rocks	I
Immutable and everflowing streams	I
Where'er I roamed were speaking monuments	I
	-
Smooth life had flock and shepherd in old time	Y2
Long springs and tepid winters on the banks	I
Of delicate Galesus and no less	I
Those scattered along Adria's myrtle shores	I
Smooth life had herdsman and his snow white herd	U
To triumphs and to sacrificial rites	I
Devoted on the inviolable stream	H2
Of rich Clitumnus and the goat herd lived	U
As calmly underneath the pleasant brows	I
Of cool Lucretilis where the pipe was heard	U
Of Pan Invisible God thrilling the rocks	I
With tutelary music from all harm	V
The fold protecting I myself mature	Z2
In manhood then have seen a pastoral tract	U
Like one of these where Fancy might run wild	U
Though under skies less generous less serene	F
There for her own delight had Nature framed	U
A pleasure ground diffused a fair expanse	I
Of level pasture islanded with groves	I
And banked with woody risings but the Plain	P2
Endless here opening widely out and there	C
Shut up in lesser lakes or beds of lawn	A3
And intricate recesses creek or bay	U
Sheltered within a shelter where at large	B3
The shepherd strays a rolling hut his home	C3
Thither he comes with spring time there abides	I
All summer and at sunrise ye may hear	S
His flageolet to liquid notes of love	D3
Attuned or sprightly fife resounding far	V2
Nook is there none nor tract of that vast space	I
Where passage opens but the same shall have	E3
In turn its visitant telling there his hours	I
In unlaborious pleasure with no task	F3
More toilsome than to carve a beechen bowl	Y
For spring or fountain which the traveller finds	I
When through the region he pursues at will	Y
His devious course A glimpse of such sweet life	B2
I saw when from the melancholy walls	I
Of Goslar once imperial I renewed	U
My daily walk along that wide champaign	P2
That reaching to her gates spreads east and west	U
And northwards from beneath the mountainous verge	G3
Of the Hercynian forest Yet hail to you	U
Moors mountains headlands and ye hollow vales	I
Ye long deep channels for the Atlantic's voice	I
Powers of my native region Ye that seize	I
The heart with firmer grasp Your snows and streams	I
Ungovernable and your terrifying winds	I
That howl so dismally for him who treads	I
Companionless your awful solitudes	I
There 'tis the shepherd's task the winter long	N2
To wait upon the storms of their approach	H3
Sagacious into sheltering coves he drives	I
His flock and thither from the homestead bears	I
A toilsome burden up the craggy ways	I
And deals it out their regular nourishment	U
Strewn on the frozen snow And when the spring	U2
Looks out and all the pastures dance with lambs	I
And when the flock with warmer weather climbs	I
Higher and higher him his office leads	I
To watch their goings whatsoever track	I3
The wanderers choose For this he quits his home	C3
At day spring and no sooner doth the sun	N
Begin to strike him with a fire like heat	U
Than he lies down upon some shining rock	J3
And breakfasts with his dog When they have stolen	N
As is their wont a pittance from strict time	Y2
For rest not needed or exchange of love	D3
Then from his couch he starts and now his feet	U
Crush out a livelier fragrance from the flowers	I
Of lowly thyme by Nature's skill enwrought	U
In the wild turf the lingering dews of morn	K3
Smoke round him as from hill to hill he hies	I
His staff protending like a hunter's spear	C2
Or by its aid leaping from crag to crag	J3
And o'er the brawling beds of unbridged streams	I
Philosophy methinks at Fancy's call	Y
Might deign to follow him through what he does	I
Or sees in his day's march himself he feels	I
In those vast regions where his service lies	I
A freeman wedded to his life of hope	L3
And hazard and hard labour interchanged	U
With that majestic indolence so dear	C2
To native man A rambling schoolboy thus	I
I felt his presence in his own domain	P2
As of a lord and master or a power	D
Or genius under Nature under God	U
Presiding and severest solitude	U
Had more commanding looks when he was there	C
When up the lonely brooks on rainy days	I
Angling I went or trod the trackless hills	I
By mists bewildered suddenly mine eyes	I
Have glanced upon him distant a few steps	I
In size a giant stalking through thick fog	J3
His sheep like Greenland bears or as he stepped	U
Beyond the boundary line of some hill shadow	U
His form hath flashed upon me glorified	U
By the deep radiance of the setting sun	N
Or him have I descried in distant sky	J3
A solitary object and sublime	Y2
Above all height like an aerial cross	I
Stationed alone upon a spiry rock	J3
Of the Chartreuse for worship Thus was man	A
Ennobled outwardly before my sight	U
And thus my heart was early introduced	U
To an unconscious love and reverence	I
Of human nature hence the human form	M3
To me became an index of delight	U
Of grace and honour power and worthiness	I
Meanwhile this creature spiritual almost	U
As those of books but more exalted far	V2
Far more of an imaginative form	M3
Than the gay Corin of the groves who lives	I
For his own fancies or to dance by the hour	D
In coronal with Phyllis in the midst	U
Was for the purposes of kind a man	A
With the most common husband father learned	U
Could teach admonish suffered with the rest	U
From vice and folly wretchedness and fear	C2
Of this I little saw cared less for it	U
But something must have felt	U
Call ye these appearances	I
Which I beheld of shepherds in my youth	N3
This sanctity of Nature given to man	A
A shadow a delusion ye who pore	L2
On the dead letter miss the spirit of things	I
Whose truth is not a motion or a shape	O3
Instinct with vital functions but a block	J3
Or waxen image which yourselves have made	U
And ye adore But blessed be the God	U
Of Nature and of Man that this was so	U
That men before my inexperienced eyes	I
Did first present themselves thus purified	U
Removed and to a distance that was fit	U
And so we all of us in some degree	G
Are led to knowledge wheresoever led	U
And howsoever were it otherwise	I
And we found evil fast as we find good	U
In our first years or think that it is found	U
How could the innocent heart bear up and live	P3
But doubly fortunate my lot not here	S
Alone that something of a better life	B2
Perhaps was round me than it is the privilege	Q3
Of most to move in but that first I looked	U
At Man through objects that were great or fair	C
First communed with him by their help And thus	I
Was founded a sure safeguard and defence	I
Against the weight of meanness selfish cares	I
Coarse manners vulgar passions that beat in	R3
On all sides from the ordinary world	U
In which we traffic Starting from this point	U
I had my face turned toward the truth began	A
With an advantage furnished by that kind	U
Of prepossession without which the soul	Y
Receives no knowledge that can bring forth good	U
No genuine insight ever comes to her	D
From the restraint of over watchful eyes	I
Preserved I moved about year after year	C2
Happy and now most thankful that my walk	J3
Was guarded from too early intercourse	I
With the deformities of crowded life	B2
And those ensuing laughters and contempts	I
Self pleasing which if we would wish to think	J3
With a due reverence on earth's rightful lord	U
Here placed to be the inheritor of heaven	N
Will not permit us but pursue the mind	U
That to devotion willingly would rise	I
Into the temple and the temple's heart	U
	-
Yet deem not Friend that human kind with me	G
Thus early took a place pre eminent	U
Nature herself was at this unripe time	Y2
But secondary to my own pursuits	I
And animal activities and all	Y
Their trivial pleasures and when these had drooped	U
And gradually expired and Nature prized	U
For her own sake became my joy even then	H
And upwards through late youth until not less	I
Than two and twenty summers had been told	U
Was Man in my affections and regards	I
Subordinate to her her visible forms	I
And viewless agencies a passion she	G
A rapture often and immediate love	D3
Ever at hand he only a delight	U
Occasional an accidental grace	I
His hour being not yet come Far less had then	H
The inferior creatures beast or bird attuned	U
My spirit to that gentleness of love	D3
Though they had long been carefully observed	U
Won from me those minute obeisances	I
Of tenderness which I may number now	A2
With my first blessings Nevertheless on these	I
The light of beauty did not fall in vain	P2
Or grandeur circumfuse them to no end	U
	-
But when that first poetic faculty	G
Of plain Imagination and severe	C2
No longer a mute influence of the soul	Y
Ventured at some rash Muse's earnest call	Y
To try her strength among harmonious words	I
And to book notions and the rules of art	U
Did knowingly conform itself there came	S3
Among the simple shapes of human life	B2
A wilfulness of fancy and conceit	U
And Nature and her objects beautified	U
These fictions as in some sort in their turn	T3
They burnished her From touch of this new power	D
Nothing was safe the elder tree that grew	U
Beside the well known charnel house had then	H
A dismal look the yew tree had its ghost	U
That took his station there for ornament	U
The dignities of plain occurrence then	H
Were tasteless and truth's golden mean a point	U
Where no sufficient pleasure could be found	U
Then if a widow staggering with the blow	U
Of her distress was known to have turned her steps	I
To the cold grave in which her husband slept	U
One night or haply more than one through pain	P2
Or half insensate impotence of mind	U
The fact was caught at greedily and there	C
She must be visitant the whole year through	U
Wetting the turf with never ending tears	I
	-
Through quaint obliquities I might pursue	U
These cravings when the foxglove one by one	N
Upwards through every stage of the tall stem	U3
Had shed beside the public way its bells	I
And stood of all dismantled save the last	U
Left at the tapering ladder's top that seemed	U
To bend as doth a slender blade of grass	I
Tipped with a rain drop Fancy loved to seat	U
Beneath the plant despoiled but crested still	Y
With this last relic soon itself to fall	Y
Some vagrant mother whose arch little ones	I
All unconcerned by her dejected plight	U
Laughed as with rival eagerness their hands	I
Gathered the purple cups that round them lay	U
Strewing the turfs green slope	L3
A diamond light	U
Whene'er the summer sun declining smote	U
A smooth rock wet with constant springs was seen	F
Sparkling from out a copse clad bank that rose	I
Fronting our cottage Oft beside the hearth	V3
Seated with open door often and long	J3
Upon this restless lustre have I gazed	U
That made my fancy restless as itself	S2
'Twas now for me a burnished silver shield	U
Suspended over a knight's tomb who lay	U
Inglorious buried in the dusky wood	U
An entrance now into some magic cave	W3
Or palace built by fairies of the rock	J3
Nor could I have been bribed to disenchant	U
The spectacle by visiting the spot	U
Thus wilful Fancy in no hurtful mood	U
Engrafted far fetched shapes on feelings bred	U
By pure Imagination busy Power	D
She was and with her ready pupil turned	U
Instinctively to human passions then	H
Least understood Yet 'mid the fervent swarm	M3
Of these vagaries with an eye so rich	X3
As mine was through the bounty of a grand	U
And lovely region I had forms distinct	U
To steady me each airy thought revolved	U
Round a substantial centre which at once	I
Incited it to motion and controlled	U
I did not pine like one in cities bred	U
As was thy melancholy lot dear Friend	U
Great Spirit as thou art in endless dreams	I
Of sickliness disjoining joining things	I
Without the light of knowledge Where the harm	V
If when the woodman languished with disease	I
Induced by sleeping nightly on the ground	U
Within his sod built cabin Indian wise	I
I called the pangs of disappointed love	D3
And all the sad etcetera of the wrong	J3
To help him to his grave Meanwhile the man	A
If not already from the woods retired	U
To die at home was haply as I knew	U
Withering by slow degrees 'mid gentle airs	I
Birds running streams and hills so beautiful	Y
On golden evenings while the charcoal pile	Y
Breathed up its smoke an image of his ghost	U
Or spirit that full soon must take her flight	U
Nor shall we not be tending towards that point	U
Of sound humanity to which our Tale	Y
Leads though by sinuous ways if here I show	U
How Fancy in a season when she wove	Y3
Those slender cords to guide the unconscious Boy	Z3
For the Man's sake could feed at Nature's call	Y
Some pensive musings which might well beseem	V
Maturer years	I
A grove there is whose boughs	I
Stretch from the western marge of Thurstonmere	D
With length of shade so thick that whoso glides	I
Along the line of low roofed water moves	I
As in a cloister Once while in that shade	U
Loitering I watched the golden beams of light	U
Flung from the setting sun as they reposed	U
In silent beauty on the naked ridge	A4
Of a high eastern hill thus flowed my thoughts	I
In a pure stream of words fresh from the heart	U
Dear native Regions wheresoe'er shall close	I
My mortal course there will I think on you	U
Dying will cast on you a backward look	J3
Even as this setting sun albeit the Vale	Y
Is no where touched by one memorial gleam	V
Doth with the fond remains of his last power	D
Still linger and a farewell lustre sheds	I
On the dear mountain tops where first he rose	I
	-
Enough of humble arguments recall	Y
My Song those high emotions which thy voice	I
Has heretofore made known that bursting forth	M2
Of sympathy inspiring and inspired	U
When everywhere a vital pulse was felt	U
And all the several frames of things like stars	I
Through every magnitude distinguishable	Y
Shone mutually indebted or half lost	U
Each in the other's blaze a galaxy	G
Of life and glory In the midst stood Man	A
Outwardly inwardly contemplated	U
As of all visible natures crown though born	K3
Of dust and kindred to the worm a Being	J3
Both in perception and discernment first	U
In every capability of rapture	D
Through the divine effect of power and love	D3
As more than anything we know instinct	U
With godhead and by reason and by will	Y
Acknowledging dependency sublime	V
	-
Ere long the lonely mountains left I moved	U
Begirt from day to day with temporal shapes	I
Of vice and folly thrust upon my view	U
Objects of sport and ridicule and scorn	K3
Manners and characters discriminate	U
And little bustling passions that eclipse	I
As well they might the impersonated thought	U
The idea or abstraction of the kind	U
	-
An idler among academic bowers	I
Such was my new condition as at large	B3
Has been set forth yet here the vulgar light	U
Of present actual superficial life	B2
Gleaming through colouring of other times	I
Old usages and local privilege	Q3
Was welcomed softened if not solemnised	U
This notwithstanding being brought more near	D
To vice and guilt forerunning wretchedness	I
I trembled thought at times of human life	B2
With an indefinite terror and dismay	V
Such as the storms and angry elements	I
Had bred in me but gloomier far a dim	V
Analogy to uproar and misrule	Y
Disquiet danger and obscurity	U
	-
It might be told but wherefore speak of things	I
Common to all that seeing I was led	U
Gravely to ponder judging between good	U
And evil not as for the mind's delight	U
But for her guidance one who was to 'act'	U
As sometimes to the best of feeble means	I
I did by human sympathy impelled	U
And through dislike and most offensive pain	P2
Was to the truth conducted of this faith	B4
Never forsaken that by acting well	Y
And understanding I should learn to love	D3
The end of life and everything we know	U
	-
Grave Teacher stern Preceptress for at times	I
Thou canst put on an aspect most severe	D
London to thee I willingly return	T3
Erewhile my verse played idly with the flowers	I
Enwrought upon thy mantle satisfied	U
With that amusement and a simple look	J3
Of child like inquisition now and then	H
Cast upwards on thy countenance to detect	U
Some inner meanings which might harbour there	D
But how could I in mood so light indulge	C4
Keeping such fresh remembrance of the day	U
When having thridded the long labyrinth	D4
Of the suburban villages I first	U
Entered thy vast dominion On the roof	E4
Of an itinerant vehicle I sate	U
With vulgar men about me trivial forms	I
Of houses pavement streets of men and things	I
Mean shapes on every side but at the instant	U
When to myself it fairly might be said	U
The threshold now is overpast how strange	O2
That aught external to the living mind	U
Should have such mighty sway yet so it was	I
A weight of ages did at once descend	U
Upon my heart no thought embodied no	U
Distinct remembrances but weight and power	D
Power growing under weight alas I feel	Y
That I am trifling 'twas a moment's pause	I
All that took place within me came and went	U
As in a moment yet with Time it dwells	I
And grateful memory as a thing divine	F4
	-
The curious traveller who from open day	U
Hath passed with torches into some huge cave	W3
The Grotto of Antiparos or the Den	H
In old time haunted by that Danish Witch	X3
Yordas he looks around and sees the vault	U
Widening on all sides sees or thinks he sees	I
Erelong the massy roof above his head	U
That instantly unsettles and recedes	I
Substance and shadow light and darkness all	Y
Commingled making up a canopy	U
Of shapes and forms and tendencies to shape	O3
That shift and vanish change and interchange	O2
Like spectres ferment silent and sublime	V
That after a short space works less and less	I
Till every effort every motion gone	A3
The scene before him stands in perfect view	U
Exposed and lifeless as a written book	J3
But let him pause awhile and look again	H
And a new quickening shall succeed at first	U
Beginning timidly then creeping fast	U
Till the whole cave so late a senseless mass	I
Busies the eye with images and forms	I
Boldly assembled here is shadowed forth	M2
From the projections wrinkles cavities	I
A variegated landscape there the shape	O3
Of some gigantic warrior clad in mail	Y
The ghostly semblance of a hooded monk	J3
Veiled nun or pilgrim resting on his staff	G4
Strange congregation yet not slow to meet	U
Eyes that perceive through minds that can inspire	D
	-
Even in such sort had I at first been moved	U
Nor otherwise continued to be moved	U
As I explored the vast metropolis	I
Fount of my country's destiny and the world's	I
That great emporium chronicle at once	I
And burial place of passions and their home	V
Imperial their chief living residence	I
	-
With strong sensations teeming as it did	U
Of past and present such a place must needs	I
Have pleased me seeking knowledge at that time	V
Far less than craving power yet knowledge came	V
Sought or unsought and influxes of power	D
Came of themselves or at her call derived	U
In fits of kindliest apprehensiveness	I
From all sides when whate'er was in itself	S2
Capacious found or seemed to find in me	U
A correspondent amplitude of mind	U
Such is the strength and glory of our youth	N3
The human nature unto which I felt	U
That I belonged and reverenced with love	D3
Was not a punctual presence but a spirit	U
Diffused through time and space with aid derived	U
Of evidence from monuments erect	U
Prostrate or leaning towards their common rest	U
In earth the widely scattered wreck sublime	V
Of vanished nations or more clearly drawn	A3
From books and what they picture and record	U
	-
'Tis true the history of our native land	U
With those of Greece compared and popular Rome	V
And in our high wrought modern narratives	I
Stript of their harmonising soul the life	B2
Of manners and familiar incidents	I
Had never much delighted me And less	I
Than other intellects had mine been used	U
To lean upon extrinsic circumstance	I
Of record or tradition but a sense	I
Of what in the Great City had been done	N
And suffered and was doing suffering still	Y
Weighed with me could support the test of thought	U
And in despite of all that had gone by	J3
Or was departing never to return	T3
There I conversed with majesty and power	D
Like independent natures Hence the place	I
Was thronged with impregnations like the Wilds	I
In which my early feelings had been nursed	U
Bare hills and valleys full of caverns rocks	I
And audible seclusions dashing lakes	I
Echoes and waterfalls and pointed crags	I
That into music touch the passing wind	U
Here then my young imagination found	U
No uncongenial element could here	D
Among new objects serve or give command	U
Even as the heart's occasions might require	D
To forward reason's else too scrupulous march	H4
The effect was still more elevated views	I
Of human nature Neither vice nor guilt	U
Debasement undergone by body or mind	U
Nor all the misery forced upon my sight	U
Misery not lightly passed but sometimes scanned	U
Most feelingly could overthrow my trust	U
In what we 'may' become induce belief	I4
That I was ignorant had been falsely taught	U
A solitary who with vain conceits	I
Had been inspired and walked about in dreams	I
From those sad scenes when meditation turned	U
Lo everything that was indeed divine	F4
Retained its purity inviolate	U
Nay brighter shone by this portentous gloom	V
Set off such opposition as aroused	U
The mind of Adam yet in Paradise	I
Though fallen from bliss when in the East he saw	I
Darkness ere day's mid course and morning light	U
More orient in the western cloud that drew	U
O'er the blue firmament a radiant white	U
Descending slow with something heavenly fraught	U
	-
Add also that among the multitudes	I
Of that huge city oftentimes was seen	F
Affectingly set forth more than elsewhere	D
Is possible the unity of man	A
One spirit over ignorance and vice	I
Predominant in good and evil hearts	I
One sense for moral judgments as one eye	J3
For the sun's light The soul when smitten thus	I
By a sublime 'idea' whencesoe'er	D
Vouchsafed for union or communion feeds	I
On the pure bliss and takes her rest with God	U
	-
Thus from a very early age O Friend	U
My thoughts by slow gradations had been drawn	A3
To human kind and to the good and ill	Y
Of human life Nature had led me on	X2
And oft amid the busy hum I seemed	U
To travel independent of her help	K2
As if I had forgotten her but no	U
The world of human kind outweighed not hers	I
In my habitual thoughts the scale of love	D3
Though filling daily still was light compared	U
With that in which 'her' mighty objects lay	U

William Wordsworth

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