The Prelude - Book Fifth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHIJKLMNEOPQRST UVWEXYZVA2FB2C2D2VLE 2VVF2SQG2H2I2VJ2K2VL 2 VVF2VVA2VM2N2VVO2FVG F2TVP2D2Q2R2VS2VVT2U 2V2W2VVX2VVVK2Q2GVY2 VZ2A3B3GVXVVC3SAD3VQ E3DF3VQ2G3W2AVVVJ2H3 I3VJ3VVVK3VJVL3CM3VV N3VVVDI3V CVNEVVM3VVVD2VN3M3S2 M3O3XD2Z2VP3VM3H DQ3M3VM3R3M3VVM3VVH2 L2J3S3VT3M3M3U3VD2M3 I3V3 W3DM3R2X3VM3EM3M3M3Q 3VY3M3VUM3M3M3M3M3K2 M3VM3M3M3P3VV Z3M3VVVVS3SH2D2VM3M3 VX2VA4VVVVM3B4 VVVVC4D4Y3M3M3VVVM3V M3VE4D4M3F2VVP3M3VM3 F4VS3VVTM3E2G4VM3M3V VVVQ3M3M3M3H4HS2M3M3 VVM3K2I4DM3Q3J4E4NS2 Q2M3M3M3VVM3C4M3VM3M 3M3VM3ZM3VM3VE4M3VY2 XE4K4M3VVE4M3L4G4VVM 4CS G2VVX2VNE4M3S3VN4O4V M3P4VM3 M3E4EM3K2Y3 M3Q4VM3VH2M3VVM3X2A3 M3M3H3VM3VY3 VVL2M3R4VD2VM3T2VVS4 VM3M3M3Q3M3VT4NM3U4V VT2M3VVVXV4M3S4E4D T3D2M3VT3K2M3M3Y3E4C 4NVY3VVM3L2VC4CM3H3V Y2S2VH3M3M3P4M3M3M3 VI3M3VHVU3F2VVVC4W4M 3VVX4 M3VVM3VX4R2E4NVVO3E4 H2 M3VVM3VVVM3VNG2M3VY2 C4M3M3K2M3VE4DVVM3ZM 3G2VM3VVH2H2Y2VY4VE4 E4VM3M3 M3VM3VVF2VH3M3M3M3DV K2VG2E4J3DM3VE4VDVM3 VVVQ3Y3M3M3VM3HD4VDF 2EVVZ4M3M3M3VM3Z2M3 VM3F2M3VE4W3SG2M3DM3 M3VD2E4VHM3VK2

BOOKS	A
	-
When Contemplation like the night calm felt	B
Through earth and sky spreads widely and sends deep	C
Into the soul its tranquillising power	D
Even then I sometimes grieve for thee O Man	E
Earth's paramount Creature not so much for woes	F
That thou endurest heavy though that weight be	G
Cloud like it mounts or touched with light divine	H
Doth melt away but for those palms achieved	I
Through length of time by patient exercise	J
Of study and hard thought there there it is	K
That sadness finds its fuel Hitherto	L
In progress through this Verse my mind hath looked	M
Upon the speaking face of earth and heaven	N
As her prime teacher intercourse with man	E
Established by the sovereign Intellect	O
Who through that bodily image hath diffused	P
As might appear to the eye of fleeting time	Q
A deathless spirit Thou also man hast wrought	R
For commerce of thy nature with herself	S
Things that aspire to unconquerable life	T
And yet we feel we cannot choose but feel	U
That they must perish Tremblings of the heart	V
It gives to think that our immortal being	W
No more shall need such garments and yet man	E
As long as he shall be the child of earth	X
Might almost weep to have what he may lose	Y
Nor be himself extinguished but survive	Z
Abject depressed forlorn disconsolate	V
A thought is with me sometimes and I say	A2
Should the whole frame of earth by inward throes	F
Be wrenched or fire come down from far to scorch	B2
Her pleasant habitations and dry up	C2
Old Ocean in his bed left singed and bare	D2
Yet would the living Presence still subsist	V
Victorious and composure would ensue	L
And kindlings like the morning presage sure	E2
Of day returning and of life revived	V
But all the meditations of mankind	V
Yea all the adamantine holds of truth	F2
By reason built or passion which itself	S
Is highest reason in a soul sublime	Q
The consecrated works of Bard and Sage	G2
Sensuous or intellectual wrought by men	H2
Twin labourers and heirs of the same hopes	I2
Where would they be Oh why hath not the Mind	V
Some element to stamp her image on	J2
In nature somewhat nearer to her own	K2
Why gifted with such powers to send abroad	V
Her spirit must it lodge in shrines so frail	L2
	-
One day when from my lips a like complaint	V
Had fallen in presence of a studious friend	V
He with a smile made answer that in truth	F2
'Twas going far to seek disquietude	V
But on the front of his reproof confessed	V
That he himself had oftentimes given way	A2
To kindred hauntings Whereupon I told	V
That once in the stillness of a summer's noon	M2
While I was seated in a rocky cave	N2
By the sea side perusing so it chanced	V
The famous history of the errant knight	V
Recorded by Cervantes these same thoughts	O2
Beset me and to height unusual rose	F
While listlessly I sate and having closed	V
The book had turned my eyes toward the wide sea	G
On poetry and geometric truth	F2
And their high privilege of lasting life	T
From all internal injury exempt	V
I mused upon these chiefly and at length	P2
My senses yielding to the sultry air	D2
Sleep seized me and I passed into a dream	Q2
I saw before me stretched a boundless plain	R2
Of sandy wilderness all black and void	V
And as I looked around distress and fear	S2
Came creeping over me when at my side	V
Close at my side an uncouth shape appeared	V
Upon a dromedary mounted high	T2
He seemed an Arab of the Bedouin tribes	U2
A lance he bore and underneath one arm	V2
A stone and in the opposite hand a shell	W2
Of a surpassing brightness At the sight	V
Much I rejoiced not doubting but a guide	V
Was present one who with unerring skill	X2
Would through the desert lead me and while yet	V
I looked and looked self questioned what this freight	V
Which the new comer carried through the waste	V
Could mean the Arab told me that the stone	K2
To give it in the language of the dream	Q2
Was Euclid's Elements and This said he	G
Is something of more worth and at the word	V
Stretched forth the shell so beautiful in shape	Y2
In colour so resplendent with command	V
That I should hold it to my ear I did so	Z2
And heard that instant in an unknown tongue	A3
Which yet I understood articulate sounds	B3
A loud prophetic blast of harmony	G
An Ode in passion uttered which foretold	V
Destruction to the children of the earth	X
By deluge now at hand No sooner ceased	V
The song than the Arab with calm look declared	V
That all would come to pass of which the voice	C3
Had given forewarning and that he himself	S
Was going then to bury those two books	A
The one that held acquaintance with the stars	D3
And wedded soul to soul in purest bond	V
Of reason undisturbed by space or time	Q
The other that was a god yea many gods	E3
Had voices more than all the winds with power	D
To exhilarate the spirit and to soothe	F3
Through every clime the heart of human kind	V
While this was uttering strange as it may seem	Q2
I wondered not although I plainly saw	G3
The one to be a stone the other a shell	W2
Nor doubted once but that they both were books	A
Having a perfect faith in all that passed	V
Far stronger now grew the desire I felt	V
To cleave unto this man but when I prayed	V
To share his enterprise he hurried on	J2
Reckless of me I followed not unseen	H3
For oftentimes he cast a backward look	I3
Grasping his twofold treasure Lance in rest	V
He rode I keeping pace with him and now	J3
He to my fancy had become the knight	V
Whose tale Cervantes tells yet not the knight	V
But was an Arab of the desert too	V
Of these was neither and was both at once	K3
His countenance meanwhile grew more disturbed	V
And looking backwards when he looked mine eyes	J
Saw over half the wilderness diffused	V
A bed of glittering light I asked the cause	L3
It is said he the waters of the deep	C
Gathering upon us quickening then the pace	M3
Of the unwieldy creature he bestrode	V
He left me I called after him aloud	V
He heeded not but with his twofold charge	N3
Still in his grasp before me full in view	V
Went hurrying o'er the illimitable waste	V
With the fleet waters of a drowning world	V
In chase of him whereat I waked in terror	D
And saw the sea before me and the book	I3
In which I had been reading at my side	V
	-
Full often taking from the world of sleep	C
This Arab phantom which I thus beheld	V
This semi Quixote I to him have given	N
A substance fancied him a living man	E
A gentle dweller in the desert crazed	V
By love and feeling and internal thought	V
Protracted among endless solitudes	M3
Have shaped him wandering upon this quest	V
Nor have I pitied him but rather felt	V
Reverence was due to a being thus employed	V
And thought that in the blind and awful lair	D2
Of such a madness reason did lie couched	V
Enow there are on earth to take in charge	N3
Their wives their children and their virgin loves	M3
Or whatsoever else the heart holds dear	S2
Enow to stir for these yea will I say	M3
Contemplating in soberness the approach	O3
Of an event so dire by signs in earth	X
Or heaven made manifest that I could share	D2
That maniac's fond anxiety and go	Z2
Upon like errand Oftentimes at least	V
Me hath such strong entrancement overcome	P3
When I have held a volume in my hand	V
Poor earthly casket of immortal verse	M3
Shakespeare or Milton labourers divine	H
	-
Great and benign indeed must be the power	D
Of living nature which could thus so long	Q3
Detain me from the best of other guides	M3
And dearest helpers left unthanked unpraised	V
Even in the time of lisping infancy	M3
And later down in prattling childhood even	R3
While I was travelling back among those days	M3
How could I ever play an ingrate's part	V
Once more should I have made those bowers resound	V
By intermingling strains of thankfulness	M3
With their own thoughtless melodies at least	V
It might have well beseemed me to repeat	V
Some simply fashioned tale to tell again	H2
In slender accents of sweet verse some tale	L2
That did bewitch me then and soothes me now	J3
O Friend O Poet brother of my soul	S3
Think not that I could pass along untouched	V
By these remembrances Yet wherefore speak	T3
Why call upon a few weak words to say	M3
What is already written in the hearts	M3
Of all that breathe what in the path of all	U3
Drops daily from the tongue of every child	V
Wherever man is found The trickling tear	D2
Upon the cheek of listening Infancy	M3
Proclaims it and the insuperable look	I3
That drinks as if it never could be full	V3
	-
That portion of my story I shall leave	W3
There registered whatever else of power	D
Or pleasure sown or fostered thus may be	M3
Peculiar to myself let that remain	R2
Where still it works though hidden from all search	X3
Among the depths of time Yet is it just	V
That here in memory of all books which lay	M3
Their sure foundations in the heart of man	E
Whether by native prose or numerous verse	M3
That in the name of all inspired souls	M3
From Homer the great Thunderer from the voice	M3
That roars along the bed of Jewish song	Q3
And that more varied and elaborate	V
Those trumpet tones of harmony that shake	Y3
Our shores in England from those loftiest notes	M3
Down to the low and wren like warblings made	V
For cottagers and spinners at the wheel	U
And sun burnt travellers resting their tired limbs	M3
Stretched under wayside hedge rows ballad tunes	M3
Food for the hungry ears of little ones	M3
And of old men who have survived their joys	M3
'Tis just that in behalf of these the works	M3
And of the men that framed them whether known	K2
Or sleeping nameless in their scattered graves	M3
That I should here assert their rights attest	V
Their honours and should once for all pronounce	M3
Their benediction speak of them as Powers	M3
For ever to be hallowed only less	M3
For what we are and what we may become	P3
Than Nature's self which is the breath of God	V
Or His pure Word by miracle revealed	V
	-
Rarely and with reluctance would I stoop	Z3
To transitory themes yet I rejoice	M3
And by these thoughts admonished will pour out	V
Thanks with uplifted heart that I was reared	V
Safe from an evil which these days have laid	V
Upon the children of the land a pest	V
That might have dried me up body and soul	S3
This verse is dedicate to Nature's self	S
And things that teach as Nature teaches then	H2
Oh where had been the Man the Poet where	D2
Where had we been we two beloved Friend	V
If in the season of unperilous choice	M3
In lieu of wandering as we did through vales	M3
Rich with indigenous produce open ground	V
Of Fancy happy pastures ranged at will	X2
We had been followed hourly watched and noosed	V
Each in his several melancholy walk	A4
Stringed like a poor man's heifer at its feed	V
Led through the lanes in forlorn servitude	V
Or rather like a stalled ox debarred	V
From touch of growing grass that may not taste	V
A flower till it have yielded up its sweets	M3
A prelibation to the mower's scythe	B4
	-
Behold the parent hen amid her brood	V
Though fledged and feathered and well pleased to part	V
And straggle from her presence still a brood	V
And she herself from the maternal bond	V
Still undischarged yet doth she little more	C4
Than move with them in tenderness and love	D4
A centre to the circle which they make	Y3
And now and then alike from need of theirs	M3
And call of her own natural appetites	M3
She scratches ransacks up the earth for food	V
Which they partake at pleasure Early died	V
My honoured Mother she who was the heart	V
And hinge of all our learnings and our loves	M3
She left us destitute and as we might	V
Trooping together Little suits it me	M3
To break upon the sabbath of her rest	V
With any thought that looks at others' blame	E4
Nor would I praise her but in perfect love	D4
Hence am I checked but let me boldly say	M3
In gratitude and for the sake of truth	F2
Unheard by her that she not falsely taught	V
Fetching her goodness rather from times past	V
Than shaping novelties for times to come	P3
Had no presumption no such jealousy	M3
Nor did by habit of her thoughts mistrust	V
Our nature but had virtual faith that He	M3
Who fills the mother's breast with innocent milk	F4
Doth also for our nobler part provide	V
Under His great correction and control	S3
As innocent instincts and as innocent food	V
Or draws for minds that are left free to trust	V
In the simplicities of opening life	T
Sweet honey out of spurned or dreaded weeds	M3
This was her creed and therefore she was pure	E2
From anxious fear of error or mishap	G4
And evil overweeningly so called	V
Was not puffed up by false unnatural hopes	M3
Nor selfish with unnecessary cares	M3
Nor with impatience from the season asked	V
More than its timely produce rather loved	V
The hours for what they are than from regard	V
Glanced on their promises in restless pride	V
Such was she not from faculties more strong	Q3
Than others have but from the times perhaps	M3
And spot in which she lived and through a grace	M3
Of modest meekness simple mindedness	M3
A heart that found benignity and hope	H4
Being itself benign	H
My drift I fear	S2
Is scarcely obvious but that common sense	M3
May try this modern system by its fruits	M3
Leave let me take to place before her sight	V
A specimen pourtrayed with faithful hand	V
Full early trained to worship seemliness	M3
This model of a child is never known	K2
To mix in quarrels that were far beneath	I4
Its dignity with gifts he bubbles o'er	D
As generous as a fountain selfishness	M3
May not come near him nor the little throng	Q3
Of flitting pleasures tempt him from his path	J4
The wandering beggars propagate his name	E4
Dumb creatures find him tender as a nun	N
And natural or supernatural fear	S2
Unless it leap upon him in a dream	Q2
Touches him not To enhance the wonder see	M3
How arch his notices how nice his sense	M3
Of the ridiculous not blind is he	M3
To the broad follies of the licensed world	V
Yet innocent himself withal though shrewd	V
And can read lectures upon innocence	M3
A miracle of scientific lore	C4
Ships he can guide across the pathless sea	M3
And tell you all their cunning he can read	V
The inside of the earth and spell the stars	M3
He knows the policies of foreign lands	M3
Can string you names of districts cities towns	M3
The whole world over tight as beads of dew	V
Upon a gossamer thread he sifts he weighs	M3
All things are put to question he must live	Z
Knowing that he grows wiser every day	M3
Or else not live at all and seeing too	V
Each little drop of wisdom as it falls	M3
Into the dimpling cistern of his heart	V
For this unnatural growth the trainer blame	E4
Pity the tree Poor human vanity	M3
Wert thou extinguished little would be left	V
Which he could truly love but how escape	Y2
For ever as a thought of purer birth	X
Rises to lead him toward a better clime	E4
Some intermeddler still is on the watch	K4
To drive him back and pound him like a stray	M3
Within the pinfold of his own conceit	V
Meanwhile old grandame earth is grieved to find	V
The playthings which her love designed for him	E4
Unthought of in their woodland beds the flowers	M3
Weep and the river sides are all forlorn	L4
Oh give us once again the wishing cap	G4
Of Fortunatus and the invisible coat	V
Of Jack the Giant killer Robin Hood	V
And Sabra in the forest with St George	M4
The child whose love is here at least doth reap	C
One precious gain that he forgets himself	S
	-
These mighty workmen of our later age	G2
Who with a broad highway have overbridged	V
The froward chaos of futurity	V
Tamed to their bidding they who have the skill	X2
To manage books and things and make them act	V
On infant minds as surely as the sun	N
Deals with a flower the keepers of our time	E4
The guides and wardens of our faculties	M3
Sages who in their prescience would control	S3
All accidents and to the very road	V
Which they have fashioned would confine us down	N4
Like engines when will their presumption learn	O4
That in the unreasoning progress of the world	V
A wiser spirit is at work for us	M3
A better eye than theirs most prodigal	P4
Of blessings and most studious of our good	V
Even in what seem our most unfruitful hours	M3
	-
There was a Boy ye knew him well ye cliffs	M3
And islands of Winander many a time	E4
At evening when the earliest stars began	E
To move along the edges of the hills	M3
Rising or setting would he stand alone	K2
Beneath the trees or by the glimmering lake	Y3
	-
And there with fingers interwoven both hands	M3
Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth	Q4
Uplifted he as through an instrument	V
Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls	M3
That they might answer him and they would shout	V
Across the watery vale and shout again	H2
Responsive to his call with quivering peals	M3
And long halloos and screams and echoes loud	V
Redoubled and redoubled concourse wild	V
Of jocund din and when a lengthened pause	M3
Of silence came and baffled his best skill	X2
Then sometimes in that silence while he hung	A3
Listening a gentle shock of mild surprise	M3
Has carried far into his heart the voice	M3
Of mountain torrents or the visible scene	H3
Would enter unawares into his mind	V
With all its solemn imagery its rocks	M3
Its woods and that uncertain heaven received	V
Into the bosom of the steady lake	Y3
	-
This Boy was taken from his mates and died	V
In childhood ere he was full twelve years old	V
Fair is the spot most beautiful the vale	L2
Where he was born the grassy churchyard hangs	M3
Upon a slope above the village school	R4
And through that churchyard when my way has led	V
On summer evenings I believe that there	D2
A long half hour together I have stood	V
Mute looking at the grave in which he lies	M3
Even now appears before the mind's clear eye	T2
That self same village church I see her sit	V
The throned Lady whom erewhile we hailed	V
On her green hill forgetful of this Boy	S4
Who slumbers at her feet forgetful too	V
Of all her silent neighbourhood of graves	M3
And listening only to the gladsome sounds	M3
That from the rural school ascending play	M3
Beneath her and about her May she long	Q3
Behold a race of young ones like to those	M3
With whom I herded easily indeed	V
We might have fed upon a fatter soil	T4
Of arts and letters but be that forgiven	N
A race of real children not too wise	M3
Too learned or too good but wanton fresh	U4
And bandied up and down by love and hate	V
Not unresentful where self justified	V
Fierce moody patient venturous modest shy	T2
Mad at their sports like withered leaves in winds	M3
Though doing wrong and suffering and full oft	V
Bending beneath our life's mysterious weight	V
Of pain and doubt and fear yet yielding not	V
In happiness to the happiest upon earth	X
Simplicity in habit truth in speech	V4
Be these the daily strengtheners of their minds	M3
May books and Nature be their early joy	S4
And knowledge rightly honoured with that name	E4
Knowledge not purchased by the loss of power	D
	-
Well do I call to mind the very week	T3
When I was first intrusted to the care	D2
Of that sweet Valley when its paths its shores	M3
And brooks were like a dream of novelty	V
To my half infant thoughts that very week	T3
While I was roving up and down alone	K2
Seeking I knew not what I chanced to cross	M3
One of those open fields which shaped like ears	M3
Make green peninsulas on Esthwaite's Lake	Y3
Twilight was coming on yet through the gloom	E4
Appeared distinctly on the opposite shore	C4
A heap of garments as if left by one	N
Who might have there been bathing Long I watched	V
But no one owned them meanwhile the calm lake	Y3
Grew dark with all the shadows on its breast	V
And now and then a fish up leaping snapped	V
The breathless stillness The succeeding day	M3
Those unclaimed garments telling a plain tale	L2
Drew to the spot an anxious crowd some looked	V
In passive expectation from the shore	C4
While from a boat others hung o'er the deep	C
Sounding with grappling irons and long poles	M3
At last the dead man 'mid that beauteous scene	H3
Of trees and hills and water bolt upright	V
Rose with his ghastly face a spectre shape	Y2
Of terror yet no soul debasing fear	S2
Young as I was a child not nine years old	V
Possessed me for my inner eye had seen	H3
Such sights before among the shining streams	M3
Of faery land the forest of romance	M3
Their spirit hallowed the sad spectacle	P4
With decoration of ideal grace	M3
A dignity a smoothness like the works	M3
Of Grecian art and purest poesy	M3
	-
A precious treasure had I long possessed	V
A little yellow canvas covered book	I3
A slender abstract of the Arabian tales	M3
And from companions in a new abode	V
When first I learnt that this dear prize of mine	H
Was but a block hewn from a mighty quarry	V
That there were four large volumes laden all	U3
With kindred matter 'twas to me in truth	F2
A promise scarcely earthly Instantly	V
With one not richer than myself I made	V
A covenant that each should lay aside	V
The moneys he possessed and hoard up more	C4
Till our joint savings had amassed enough	W4
To make this book our own Through several months	M3
In spite of all temptation we preserved	V
Religiously that vow but firmness failed	V
Nor were we ever masters of our wish	X4
	-
And when thereafter to my father's house	M3
The holidays returned me there to find	V
That golden store of books which I had left	V
What joy was mine How often in the course	M3
Of those glad respites though a soft west wind	V
Ruffled the waters to the angler's wish	X4
For a whole day together have I lain	R2
Down by thy side O Derwent murmuring stream	E4
On the hot stones and in the glaring sun	N
And there have read devouring as I read	V
Defrauding the day's glory desperate	V
Till with a sudden bound of smart reproach	O3
Such as an idler deals with in his shame	E4
I to the sport betook myself again	H2
	-
A gracious spirit o'er this earth presides	M3
And o'er the heart of man invisibly	V
It comes to works of unreproved delight	V
And tendency benign directing those	M3
Who care not know not think not what they do	V
The tales that charm away the wakeful night	V
In Araby romances legends penned	V
For solace by dim light of monkish lamps	M3
Fictions for ladies of their love devised	V
By youthful squires adventures endless spun	N
By the dismantled warrior in old age	G2
Out of the bowels of those very schemes	M3
In which his youth did first extravagate	V
These spread like day and something in the shape	Y2
Of these will live till man shall be no more	C4
Dumb yearnings hidden appetites are ours	M3
And 'they must' have their food Our childhood sits	M3
Our simple childhood sits upon a throne	K2
That hath more power than all the elements	M3
I guess not what this tells of Being past	V
Nor what it augurs of the life to come	E4
But so it is and in that dubious hour	D
That twilight when we first begin to see	V
This dawning earth to recognise expect	V
And in the long probation that ensues	M3
The time of trial ere we learn to live	Z
In reconcilement with our stinted powers	M3
To endure this state of meagre vassalage	G2
Unwilling to forego confess submit	V
Uneasy and unsettled yoke fellows	M3
To custom mettlesome and not yet tamed	V
And humbled down oh then we feel we feel	V
We know where we have friends Ye dreamers then	H2
Forgers of daring tales we bless you then	H2
Impostors drivellers dotards as the ape	Y2
Philosophy will call you 'then' we feel	V
With what and how great might ye are in league	Y4
Who make our wish our power our thought a deed	V
An empire a possession ye whom time	E4
And seasons serve all Faculties to whom	E4
Earth crouches the elements are potter's clay	V
Space like a heaven filled up with northern lights	M3
Here nowhere there and everywhere at once	M3
	-
Relinquishing this lofty eminence	M3
For ground though humbler not the less a tract	V
Of the same isthmus which our spirits cross	M3
In progress from their native continent	V
To earth and human life the Song might dwell	V
On that delightful time of growing youth	F2
When craving for the marvellous gives way	V
To strengthening love for things that we have seen	H3
When sober truth and steady sympathies	M3
Offered to notice by less daring pens	M3
Take firmer hold of us and words themselves	M3
Move us with conscious pleasure	D
I am sad	V
At thought of rapture now for ever flown	K2
Almost to tears I sometimes could be sad	V
To think of to read over many a page	G2
Poems withal of name which at that time	E4
Did never fail to entrance me and are now	J3
Dead in my eyes dead as a theatre	D
Fresh emptied of spectators Twice five years	M3
Or less I might have seen when first my mind	V
With conscious pleasure opened to the charm	E4
Of words in tuneful order found them sweet	V
For their own 'sakes' a passion and a power	D
And phrases pleased me chosen for delight	V
For pomp or love Oft in the public roads	M3
Yet unfrequented while the morning light	V
Was yellowing the hill tops I went abroad	V
With a dear friend and for the better part	V
Of two delightful hours we strolled along	Q3
By the still borders of the misty lake	Y3
Repeating favourite verses with one voice	M3
Or conning more as happy as the birds	M3
That round us chaunted Well might we be glad	V
Lifted above the ground by airy fancies	M3
More bright than madness or the dreams of wine	H
And though full oft the objects of our love	D4
Were false and in their splendour overwrought	V
Yet was there surely then no vulgar power	D
Working within us nothing less in truth	F2
Than that most noble attribute of man	E
Though yet untutored and inordinate	V
That wish for something loftier more adorned	V
Than is the common aspect daily garb	Z4
Of human life What wonder then if sounds	M3
Of exultation echoed through the groves	M3
For images and sentiments and words	M3
And everything encountered or pursued	V
In that delicious world of poesy	M3
Kept holiday a never ending show	Z2
With music incense festival and flowers	M3
	-
Here must we pause this only let me add	V
From heart experience and in humblest sense	M3
Of modesty that he who in his youth	F2
A daily wanderer among woods and fields	M3
With living Nature hath been intimate	V
Not only in that raw unpractised time	E4
Is stirred to ecstasy as others are
By glittering verse but further doth receive	W3
In measure only dealt out to himself	S
Knowledge and increase of enduring joy	G2
From the great Nature that exists in works	M3
Of mighty Poets Visionary power	D
Attends the motions of the viewless winds	M3
Embodied in the mystery of words	M3
There darkness makes abode and all the host	V
Of shadowy things work endless changes there	D2
As in a mansion like their proper home	E4
Even forms and substances are circumfused	V
By that transparent veil with light divine	H
And through the turnings intricate of verse	M3
Present themselves as objects recognised	V
In flashes and with glory not their own	K2

William Wordsworth

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