The Prelude - Book First Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGHIJKLMNOIPQRHS TUIVWXYZA2B2 KC2D2E2F2FIG2H2I2J2K 2L2EM2 N2O2P2Q2R2S2T2U2V2W2 X2G2F Y2Z2A3B3C3D3UD2UE3LF 3G3YH3I3J3K3L3M3D2N3 Z2O3P3Q3X2D2RQQY2R3L 3KS3QT3QU3V3QQQW3AX3 Y3Z3WDQQA4K3B4S2P3QA 3WB4B4A3QQC4QQQMB4Q P3B4QB4B4D4E4QF4QZ2B 4QO2 G4TQMS3QB4QB4B4H4B4B 4I4B4B4J2QRB4A2B4QJ4 B4K4QQB4FB4QG4WB4QQA 3H4B4QQS2L4B4M4B4B4A 3D2H4B4S2QQB4QN4B4H4 B4B4B4B4QQQB4S2G4B4B 4B4H4B4QE2B4M4B4QW3B 4O2WO4B4G4P4QQQQG4QB 4H4B4Q4R4S4ESA3QB4QQ H4S2T4G4RQB4QMQTB4B4 U4QV4B4QO2B4B4R4B4B4 B4B4QW4B4 QB4QQX4QQMH4R QB4H4QE4A4QQG4 P3G4B4X4B4QB4QC2X4D2 QQB4E4B4H4G4QH4D2B4B 4B4Q H4QK3QX4B4X4QK3AK3QX 4B4 B4X4B4G4H4B4QQP3X4QC 2B4QB4B4S2 QB4Y4K3A3B4K3QK3X4B4 QZ4F4X4C2X4QK3K3QK3C 2K3X4QH4B4X4U4K3K3B4 B4QB4B4B4T4QB4 B4QA3K3K3B4C2K3B4B4Q K3B4QB4B4QB4B4X4QK3Q X4 K3C2L4AB4QQB4C2B4B4K 3G4C2K3QX4B4QB4QH4QC 2X4G4QB4QQC2B4B4B4QQ K3QO4 X4B4X4QG4B4B4B4X4A3G 4B4QG4Q K3B4C2QB4B4K3X4K3G4B 4B4G4QB4B4G4B4B4 QB4G4B4QB4K3QG4QC2G4 QB4C2H4K3QX4QK3C2B4A 3QB4C2B4K3QK3K3B4H4Q QQA3S2B4TQB4K3 B4QG4QB4QAB4K3QX4QB4 QC2 A3QK3B4G4B4K3B4 B4C2QB4K3B4C2QB4QX4Q QB4 C2B4B4QQA3B4C2B4QK3Q B4O4A3QQB4C2B4X4B4G4 B4B4Y2QB4FB4B4B4K3QB 4X4B4QQC2B4QG4G4B4QK 3QB4QB4WB4X4 QQK3WMB4X4QQB4Q

INTRODUCTION CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL TIME	A
	-
Oh there is blessing in this gentle breeze	B
A visitant that while it fans my cheek	C
Doth seem half conscious of the joy it brings	D
From the green fields and from yon azure sky	E
Whate'er its mission the soft breeze can come	F
To none more grateful than to me escaped	G
From the vast city where I long had pined	H
A discontented sojourner now free	I
Free as a bird to settle where I will	J
What dwelling shall receive me in what vale	K
Shall be my harbour underneath what grove	L
Shall I take up my home and what clear stream	M
Shall with its murmur lull me into rest	N
The earth is all before me With a heart	O
Joyous nor scared at its own liberty	I
I look about and should the chosen guide	P
Be nothing better than a wandering cloud	Q
I cannot miss my way I breathe again	R
Trances of thought and mountings of the mind	H
Come fast upon me it is shaken off	S
That burthen of my own unnatural self	T
The heavy weight of many a weary day	U
Not mine and such as were not made for me	I
Long months of peace if such bold word accord	V
With any promises of human life	W
Long months of ease and undisturbed delight	X
Are mine in prospect whither shall I turn	Y
By road or pathway or through trackless field	Z
Up hill or down or shall some floating thing	A2
Upon the river point me out my course	B2
	-
Dear Liberty Yet what would it avail	K
But for a gift that consecrates the joy	C2
For I methought while the sweet breath of heaven	D2
Was blowing on my body felt within	E2
A correspondent breeze that gently moved	F2
With quickening virtue but is now become	F
A tempest a redundant energy	I
Vexing its own creation Thanks to both	G2
And their congenial powers that while they join	H2
In breaking up a long continued frost	I2
Bring with them vernal promises the hope	J2
Of active days urged on by flying hours	K2
Days of sweet leisure taxed with patient thought	L2
Abstruse nor wanting punctual service high	E
Matins and vespers of harmonious verse	M2
	-
Thus far O Friend did I not used to make	N2
A present joy the matter of a song	O2
Pour forth that day my soul in measured strains	P2
That would not be forgotten and are here	Q2
Recorded to the open fields I told	R2
A prophecy poetic numbers came	S2
Spontaneously to clothe in priestly robe	T2
A renovated spirit singled out	U2
Such hope was mine for holy services	V2
My own voice cheered me and far more the mind's	W2
Internal echo of the imperfect sound	X2
To both I listened drawing from them both	G2
A cheerful confidence in things to come	F
	-
Content and not unwilling now to give	Y2
A respite to this passion I paced on	Z2
With brisk and eager steps and came at length	A3
To a green shady place where down I sate	B3
Beneath a tree slackening my thoughts by choice	C3
And settling into gentler happiness	D3
'Twas autumn and a clear and placid day	U
With warmth as much as needed from a sun	D2
Two hours declined towards the west a day	U
With silver clouds and sunshine on the grass	E3
And in the sheltered and the sheltering grove	L
A perfect stillness Many were the thoughts	F3
Encouraged and dismissed till choice was made	G3
Of a known Vale whither my feet should turn	Y
Nor rest till they had reached the very door	H3
Of the one cottage which methought I saw	I3
No picture of mere memory ever looked	J3
So fair and while upon the fancied scene	K3
I gazed with growing love a higher power	L3
Than Fancy gave assurance of some work	M3
Of glory there forthwith to be begun	D2
Perhaps too there performed Thus long I mused	N3
Nor e'er lost sight of what I mused upon	Z2
Save when amid the stately grove of oaks	O3
Now here now there an acorn from its cup	P3
Dislodged through sere leaves rustled or at once	Q3
To the bare earth dropped with a startling sound	X2
From that soft couch I rose not till the sun	D2
Had almost touched the horizon casting then	R
A backward glance upon the curling cloud	Q
Of city smoke by distance ruralised	Q
Keen as a Truant or a Fugitive	Y2
But as a Pilgrim resolute I took	R3
Even with the chance equipment of that hour	L3
The road that pointed toward the chosen Vale	K
It was a splendid evening and my soul	S3
Once more made trial of her strength nor lacked	Q
Aeolian visitations but the harp	T3
Was soon defrauded and the banded host	Q
Of harmony dispersed in straggling sounds	U3
And lastly utter silence Be it so	V3
Why think of anything but present good	Q
So like a home bound labourer I pursued	Q
My way beneath the mellowing sun that shed	Q
Mild influence nor left in me one wish	W3
Again to bend the Sabbath of that time	A
To a servile yoke What need of many words	X3
A pleasant loitering journey through three days	Y3
Continued brought me to my hermitage	Z3
I spare to tell of what ensued the life	W
In common things the endless store of things	D
Rare or at least so seeming every day	Q
Found all about me in one neighbourhood	Q
The self congratulation and from morn	A4
To night unbroken cheerfulness serene	K3
But speedily an earnest longing rose	B4
To brace myself to some determined aim	S2
Reading or thinking either to lay up	P3
New stores or rescue from decay the old	Q
By timely interference and therewith	A3
Came hopes still higher that with outward life	W
I might endue some airy phantasies	B4
That had been floating loose about for years	B4
And to such beings temperately deal forth	A3
The many feelings that oppressed my heart	Q
That hope hath been discouraged welcome light	Q
Dawns from the east but dawns to disappear	C4
And mock me with a sky that ripens not	Q
Into a steady morning if my mind	Q
Remembering the bold promise of the past	Q
Would gladly grapple with some noble theme	M
Vain is her wish where'er she turns she finds	B4
Impediments from day to day renewed	Q
	-
And now it would content me to yield up	P3
Those lofty hopes awhile for present gifts	B4
Of humbler industry But oh dear Friend	Q
The Poet gentle creature as he is	B4
Hath like the Lover his unruly times	B4
His fits when he is neither sick nor well	D4
Though no distress be near him but his own	E4
Unmanageable thoughts his mind best pleased	Q
While she as duteous as the mother dove	F4
Sits brooding lives not always to that end	Q
But like the innocent bird hath goadings on	Z2
That drive her as in trouble through the groves	B4
With me is now such passion to be blamed	Q
No otherwise than as it lasts too long	O2
	-
When as becomes a man who would prepare	G4
For such an arduous work I through myself	T
Make rigorous inquisition the report	Q
Is often cheering for I neither seem	M
To lack that first great gift the vital soul	S3
Nor general Truths which are themselves a sort	Q
Of Elements and Agents Under powers	B4
Subordinate helpers of the living mind	Q
Nor am I naked of external things	B4
Forms images nor numerous other aids	B4
Of less regard though won perhaps with toil	H4
And needful to build up a Poet's praise	B4
Time place and manners do I seek and these	B4
Are found in plenteous store but nowhere such	I4
As may be singled out with steady choice	B4
No little band of yet remembered names	B4
Whom I in perfect confidence might hope	J2
To summon back from lonesome banishment	Q
And make them dwellers in the hearts of men	R
Now living or to live in future years	B4
Sometimes the ambitious Power of choice mistaking	A2
Proud spring tide swellings for a regular sea	B4
Will settle on some British theme some old	Q
Romantic tale by Milton left unsung	J4
More often turning to some gentle place	B4
Within the groves of Chivalry I pipe	K4
To shepherd swains or seated harp in hand	Q
Amid reposing knights by a river side	Q
Or fountain listen to the grave reports	B4
Of dire enchantments faced and overcome	F
By the strong mind and tales of warlike feats	B4
Where spear encountered spear and sword with sword	Q
Fought as if conscious of the blazonry	G4
That the shield bore so glorious was the strife	W
Whence inspiration for a song that winds	B4
Through ever changing scenes of votive quest	Q
Wrongs to redress harmonious tribute paid	Q
To patient courage and unblemished truth	A3
To firm devotion zeal unquenchable	H4
And Christian meekness hallowing faithful loves	B4
Sometimes more sternly moved I would relate	Q
How vanquished Mithridates northward passed	Q
And hidden in the cloud of years became	S2
Odin the Father of a race by whom	L4
Perished the Roman Empire how the friends	B4
And followers of Sertorius out of Spain	M4
Flying found shelter in the Fortunate Isles	B4
And left their usages their arts and laws	B4
To disappear by a slow gradual death	A3
To dwindle and to perish one by one	D2
Starved in those narrow bounds but not the soul	H4
Of Liberty which fifteen hundred years	B4
Survived and when the European came	S2
With skill and power that might not be withstood	Q
Did like a pestilence maintain its hold	Q
And wasted down by glorious death that race	B4
Of natural heroes or I would record	Q
How in tyrannic times some high souled man	N4
Unnamed among the chronicles of kings	B4
Suffered in silence for Truth's sake or tell	H4
How that one Frenchman through continued force	B4
Of meditation on the inhuman deeds	B4
Of those who conquered first the Indian Isles	B4
Went single in his ministry across	B4
The Ocean not to comfort the oppressed	Q
But like a thirsty wind to roam about	Q
Withering the Oppressor how Gustavus sought	Q
Help at his need in Dalecarlia's mines	B4
How Wallace fought for Scotland left the name	S2
Of Wallace to be found like a wild flower	G4
All over his dear Country left the deeds	B4
Of Wallace like a family of Ghosts	B4
To people the steep rocks and river banks	B4
Her natural sanctuaries with a local soul	H4
Of independence and stern liberty	B4
Sometimes it suits me better to invent	Q
A tale from my own heart more near akin	E2
To my own passions and habitual thoughts	B4
Some variegated story in the main	M4
Lofty but the unsubstantial structure melts	B4
Before the very sun that brightens it	Q
Mist into air dissolving Then a wish	W3
My last and favourite aspiration mounts	B4
With yearning toward some philosophic song	O2
Of Truth that cherishes our daily life	W
With meditations passionate from deep	O4
Recesses in man's heart immortal verse	B4
Thoughtfully fitted to the Orphean lyre	G4
But from this awful burthen I full soon	P4
Take refuge and beguile myself with trust	Q
That mellower years will bring a riper mind	Q
And clearer insight Thus my days are past	Q
In contradiction with no skill to part	Q
Vague longing haply bred by want of power	G4
From paramount impulse not to be withstood	Q
A timorous capacity from prudence	B4
From circumspection infinite delay	H4
Humility and modest awe themselves	B4
Betray me serving often for a cloak	Q4
To a more subtle selfishness that now	R4
Locks every function up in blank reserve	S4
Now dupes me trusting to an anxious eye	E
That with intrusive restlessness beats off	S
Simplicity and self presented truth	A3
Ah better far than this to stray about	Q
Voluptuously through fields and rural walks	B4
And ask no record of the hours resigned	Q
To vacant musing unreproved neglect	Q
Of all things and deliberate holiday	H4
Far better never to have heard the name	S2
Of zeal and just ambition than to live	T4
Baffled and plagued by a mind that every hour	G4
Turns recreant to her task takes heart again	R
Then feels immediately some hollow thought	Q
Hang like an interdict upon her hopes	B4
This is my lot for either still I find	Q
Some imperfection in the chosen theme	M
Or see of absolute accomplishment	Q
Much wanting so much wanting in myself	T
That I recoil and droop and seek repose	B4
In listlessness from vain perplexity	B4
Unprofitably travelling toward the grave	U4
Like a false steward who hath much received	Q
And renders nothing back	V4
Was it for this	B4
That one the fairest of all rivers loved	Q
To blend his murmurs with my nurse's song	O2
And from his alder shades and rocky falls	B4
And from his fords and shallows sent a voice	B4
That flowed along my dreams For this didst thou	R4
O Derwent winding among grassy holms	B4
Where I was looking on a babe in arms	B4
Make ceaseless music that composed my thoughts	B4
To more than infant softness giving me	B4
Amid the fretful dwellings of mankind	Q
A foretaste a dim earnest of the calm	W4
That Nature breathes among the hills and groves	B4
	-
When he had left the mountains and received	Q
On his smooth breast the shadow of those towers	B4
That yet survive a shattered monument	Q
Of feudal sway the bright blue river passed	Q
Along the margin of our terrace walk	X4
A tempting playmate whom we dearly loved	Q
Oh many a time have I a five years' child	Q
In a small mill race severed from his stream	M
Made one long bathing of a summer's day	H4
Basked in the sun and plunged and basked again	R
	-
Alternate all a summer's day or scoured	Q
The sandy fields leaping through flowery groves	B4
Of yellow ragwort or when rock and hill	H4
The woods and distant Skiddaw's lofty height	Q
Were bronzed with deepest radiance stood alone	E4
Beneath the sky as if I had been born	A4
On Indian plains and from my mother's hut	Q
Had run abroad in wantonness to sport	Q
A naked savage in the thunder shower	G4
	-
Fair seed time had my soul and I grew up	P3
Fostered alike by beauty and by fear	G4
Much favoured in my birth place and no less	B4
In that beloved Vale to which erelong	X4
We were transplanted there were we let loose	B4
For sports of wider range Ere I had told	Q
Ten birth days when among the mountain slopes	B4
Frost and the breath of frosty wind had snapped	Q
The last autumnal crocus 'twas my joy	C2
With store of springes o'er my shoulder hung	X4
To range the open heights where woodcocks run	D2
Along the smooth green turf Through half the night	Q
Scudding away from snare to snare I plied	Q
That anxious visitation moon and stars	B4
Were shining o'er my head I was alone	E4
And seemed to be a trouble to the peace	B4
That dwelt among them Sometimes it befell	H4
In these night wanderings that a strong desire	G4
O'erpowered my better reason and the bird	Q
Which was the captive of another's toil	H4
Became my prey and when the deed was done	D2
I heard among the solitary hills	B4
Low breathings coming after me and sounds	B4
Of undistinguishable motion steps	B4
Almost as silent as the turf they trod	Q
	-
Nor less when spring had warmed the cultured Vale	H4
Moved we as plunderers where the mother bird	Q
Had in high places built her lodge though mean	K3
Our object and inglorious yet the end	Q
Was not ignoble Oh when I have hung	X4
Above the raven's nest by knots of grass	B4
And half inch fissures in the slippery rock	X4
But ill sustained and almost so it seemed	Q
Suspended by the blast that blew amain	K3
Shouldering the naked crag oh at that time	A
While on the perilous ridge I hung alone	K3
With what strange utterance did the loud dry wind	Q
Blow through my ear the sky seemed not a sky	X4
Of earth and with what motion moved the clouds	B4
	-
Dust as we are the immortal spirit grows	B4
Like harmony in music there is a dark	X4
Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles	B4
Discordant elements makes them cling together	G4
In one society How strange that all	H4
The terrors pains and early miseries	B4
Regrets vexations lassitudes interfused	Q
Within my mind should e'er have borne a part	Q
And that a needful part in making up	P3
The calm existence that is mine when I	X4
Am worthy of myself Praise to the end	Q
Thanks to the means which Nature deigned to employ	C2
Whether her fearless visitings or those	B4
That came with soft alarm like hurtless light	Q
Opening the peaceful clouds or she would use	B4
Severer interventions ministry	B4
More palpable as best might suit her aim	S2
	-
One summer evening led by her I found	Q
A little boat tied to a willow tree	B4
Within a rocky cave its usual home	Y4
Straight I unloosed her chain and stepping in	K3
Pushed from the shore It was an act of stealth	A3
And troubled pleasure nor without the voice	B4
Of mountain echoes did my boat move on	K3
Leaving behind her still on either side	Q
Small circles glittering idly in the moon	K3
Until they melted all into one track	X4
Of sparkling light But now like one who rows	B4
Proud of his skill to reach a chosen point	Q
With an unswerving line I fixed my view	Z4
Upon the summit of a craggy ridge
The horizon's utmost boundary far above	F4
Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky	X4
She was an elfin pinnace lustily	C2
I dipped my oars into the silent lake	X4
And as I rose upon the stroke my boat	Q
Went heaving through the water like a swan	K3
When from behind that craggy steep till then	K3
The horizon's bound a huge peak black and huge
As if with voluntary power instinct	Q
Upreared its head I struck and struck again	K3
And growing still in stature the grim shape
Towered up between me and the stars and still	C2
For so it seemed with purpose of its own	K3
And measured motion like a living thing	X4
Strode after me With trembling oars I turned	Q
And through the silent water stole my way	H4
Back to the covert of the willow tree	B4
There in her mooring place I left my bark	X4
And through the meadows homeward went in grave	U4
And serious mood but after I had seen	K3
That spectacle for many days my brain	K3
Worked with a dim and undetermined sense	B4
Of unknown modes of being o'er my thoughts	B4
There hung a darkness call it solitude	Q
Or blank desertion No familiar shapes	B4
Remained no pleasant images of trees	B4
Of sea or sky no colours of green fields	B4
But huge and mighty forms that do not live	T4
Like living men moved slowly through the mind	Q
By day and were a trouble to my dreams	B4
	-
Wisdom and Spirit of the universe	B4
Thou Soul that art the eternity of thought	Q
That givest to forms and images a breath	A3
And everlasting motion not in vain	K3
By day or star light thus from my first dawn	K3
Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me	B4
The passions that build up our human soul	C2
Not with the mean and vulgar works of man	K3
But with high objects with enduring things	B4
With life and nature purifying thus	B4
The elements of feeling and of thought	Q
And sanctifying by such discipline	K3
Both pain and fear until we recognise	B4
A grandeur in the beatings of the heart	Q
Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me	B4
With stinted kindness In November days	B4
When vapours rolling down the valley made	Q
A lonely scene more lonesome among woods	B4
At noon and 'mid the calm of summer nights	B4
When by the margin of the trembling lake	X4
Beneath the gloomy hills homeward I went	Q
In solitude such intercourse was mine	K3
Mine was it in the fields both day and night	Q
And by the waters all the summer long	X4
	-
And in the frosty season when the sun	K3
Was set and visible for many a mile	C2
The cottage windows blazed through twilight gloom	L4
I heeded not their summons happy time	A
It was indeed for all of us for me	B4
It was a time of rapture Clear and loud	Q
The village clock tolled six I wheeled about	Q
Proud and exulting like an untired horse	B4
That cares not for his home All shod with steel	C2
We hissed along the polished ice in games	B4
Confederate imitative of the chase	B4
And woodland pleasures the resounding horn	K3
The pack loud chiming and the hunted hare	G4
So through the darkness and the cold we flew	C2
And not a voice was idle with the din	K3
Smitten the precipices rang aloud	Q
The leafless trees and every icy crag	X4
Tinkled like iron while far distant hills	B4
Into the tumult sent an alien sound	Q
Of melancholy not unnoticed while the stars	B4
Eastward were sparkling clear and in the west	Q
The orange sky of evening died away	H4
Not seldom from the uproar I retired	Q
Into a silent bay or sportively	C2
Glanced sideway leaving the tumultuous throng	X4
To cut across the reflex of a star	G4
That fled and flying still before me gleamed	Q
Upon the glassy plain and oftentimes	B4
When we had given our bodies to the wind	Q
And all the shadowy banks on either side	Q
Came sweeping through the darkness spinning still	C2
The rapid line of motion then at once	B4
Have I reclining back upon my heels	B4
Stopped short yet still the solitary cliffs	B4
Wheeled by me even as if the earth had rolled	Q
With visible motion her diurnal round	Q
Behind me did they stretch in solemn train	K3
Feebler and feebler and I stood and watched	Q
Till all was tranquil as a dreamless sleep	O4
	-
Ye Presences of Nature in the sky	X4
And on the earth Ye Visions of the hills	B4
And Souls of lonely places can I think	X4
A vulgar hope was yours when ye employed	Q
Such ministry when ye through many a year	G4
Haunting me thus among my boyish sports	B4
On caves and trees upon the woods and hills	B4
Impressed upon all forms the characters	B4
Of danger or desire and thus did make	X4
The surface of the universal earth	A3
With triumph and delight with hope and fear	G4
Work like a sea	B4
Not uselessly employed	Q
Might I pursue this theme through every change
Of exercise and play to which the year	G4
Did summon us in his delightful round	Q
	-
We were a noisy crew the sun in heaven	K3
Beheld not vales more beautiful than ours	B4
Nor saw a band in happiness and joy	C2
Richer or worthier of the ground they trod	Q
I could record with no reluctant voice	B4
The woods of autumn and their hazel bowers	B4
With milk white clusters hung the rod and line	K3
True symbol of hope's foolishness whose strong	X4
And unreproved enchantment led us on	K3
By rocks and pools shut out from every star	G4
All the green summer to forlorn cascades	B4
Among the windings hid of mountain brooks	B4
Unfading recollections at this hour	G4
The heart is almost mine with which I felt	Q
From some hill top on sunny afternoons	B4
The paper kite high among fleecy clouds	B4
Pull at her rein like an impetuous courser	G4
Or from the meadows sent on gusty days	B4
Beheld her breast the wind then suddenly	B4
Dashed headlong and rejected by the storm
	-
Ye lowly cottages wherein we dwelt	Q
A ministration of your own was yours	B4
Can I forget you being as you were	G4
So beautiful among the pleasant fields	B4
In which ye stood or can I here forget	Q
The plain and seemly countenance with which
Ye dealt out your plain comforts Yet had ye	B4
Delights and exultations of your own	K3
Eager and never weary we pursued	Q
Our home amusements by the warm peat fire	G4
At evening when with pencil and smooth slate	Q
In square divisions parcelled out and all	C2
With crosses and with cyphers scribbled o'er	G4
We schemed and puzzled head opposed to head	Q
In strife too humble to be named in verse	B4
Or round the naked table snow white deal	C2
Cherry or maple sate in close array	H4
And to the combat Loo or Whist led on	K3
A thick ribbed army not as in the world	Q
Neglected and ungratefully thrown by	X4
Even for the very service they had wrought	Q
But husbanded through many a long campaign	K3
Uncouth assemblage was it where no few	C2
Had changed their functions some plebeian cards	B4
Which Fate beyond the promise of their birth	A3
Had dignified and called to represent	Q
The persons of departed potentates	B4
Oh with what echoes on the board they fell	C2
Ironic diamonds clubs hearts diamonds spades	B4
A congregation piteously akin	K3
Cheap matter offered they to boyish wit	Q
Those sooty knaves precipitated down	K3
With scoffs and taunts like Vulcan out of heaven	K3
The paramount ace a moon in her eclipse	B4
Queens gleaming through their splendour's last decay	H4
And monarchs surly at the wrongs sustained	Q
By royal visages Meanwhile abroad	Q
Incessant rain was falling or the frost	Q
Raged bitterly with keen and silent tooth	A3
And interrupting oft that eager game	S2
From under Esthwaite's splitting fields of ice	B4
The pent up air struggling to free itself	T
Gave out to meadow grounds and hills a loud	Q
Protracted yelling like the noise of wolves	B4
Howling in troops along the Bothnic Main	K3
	-
Nor sedulous as I have been to trace	B4
How Nature by extrinsic passion first	Q
Peopled the mind with forms sublime or fair	G4
And made me love them may I here omit	Q
How other pleasures have been mine and joys	B4
Of subtler origin how I have felt	Q
Not seldom even in that tempestuous time	A
Those hallowed and pure motions of the sense	B4
Which seem in their simplicity to own	K3
An intellectual charm that calm delight	Q
Which if I err not surely must belong	X4
To those first born affinities that fit	Q
Our new existence to existing things	B4
And in our dawn of being constitute	Q
The bond of union between life and joy	C2
	-
Yes I remember when the changeful earth	A3
And twice five summers on my mind had stamped	Q
The faces of the moving year even then	K3
I held unconscious intercourse with beauty	B4
Old as creation drinking in a pure	G4
Organic pleasure from the silver wreaths	B4
Of curling mist or from the level plain	K3
Of waters coloured by impending clouds	B4
	-
The sands of Westmoreland the creeks and bays	B4
Of Cumbria's rocky limits they can tell	C2
How when the Sea threw off his evening shade	Q
And to the shepherd's hut on distant hills	B4
Sent welcome notice of the rising moon	K3
How I have stood to fancies such as these	B4
A stranger linking with the spectacle	C2
No conscious memory of a kindred sight	Q
And bringing with me no peculiar sense	B4
Of quietness or peace yet have I stood	Q
Even while mine eye hath moved o'er many a league	X4
Of shining water gathering as it seemed	Q
Through every hair breadth in that field of light	Q
New pleasure like a bee among the flowers	B4
	-
Thus oft amid those fits of vulgar joy	C2
Which through all seasons on a child's pursuits	B4
Are prompt attendants 'mid that giddy bliss	B4
Which like a tempest works along the blood	Q
And is forgotten even then I felt	Q
Gleams like the flashing of a shield the earth	A3
And common face of Nature spake to me	B4
Rememberable things sometimes 'tis true	C2
By chance collisions and quaint accidents	B4
Like those ill sorted unions work supposed	Q
Of evil minded fairies yet not vain	K3
Nor profitless if haply they impressed	Q
Collateral objects and appearances	B4
Albeit lifeless then and doomed to sleep	O4
Until maturer seasons called them forth	A3
To impregnate and to elevate the mind	Q
And if the vulgar joy by its own weight	Q
Wearied itself out of the memory	B4
The scenes which were a witness of that joy	C2
Remained in their substantial lineaments	B4
Depicted on the brain and to the eye	X4
Were visible a daily sight and thus	B4
By the impressive discipline of fear	G4
By pleasure and repeated happiness	B4
So frequently repeated and by force	B4
Of obscure feelings representative	Y2
Of things forgotten these same scenes so bright	Q
So beautiful so majestic in themselves	B4
Though yet the day was distant did become	F
Habitually dear and all their forms	B4
And changeful colours by invisible links	B4
Were fastened to the affections	B4
I began	K3
My story early not misled I trust	Q
By an infirmity of love for days	B4
Disowned by memory ere the breath of spring	X4
Planting my snowdrops among winter snows	B4
Nor will it seem to thee O Friend so prompt	Q
In sympathy that I have lengthened out	Q
With fond and feeble tongue a tedious tale	C2
Meanwhile my hope has been that I might fetch
Invigorating thoughts from former years	B4
Might fix the wavering balance of my mind	Q
And haply meet reproaches too whose power	G4
May spur me on in manhood now mature	G4
To honourable toil Yet should these hopes	B4
Prove vain and thus should neither I be taught	Q
To understand myself nor thou to know	K3
With better knowledge how the heart was framed	Q
Of him thou lovest need I dread from thee	B4
Harsh judgments if the song be loth to quit	Q
Those recollected hours that have the charm
Of visionary things those lovely forms	B4
And sweet sensations that throw back our life	W
And almost make remotest infancy	B4
A visible scene on which the sun is shining	X4
	-
One end at least hath been attained my mind	Q
Hath been revived and if this genial mood	Q
Desert me not forthwith shall be brought down	K3
Through later years the story of my life	W
The road lies plain before me 'tis a theme	M
Single and of determined bounds and hence	B4
I choose it rather at this time than work	X4
Of ampler or more varied argument	Q
Where I might be discomfited and lost	Q
And certain hopes are with me that to thee	B4
This labour will be welcome honoured Friend	Q

William Wordsworth

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