The Prelude - Book Fourteenth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEAFGHIJ KLMENOPQRSTTUVWKNXYZ TA2B2C2AD2TE2ZC2C2C2 C2C2C2TC2C2B2ATC2F2C 2A2C2C2TTTG2T C2C2C2H2TTI2C2TJ2C2C 2G2K2L2C2JETTC2TM2N2 TTTO2P2TC2C2TC2TC2TQ 2TR2S2TT2C2C2C2C2I2F TTTC2C2C2U2V2W2X2Y2T Z2C2TTTA3 B3RTC2C2C2C2TTTC2C3D 3E3F3C2TC2X2C2B3G3H3 C2TTC2RV2TI3C2J3TTTK 3C3TJ3TTL3TJ3TG2BC2C 2M3J3N3BV2C2TO2 C2F3G2C2C2TO3C2C2TEC 2FC2X2P3C2C2 O3J3C2E3J2C2Q3R3U2U2 S3T3U3C2TC2V3E3RAC2C 2C2W3TT V2BTC2TX3TC2C2C2Y3F3 J3TZ3C2C2C2Y2TTTTTEB 3A4I2RTTTI3B4G3C2C4C 2C2D4C2TE4TO3TV2C2J3 J3TC2TF4TV2TC2C2I2C2 G3K3C2C2C2C2TBTT C2AC2C2C2C2G4X3M3H4T Y3TTS2TTC2T I4C2TC3C2C2TTC2J4C2C 2ZK4C2TC2C2C2C2C2L4H 4C2M4TT N4TX2C2C2TFTO4C2C2TO F2C2C2C2P4TTO3G2Q4TG 2C2ATC3G2C2TTC2P4R4T TTC2C2 X2S4TRC2C2C2TC2TC2E3 TTC2TC2C2C2C4TG2TC2C 2C2R C2TC2TO4C2TTBAF2Y3TT 4J3 X2AC2F3TC2G3TD4TC2Q3 X2I2I4C2C2Q4TS4TTC2X 2U2

CONCLUSION	A
	-
In one of those excursions may they ne'er	B
Fade from remembrance through the Northern tracts	C
Of Cambria ranging with a youthful friend	D
I left Bethgelert's huts at couching time	E
And westward took my way to see the sun	A
Rise from the top of Snowdon To the door	F
Of a rude cottage at the mountain's base	G
We came and roused the shepherd who attends	H
The adventurous stranger's steps a trusty guide	I
Then cheered by short refreshment sallied forth	J
	-
It was a close warm breezeless summer night	K
Wan dull and glaring with a dripping fog	L
Low hung and thick that covered all the sky	M
But undiscouraged we began to climb	E
The mountain side The mist soon girt us round	N
And after ordinary travellers' talk	O
With our conductor pensively we sank	P
Each into commerce with his private thoughts	Q
Thus did we breast the ascent and by myself	R
Was nothing either seen or heard that checked	S
Those musings or diverted save that once	T
The shepherd's lurcher who among the crags	T
Had to his joy unearthed a hedgehog teased	U
His coiled up prey with barkings turbulent	V
This small adventure for even such it seemed	W
In that wild place and at the dead of night	K
Being over and forgotten on we wound	N
In silence as before With forehead bent	X
Earthward as if in opposition set	Y
Against an enemy I panted up	Z
With eager pace and no less eager thoughts	T
Thus might we wear a midnight hour away	A2
Ascending at loose distance each from each	B2
And I as chanced the foremost of the band	C2
When at my feet the ground appeared to brighten	A
And with a step or two seemed brighter still	D2
Nor was time given to ask or learn the cause	T
For instantly a light upon the turf	E2
Fell like a flash and lo as I looked up	Z
The Moon hung naked in a firmament	C2
Of azure without cloud and at my feet	C2
Rested a silent sea of hoary mist	C2
A hundred hills their dusky backs upheaved	C2
All over this still ocean and beyond	C2
Far far beyond the solid vapours stretched	C2
In headlands tongues and promontory shapes	T
Into the main Atlantic that appeared	C2
To dwindle and give up his majesty	C2
Usurped upon far as the sight could reach	B2
Not so the ethereal vault encroachment none	A
Was there nor loss only the inferior stars	T
Had disappeared or shed a fainter light	C2
In the clear presence of the full orbed Moon	F2
Who from her sovereign elevation gazed	C2
Upon the billowy ocean as it lay	A2
All meek and silent save that through a rift	C2
Not distant from the shore whereon we stood	C2
A fixed abysmal gloomy breathing place	T
Mounted the roar of waters torrents streams	T
Innumerable roaring with one voice	T
Heard over earth and sea and in that hour	G2
For so it seemed felt by the starry heavens	T
	-
When into air had partially dissolved	C2
That vision given to spirits of the night	C2
And three chance human wanderers in calm thought	C2
Reflected it appeared to me the type	H2
Of a majestic intellect its acts	T
And its possessions what it has and craves	T
What in itself it is and would become	I2
There I beheld the emblem of a mind	C2
That feeds upon infinity that broods	T
Over the dark abyss intent to hear	J2
Its voices issuing forth to silent light	C2
In one continuous stream a mind sustained	C2
By recognitions of transcendent power	G2
In sense conducting to ideal form	K2
In soul of more than mortal privilege	L2
One function above all of such a mind	C2
Had Nature shadowed there by putting forth	J
'Mid circumstances awful and sublime	E
That mutual domination which she loves	T
To exert upon the face of outward things	T
So moulded joined abstracted so endowed	C2
With interchangeable supremacy	T
That men least sensitive see hear perceive	M2
And cannot choose but feel The power which all	N2
Acknowledge when thus moved which Nature thus	T
To bodily sense exhibits is the express	T
Resemblance of that glorious faculty	T
That higher minds bear with them as their own	O2
This is the very spirit in which they deal	P2
With the whole compass of the universe	T
They from their native selves can send abroad	C2
Kindred mutations for themselves create	C2
A like existence and whene'er it dawns	T
Created for them catch it or are caught	C2
By its inevitable mastery	T
Like angels stopped upon the wing by sound	C2
Of harmony from Heaven's remotest spheres	T
Them the enduring and the transient both	Q2
Serve to exalt they build up greatest things	T
From least suggestions ever on the watch	R2
Willing to work and to be wrought upon	S2
They need not extraordinary calls	T
To rouse them in a world of life they live	T2
By sensible impressions not enthralled	C2
But by their quickening impulse made more prompt	C2
To hold fit converse with the spiritual world	C2
And with the generations of mankind	C2
Spread over time past present and to come	I2
Age after age till Time shall be no more	F
Such minds are truly from the Deity	T
For they are Powers and hence the highest bliss	T
That flesh can know is theirs the consciousness	T
Of Whom they are habitually infused	C2
Through every image and through every thought	C2
And all affections by communion raised	C2
From earth to heaven from human to divine	U2
Hence endless occupation for the Soul	V2
Whether discursive or intuitive	W2
Hence cheerfulness for acts of daily life	X2
Emotions which best foresight need not fear	Y2
Most worthy then of trust when most intense	T
Hence amid ills that vex and wrongs that crush	Z2
Our hearts if here the words of Holy Writ	C2
May with fit reverence be applied that peace	T
Which passeth understanding that repose	T
In moral judgments which from this pure source	T
Must come or will by man be sought in vain	A3
	-
Oh who is he that hath his whole life long	B3
Preserved enlarged this freedom in himself	R
For this alone is genuine liberty	T
Where is the favoured being who hath held	C2
That course unchecked unerring and untired	C2
In one perpetual progress smooth and bright	C2
A humbler destiny have we retraced	C2
And told of lapse and hesitating choice	T
And backward wanderings along thorny ways	T
Yet compassed round by mountain solitudes	T
Within whose solemn temple I received	C2
My earliest visitations careless then	C3
Of what was given me and which now I range	D3
A meditative oft a suffering man	E3
Do I declare in accents which from truth	F3
Deriving cheerful confidence shall blend	C2
Their modulation with these vocal streams	T
That whatsoever falls my better mind	C2
Revolving with the accidents of life	X2
May have sustained that howsoe'er misled	C2
Never did I in quest of right and wrong	B3
Tamper with conscience from a private aim	G3
Nor was in any public hope the dupe	H3
Of selfish passions nor did ever yield	C2
Wilfully to mean cares or low pursuits	T
But shrunk with apprehensive jealousy	T
From every combination which might aid	C2
The tendency too potent in itself	R
Of use and custom to bow down the soul	V2
Under a growing weight of vulgar sense	T
And substitute a universe of death	I3
For that which moves with light and life informed	C2
Actual divine and true To fear and love	J3
To love as prime and chief for there fear ends	T
Be this ascribed to early intercourse	T
In presence of sublime or beautiful forms	T
With the adverse principles of pain and joy	K3
Evil as one is rashly named by men	C3
Who know not what they speak By love subsists	T
All lasting grandeur by pervading love	J3
That gone we are as dust Behold the fields	T
In balmy spring time full of rising flowers	T
And joyous creatures see that pair the lamb	L3
And the lamb's mother and their tender ways	T
Shall touch thee to the heart thou callest this love	J3
And not inaptly so for love it is	T
Far as it carries thee In some green bower	G2
Rest and be not alone but have thou there	B
The One who is thy choice of all the world	C2
There linger listening gazing with delight	C2
Impassioned but delight how pitiable	M3
Unless this love by a still higher love	J3
Be hallowed love that breathes not without awe	N3
Love that adores but on the knees of prayer	B
By heaven inspired that frees from chains the soul	V2
Lifted in union with the purest best	C2
Of earth born passions on the wings of praise	T
Bearing a tribute to the Almighty's Throne	O2
	-
This spiritual Love acts not nor can exist	C2
Without Imagination which in truth	F3
Is but another name for absolute power	G2
And clearest insight amplitude of mind	C2
And Reason in her most exalted mood	C2
This faculty hath been the feeding source	T
Of our long labour we have traced the stream	O3
From the blind cavern whence is faintly heard	C2
Its natal murmur followed it to light	C2
And open day accompanied its course	T
Among the ways of Nature for a time	E
Lost sight of it bewildered and engulphed	C2
Then given it greeting as it rose once more	F
In strength reflecting from its placid breast	C2
The works of man and face of human life	X2
And lastly from its progress have we drawn	P3
Faith in life endless the sustaining thought	C2
Of human Being Eternity and God	C2
	-
Imagination having been our theme	O3
So also hath that intellectual Love	J3
For they are each in each and cannot stand	C2
Dividually Here must thou be O Man	E3
Power to thyself no Helper hast thou here	J2
Here keepest thou in singleness thy state	C2
No other can divide with thee this work	Q3
No secondary hand can intervene	R3
To fashion this ability 'tis thine	U2
The prime and vital principle is thine	U2
In the recesses of thy nature far	S3
From any reach of outward fellowship	T3
Else is not thine at all But joy to him	U3
Oh joy to him who here hath sown hath laid	C2
Here the foundation of his future years	T
For all that friendship all that love can do	C2
All that a darling countenance can look	V3
Or dear voice utter to complete the man	E3
Perfect him made imperfect in himself	R
All shall be his and he whose soul hath risen	A
Up to the height of feeling intellect	C2
Shall want no humbler tenderness his heart	C2
Be tender as a nursing mother's heart	C2
Of female softness shall his life be full	W3
Of humble cares and delicate desires	T
Mild interests and gentlest sympathies	T
	-
Child of my parents Sister of my soul	V2
Thanks in sincerest verse have been elsewhere	B
Poured out for all the early tenderness	T
Which I from thee imbibed and 'tis most true	C2
That later seasons owed to thee no less	T
For spite of thy sweet influence and the touch	X3
Of kindred hands that opened out the springs	T
Of genial thought in childhood and in spite	C2
Of all that unassisted I had marked	C2
In life or nature of those charms minute	C2
That win their way into the heart by stealth	Y3
Still to the very going out of youth	F3
I too exclusively esteemed 'that' love	J3
And sought 'that' beauty which as Milton sings	T
Hath terror in it Thou didst soften down	Z3
This over sternness but for thee dear Friend	C2
My soul too reckless of mild grace had stood	C2
In her original self too confident	C2
Retained too long a countenance severe	Y2
A rock with torrents roaring with the clouds	T
Familiar and a favourite of the stars	T
But thou didst plant its crevices with flowers	T
Hang it with shrubs that twinkle in the breeze	T
And teach the little birds to build their nests	T
And warble in its chambers At a time	E
When Nature destined to remain so long	B3
Foremost in my affections had fallen back	A4
Into a second place pleased to become	I2
A handmaid to a nobler than herself	R
When every day brought with it some new sense	T
Of exquisite regard for common things	T
And all the earth was budding with these gifts	T
Of more refined humanity thy breath	I3
Dear Sister was a kind of gentler spring	B4
That went before my steps Thereafter came	G3
One whom with thee friendship had early paired	C2
She came no more a phantom to adorn	C4
A moment but an inmate of the heart	C2
And yet a spirit there for me enshrined	C2
To penetrate the lofty and the low	D4
Even as one essence of pervading light	C2
Shines in the brightest of ten thousand stars	T
And the meek worm that feeds her lonely lamp	E4
Couched in the dewy grass	T
With such a theme	O3
Coleridge with this my argument of thee	T
Shall I be silent O capacious Soul	V2
Placed on this earth to love and understand	C2
And from thy presence shed the light of love	J3
Shall I be mute ere thou be spoken of	J3
Thy kindred influence to my heart of hearts	T
Did also find its way Thus fear relaxed	C2
Her overweening grasp thus thoughts and things	T
In the self haunting spirit learned to take	F4
More rational proportions mystery	T
The incumbent mystery of sense and soul	V2
Of life and death time and eternity	T
Admitted more habitually a mild	C2
Interposition a serene delight	C2
In closelier gathering cares such as become	I2
A human creature howsoe'er endowed	C2
Poet or destined for a humbler name	G3
And so the deep enthusiastic joy	K3
The rapture of the hallelujah sent	C2
From all that breathes and is was chastened stemmed	C2
And balanced by pathetic truth by trust	C2
In hopeful reason leaning on the stay	C2
Of Providence and in reverence for duty	T
Here if need be struggling with storms and there	B
Strewing in peace life's humblest ground with herbs	T
At every season green sweet at all hours	T
	-
And now O Friend this history is brought	C2
To its appointed close the discipline	A
And consummation of a Poet's mind	C2
In everything that stood most prominent	C2
Have faithfully been pictured we have reached	C2
The time our guiding object from the first	C2
When we may not presumptuously I hope	G4
Suppose my powers so far confirmed and such	X3
My knowledge as to make me capable	M3
Of building up a Work that shall endure	H4
Yet much hath been omitted as need was	T
Of books how much and even of the other wealth	Y3
That is collected among woods and fields	T
Far more for Nature's secondary grace	T
Hath hitherto been barely touched upon	S2
The charm more superficial that attends	T
Her works as they present to Fancy's choice	T
Apt illustrations of the moral world	C2
Caught at a glance or traced with curious pains	T
	-
Finally and above all O Friend I speak	I4
With due regret how much is overlooked	C2
In human nature and her subtle ways	T
As studied first in our own hearts and then	C3
In life among the passions of mankind	C2
Varying their composition and their hue	C2
Where'er we move under the diverse shapes	T
That individual character presents	T
To an attentive eye For progress meet	C2
Along this intricate and difficult path	J4
Whate'er was wanting something had I gained	C2
As one of many schoolfellows compelled	C2
In hardy independence to stand up	Z
Amid conflicting interests and the shock	K4
Of various tempers to endure and note	C2
What was not understood though known to be	T
Among the mysteries of love and hate	C2
Honour and shame looking to right and left	C2
Unchecked by innocence too delicate	C2
And moral notions too intolerant	C2
Sympathies too contracted Hence when called	C2
To take a station among men the step	L4
Was easier the transition more secure	H4
More profitable also for the mind	C2
Learns from such timely exercise to keep	M4
In wholesome separation the two natures	T
The one that feels the other that observes	T
	-
Yet one word more of personal concern	N4
Since I withdrew unwillingly from France	T
I led an undomestic wanderer's life	X2
In London chiefly harboured whence I roamed	C2
Tarrying at will in many a pleasant spot	C2
Of rural England's cultivated vales	T
Or Cambrian solitudes A youth he bore	F
The name of Calvert it shall live if words	T
Of mine can give it life in firm belief	O4
That by endowments not from me withheld	C2
Good might be furthered in his last decay	C2
By a bequest sufficient for my needs	T
Enabled me to pause for choice and walk	O
At large and unrestrained nor damped too soon	F2
By mortal cares Himself no Poet yet	C2
Far less a common follower of the world	C2
He deemed that my pursuits and labours lay	C2
Apart from all that leads to wealth or even	P4
A necessary maintenance insures	T
Without some hazard to the finer sense	T
He cleared a passage for me and the stream	O3
Flowed in the bent of Nature	G2
Having now	Q4
Told what best merits mention further pains	T
Our present purpose seems not to require	G2
And I have other tasks Recall to mind	C2
The mood in which this labour was begun	A
O Friend The termination of my course	T
Is nearer now much nearer yet even then	C3
In that distraction and intense desire	G2
I said unto the life which I had lived	C2
Where art thou Hear I not a voice from thee	T
Which 'tis reproach to hear Anon I rose	T
As if on wings and saw beneath me stretched	C2
Vast prospect of the world which I had been	P4
And was and hence this Song which like a lark	R4
I have protracted in the unwearied heavens	T
Singing and often with more plaintive voice	T
To earth attempered and her deep drawn sighs	T
Yet centring all in love and in the end	C2
All gratulant if rightly understood	C2
	-
Whether to me shall be allotted life	X2
And with life power to accomplish aught of worth	S4
That will be deemed no insufficient plea	T
For having given the story of myself	R
Is all uncertain but beloved Friend	C2
When looking back thou seest in clearer view	C2
Than any liveliest sight of yesterday	C2
That summer under whose indulgent skies	T
Upon smooth Quantock's airy ridge we roved	C2
Unchecked or loitered 'mid her sylvan combs	T
Thou in bewitching words with happy heart	C2
Didst chaunt the vision of that Ancient Man	E3
The bright eyed Mariner and rueful woes	T
Didst utter of the Lady Christabel	T
And I associate with such labour steeped	C2
In soft forgetfulness the livelong hours	T
Murmuring of him who joyous hap was found	C2
After the perils of his moonlight ride	C2
Near the loud waterfall or her who sate	C2
In misery near the miserable Thorn	C4
When thou dost to that summer turn thy thoughts	T
And hast before thee all which then we were	G2
To thee in memory of that happiness	T
It will be known by thee at least my Friend	C2
Felt that the history of a Poet's mind	C2
Is labour not unworthy of regard	C2
To thee the work shall justify itself	R
	-
The last and later portions of this gift	C2
Have been prepared not with the buoyant spirits	T
That were our daily portion when we first	C2
Together wantoned in wild Poesy	T
But under pressure of a private grief	O4
Keen and enduring which the mind and heart	C2
That in this meditative history	T
Have been laid open needs must make me feel	T
More deeply yet enable me to bear	B
More firmly and a comfort now hath risen	A
From hope that thou art near and wilt be soon	F2
Restored to us in renovated health	Y3
When after the first mingling of our tears	T
'Mong other consolations we may draw	T4
Some pleasure from this offering of my love	J3
	-
Oh yet a few short years of useful life	X2
And all will be complete thy race be run	A
Thy monument of glory will be raised	C2
Then though too weak to tread the ways of truth	F3
This age fall back to old idolatry	T
Though men return to servitude as fast	C2
As the tide ebbs to ignominy and shame	G3
By nations sink together we shall still	T
Find solace knowing what we have learnt to know	D4
Rich in true happiness if allowed to be	T
Faithful alike in forwarding a day	C2
Of firmer trust joint labourers in the work	Q3
Should Providence such grace to us vouchsafe	X2
Of their deliverance surely yet to come	I2
Prophets of Nature we to them will speak	I4
A lasting inspiration sanctified	C2
By reason blest by faith what we have loved	C2
Others will love and we will teach them how	Q4
Instruct them how the mind of man becomes	T
A thousand times more beautiful than the earth	S4
On which he dwells above this frame of things	T
Which 'mid all revolution in the hopes	T
And fears of men doth still remain unchanged	C2
In beauty exalted as it is itself	X2
Of quality and fabric more divine	U2

William Wordsworth

Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation

<< Inscriptions In The Ground Of Coleorton, The Seat Of Sir George Beaumont, Bart., Leicestershire Poem The Prelude - Book Eleventh Poem>>

Write your comment about The Prelude - Book Fourteenth poem by William Wordsworth

Best Poems of William Wordsworth

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 11 times,

This poem was added to the favorite list by 0 members,

This poem was voted by 0 members.

(* Interactions only in the last 7 days)

New Poems

Wonderful Women
by Umaru Kanneh Boima
Freedom To Scratch In Peace
by Olute Aete
Happy New Year
by Felix Menda
Human Beings
by Dana Graslie
Lust
by Wisdom Greatness
An Isolated Tree's Song
by Sayeed Abubakar
A Strange Boy
by Sayeed Abubakar
O Soil
by Sayeed Abubakar
No War, No War-monger
by Sayeed Abubakar
Night's Town
by Sayeed Abubakar

Popular Poets

1. Emily Dickinson(2414 poems)
2. Madison Julius Cawein(1231 poems)
3. Ella Wheeler Wilcox(1136 poems)
4. William Wordsworth(1016 poems)
5. Robert Burns(986 poems)
6. Edgar Albert Guest(945 poems)
7. Thomas Moore(849 poems)
8. Robert Service(831 poems)