The Prelude - Book Fourth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDECAFGHIJAKLCMNJOP QRAASTUVWXYZYCA2B2C2 YD2AE2YAF2G2YYAH2I2Y J2YAQCAK2CYC2L2M2ZVY YYN2YAYYYK2CK2YYYAAY YYYO2K2YCVK2 P2YK2YK2AYYYCYK2YYYQ 2YCK2K2R2VK2S2AYT2K2 CYAYYCYU2YA YV2YK2YW2YX2AAY2YAAY AZ2YVA3YYB3YVZCZ2C3Y VK2YK2YCD3I2YYE3D2K2 CYAAK2YK2AYK2YYF3Q2V CC G3K2YK2T2YYYL2YZ2AYY AYAH3 K2K2K2K2YI3K2YZN2J3K 3K2C2YK2YK2YK2D3Y YG3D2L3CYI2K2K2YYK2K 2K2AYCYM3CN3K2YD2O3 YYC3X2D3K2CYI3P3YQ3A K2YYG3YYYYYYCR3K2YK2 S3T3YYU3AR2YYYACQ3K2 K2V3W3YG3YCYYK2K2CN3 YYI2YT2ACYYYI3K2YYX3 YCK2YK2AK2K2J3K2YYYK 2 G3YYYYYK2K2K2G3C3YK2 AY N3Y3YYYYYK2YADK2YYK2 YK2K2CK2YZ3YYYK2YDAQ 3Z2QCK2A4YYP2L2L2AYB 4YAC4K2YYYYN3AR3YZD4 K2YK2E4YYYI3YK2K2E3Y YYF4YR2YYK2YYYYCYK2Y YG4G3YAQ3K2YQYYCAH4K 2I4K2J4C3Z2AY YCK2K2YAZ2K2F4SUMMER VACATION | A |
- | |
Bright was the summer's noon when quickening steps | B |
Followed each other till a dreary moor | C |
Was crossed a bare ridge clomb upon whose top | D |
Standing alone as from a rampart's edge | E |
I overlooked the bed of Windermere | C |
Like a vast river stretching in the sun | A |
With exultation at my feet I saw | F |
Lake islands promontories gleaming bays | G |
A universe of Nature's fairest forms | H |
Proudly revealed with instantaneous burst | I |
Magnificent and beautiful and gay | J |
I bounded down the hill shouting amain | A |
For the old Ferryman to the shout the rocks | K |
Replied and when the Charon of the flood | L |
Had staid his oars and touched the jutting pier | C |
I did not step into the well known boat | M |
Without a cordial greeting Thence with speed | N |
Up the familiar hill I took my way | J |
Towards that sweet Valley where I had been reared | O |
'Twas but a short hour's walk ere veering round | P |
I saw the snow white church upon her hill | Q |
Sit like a throned Lady sending out | R |
A gracious look all over her domain | A |
Yon azure smoke betrays the lurking town | A |
With eager footsteps I advance and reach | S |
The cottage threshold where my journey closed | T |
Glad welcome had I with some tears perhaps | U |
From my old Dame so kind and motherly | V |
While she perused me with a parent's pride | W |
The thoughts of gratitude shall fall like dew | X |
Upon thy grave good creature While my heart | Y |
Can beat never will I forget thy name | Z |
Heaven's blessing be upon thee where thou liest | Y |
After thy innocent and busy stir | C |
In narrow cares thy little daily growth | A2 |
Of calm enjoyments after eighty years | B2 |
And more than eighty of untroubled life | C2 |
Childless yet by the strangers to thy blood | Y |
Honoured with little less than filial love | D2 |
What joy was mine to see thee once again | A |
Thee and thy dwelling and a crowd of things | E2 |
About its narrow precincts all beloved | Y |
And many of them seeming yet my own | A |
Why should I speak of what a thousand hearts | F2 |
Have felt and every man alive can guess | G2 |
The rooms the court the garden were not left | Y |
Long unsaluted nor the sunny seat | Y |
Round the stone table under the dark pine | A |
Friendly to studious or to festive hours | H2 |
Nor that unruly child of mountain birth | I2 |
The famous brook who soon as he was boxed | Y |
Within our garden found himself at once | J2 |
As if by trick insidious and unkind | Y |
Stripped of his voice and left to dimple down | A |
Without an effort and without a will | Q |
A channel paved by man's officious care | C |
I looked at him and smiled and smiled again | A |
And in the press of twenty thousand thoughts | K2 |
Ha quoth I pretty prisoner are you there | C |
Well might sarcastic Fancy then have whispered | Y |
An emblem here behold of thy own life | C2 |
In its late course of even days with all | L2 |
Their smooth enthralment but the heart was full | M2 |
Too full for that reproach My aged Dame | Z |
Walked proudly at my side she guided me | V |
I willing nay nay wishing to be led | Y |
The face of every neighbour whom I met | Y |
Was like a volume to me some were hailed | Y |
Upon the road some busy at their work | N2 |
Unceremonious greetings interchanged | Y |
With half the length of a long field between | A |
Among my schoolfellows I scattered round | Y |
Like recognitions but with some constraint | Y |
Attended doubtless with a little pride | Y |
But with more shame for my habiliments | K2 |
The transformation wrought by gay attire | C |
Not less delighted did I take my place | K2 |
At our domestic table and dear Friend | Y |
In this endeavour simply to relate | Y |
A Poet's history may I leave untold | Y |
The thankfulness with which I laid me down | A |
In my accustomed bed more welcome now | A |
Perhaps than if it had been more desired | Y |
Or been more often thought of with regret | Y |
That lowly bed whence I had heard the wind | Y |
Roar and the rain beat hard where I so oft | Y |
Had lain awake on summer nights to watch | O2 |
The moon in splendour couched among the leaves | K2 |
Of a tall ash that near our cottage stood | Y |
Had watched her with fixed eyes while to and fro | C |
In the dark summit of the waving tree | V |
She rocked with every impulse of the breeze | K2 |
- | |
Among the favourites whom it pleased me well | P2 |
To see again was one by ancient right | Y |
Our inmate a rough terrier of the hills | K2 |
By birth and call of nature pre ordained | Y |
To hunt the badger and unearth the fox | K2 |
Among the impervious crags but having been | A |
From youth our own adopted he had passed | Y |
Into a gentler service And when first | Y |
The boyish spirit flagged and day by day | Y |
Along my veins I kindled with the stir | C |
The fermentation and the vernal heat | Y |
Of poesy affecting private shades | K2 |
Like a sick Lover then this dog was used | Y |
To watch me an attendant and a friend | Y |
Obsequious to my steps early and late | Y |
Though often of such dilatory walk | Q2 |
Tired and uneasy at the halts I made | Y |
A hundred times when roving high and low | C |
I have been harassed with the toil of verse | K2 |
Much pains and little progress and at once | K2 |
Some lovely Image in the song rose up | R2 |
Full formed like Venus rising from the sea | V |
Then have I darted forwards to let loose | K2 |
My hand upon his back with stormy joy | S2 |
Caressing him again and yet again | A |
And when at evening on the public way | Y |
I sauntered like a river murmuring | T2 |
And talking to itself when all things else | K2 |
Are still the creature trotted on before | C |
Such was his custom but whene'er he met | Y |
A passenger approaching he would turn | A |
To give me timely notice and straightway | Y |
Grateful for that admonishment I hushed | Y |
My voice composed my gait and with the air | C |
And mien of one whose thoughts are free advanced | Y |
To give and take a greeting that might save | U2 |
My name from piteous rumours such as wait | Y |
On men suspected to be crazed in brain | A |
- | |
Those walks well worthy to be prized and loved | Y |
Regretted that word too was on my tongue | V2 |
But they were richly laden with all good | Y |
And cannot be remembered but with thanks | K2 |
And gratitude and perfect joy of heart | Y |
Those walks in all their freshness now came back | W2 |
Like a returning Spring When first I made | Y |
Once more the circuit of our little lake | X2 |
If ever happiness hath lodged with man | A |
That day consummate happiness was mine | A |
Wide spreading steady calm contemplative | Y2 |
The sun was set or setting when I left | Y |
Our cottage door and evening soon brought on | A |
A sober hour not winning or serene | A |
For cold and raw the air was and untuned | Y |
But as a face we love is sweetest then | A |
When sorrow damps it or whatever look | Z2 |
It chance to wear is sweetest if the heart | Y |
Have fulness in herself even so with me | V |
It fared that evening Gently did my soul | A3 |
Put off her veil and self transmuted stood | Y |
Naked as in the presence of her God | Y |
While on I walked a comfort seemed to touch | B3 |
A heart that had not been disconsolate | Y |
Strength came where weakness was not known to be | V |
At least not felt and restoration came | Z |
Like an intruder knocking at the door | C |
Of unacknowledged weariness I took | Z2 |
The balance and with firm hand weighed myself | C3 |
Of that external scene which round me lay | Y |
Little in this abstraction did I see | V |
Remembered less but I had inward hopes | K2 |
And swellings of the spirit was rapt and soothed | Y |
Conversed with promises had glimmering views | K2 |
How life pervades the undecaying mind | Y |
How the immortal soul with God like power | C |
Informs creates and thaws the deepest sleep | D3 |
That time can lay upon her how on earth | I2 |
Man if he do but live within the light | Y |
Of high endeavours daily spreads abroad | Y |
His being armed with strength that cannot fail | E3 |
Nor was there want of milder thoughts of love | D2 |
Of innocence and holiday repose | K2 |
And more than pastoral quiet 'mid the stir | C |
Of boldest projects and a peaceful end | Y |
At last or glorious by endurance won | A |
Thus musing in a wood I sate me down | A |
Alone continuing there to muse the slopes | K2 |
And heights meanwhile were slowly overspread | Y |
With darkness and before a rippling breeze | K2 |
The long lake lengthened out its hoary line | A |
And in the sheltered coppice where I sate | Y |
Around me from among the hazel leaves | K2 |
Now here now there moved by the straggling wind | Y |
Came ever and anon a breath like sound | Y |
Quick as the pantings of the faithful dog | F3 |
The off and on companion of my walk | Q2 |
And such at times believing them to be | V |
I turned my head to look if he were there | C |
Then into solemn thought I passed once more | C |
- | |
A freshness also found I at this time | G3 |
In human Life the daily life of those | K2 |
Whose occupations really I loved | Y |
The peaceful scene oft filled me with surprise | K2 |
Changed like a garden in the heat of spring | T2 |
After an eight days' absence For to omit | Y |
The things which were the same and yet appeared | Y |
Far otherwise amid this rural solitude | Y |
A narrow Vale where each was known to all | L2 |
'Twas not indifferent to a youthful mind | Y |
To mark some sheltering bower or sunny nook | Z2 |
Where an old man had used to sit alone | A |
Now vacant pale faced babes whom I had left | Y |
In arms now rosy prattlers at the feet | Y |
Of a pleased grandame tottering up and down | A |
And growing girls whose beauty filched away | Y |
With all its pleasant promises was gone | A |
To deck some slighted playmate's homely cheek | H3 |
- | |
Yes I had something of a subtler sense | K2 |
And often looking round was moved to smiles | K2 |
Such as a delicate work of humour breeds | K2 |
I read without design the opinions thoughts | K2 |
Of those plain living people now observed | Y |
With clearer knowledge with another eye | I3 |
I saw the quiet woodman in the woods | K2 |
The shepherd roam the hills With new delight | Y |
This chiefly did I note my grey haired Dame | Z |
Saw her go forth to church or other work | N2 |
Of state equipped in monumental trim | J3 |
Short velvet cloak her bonnet of the like | K3 |
A mantle such as Spanish Cavaliers | K2 |
Wore in old times Her smooth domestic life | C2 |
Affectionate without disquietude | Y |
Her talk her business pleased me and no less | K2 |
Her clear though shallow stream of piety | Y |
That ran on Sabbath days a fresher course | K2 |
With thoughts unfelt till now I saw her read | Y |
Her Bible on hot Sunday afternoons | K2 |
And loved the book when she had dropped asleep | D3 |
And made of it a pillow for her head | Y |
- | |
Nor less do I remember to have felt | Y |
Distinctly manifested at this time | G3 |
A human heartedness about my love | D2 |
For objects hitherto the absolute wealth | L3 |
Of my own private being and no more | C |
Which I had loved even as a blessed spirit | Y |
Or Angel if he were to dwell on earth | I2 |
Might love in individual happiness | K2 |
But now there opened on me other thoughts | K2 |
Of change congratulation or regret | Y |
A pensive feeling It spread far and wide | Y |
The trees the mountains shared it and the brooks | K2 |
The stars of Heaven now seen in their old haunts | K2 |
White Sirius glittering o'er the southern crags | K2 |
Orion with his belt and those fair Seven | A |
Acquaintances of every little child | Y |
And Jupiter my own beloved star | C |
Whatever shadings of mortality | Y |
Whatever imports from the world of death | M3 |
Had come among these objects heretofore | C |
Were in the main of mood less tender strong | N3 |
Deep gloomy were they and severe the scatterings | K2 |
Of awe or tremulous dread that had given way | Y |
In later youth to yearnings of a love | D2 |
Enthusiastic to delight and hope | O3 |
- | |
As one who hangs down bending from the side | Y |
Of a slow moving boat upon the breast | Y |
Of a still water solacing himself | C3 |
With such discoveries as his eye can make | X2 |
Beneath him in the bottom of the deep | D3 |
Sees many beauteous sights weeds fishes flowers | K2 |
Grots pebbles roots of trees and fancies more | C |
Yet often is perplexed and cannot part | Y |
The shadow from the substance rocks and sky | I3 |
Mountains and clouds reflected in the depth | P3 |
Of the clear flood from things which there abide | Y |
In their true dwelling now is crossed by gleam | Q3 |
Of his own image by a sunbeam now | A |
And wavering motions sent he knows not whence | K2 |
Impediments that make his task more sweet | Y |
Such pleasant office have we long pursued | Y |
Incumbent o'er the surface of past time | G3 |
With like success nor often have appeared | Y |
Shapes fairer or less doubtfully discerned | Y |
Than these to which the Tale indulgent Friend | Y |
Would now direct thy notice Yet in spite | Y |
Of pleasure won and knowledge not withheld | Y |
There was an inner falling off I loved | Y |
Loved deeply all that had been loved before | C |
More deeply even than ever but a swarm | R3 |
Of heady schemes jostling each other gawds | K2 |
And feast and dance and public revelry | Y |
And sports and games too grateful in themselves | K2 |
Yet in themselves less grateful I believe | S3 |
Than as they were a badge glossy and fresh | T3 |
Of manliness and freedom all conspired | Y |
To lure my mind from firm habitual quest | Y |
Of feeding pleasures to depress the zeal | U3 |
And damp those yearnings which had once been mine | A |
A wild unworldly minded youth given up | R2 |
To his own eager thoughts It would demand | Y |
Some skill and longer time than may be spared | Y |
To paint these vanities and how they wrought | Y |
In haunts where they till now had been unknown | A |
It seemed the very garments that I wore | C |
Preyed on my strength and stopped the quiet stream | Q3 |
Of self forgetfulness | K2 |
Yes that heartless chase | K2 |
Of trivial pleasures was a poor exchange | V3 |
For books and nature at that early age | W3 |
'Tis true some casual knowledge might be gained | Y |
Of character or life but at that time | G3 |
Of manners put to school I took small note | Y |
And all my deeper passions lay elsewhere | C |
Far better had it been to exalt the mind | Y |
By solitary study to uphold | Y |
Intense desire through meditative peace | K2 |
And yet for chastisement of these regrets | K2 |
The memory of one particular hour | C |
Doth here rise up against me 'Mid a throng | N3 |
Of maids and youths old men and matrons staid | Y |
A medley of all tempers I had passed | Y |
The night in dancing gaiety and mirth | I2 |
With din of instruments and shuffling feet | Y |
And glancing forms and tapers glittering | T2 |
And unaimed prattle flying up and down | A |
Spirits upon the stretch and here and there | C |
Slight shocks of young love liking interspersed | Y |
Whose transient pleasure mounted to the head | Y |
And tingled through the veins Ere we retired | Y |
The cock had crowed and now the eastern sky | I3 |
Was kindling not unseen from humble copse | K2 |
And open field through which the pathway wound | Y |
And homeward led my steps Magnificent | Y |
The morning rose in memorable pomp | X3 |
Glorious as e'er I had beheld in front | Y |
The sea lay laughing at a distance near | C |
The solid mountains shone bright as the clouds | K2 |
Grain tinctured drenched in empyrean light | Y |
And in the meadows and the lower grounds | K2 |
Was all the sweetness of a common dawn | A |
Dews vapours and the melody of birds | K2 |
And labourers going forth to till the fields | K2 |
Ah need I say dear Friend that to the brim | J3 |
My heart was full I made no vows but vows | K2 |
Were then made for me bond unknown to me | Y |
Was given that I should be else sinning greatly | Y |
A dedicated Spirit On I walked | Y |
In thankful blessedness which yet survives | K2 |
- | |
Strange rendezvous My mind was at that time | G3 |
A parti coloured show of grave and gay | Y |
Solid and light short sighted and profound | Y |
Of inconsiderate habits and sedate | Y |
Consorting in one mansion unreproved | Y |
The worth I knew of powers that I possessed | Y |
Though slighted and too oft misused Besides | K2 |
That summer swarming as it did with thoughts | K2 |
Transient and idle lacked not intervals | K2 |
When Folly from the frown of fleeting Time | G3 |
Shrunk and the mind experienced in herself | C3 |
Conformity as just as that of old | Y |
To the end and written spirit of God's works | K2 |
Whether held forth in Nature or in Man | A |
Through pregnant vision separate or conjoined | Y |
- | |
When from our better selves we have too long | N3 |
Been parted by the hurrying world and droop | Y3 |
Sick of its business of its pleasures tired | Y |
How gracious how benign is Solitude | Y |
How potent a mere image of her sway | Y |
Most potent when impressed upon the mind | Y |
With an appropriate human centre hermit | Y |
Deep in the bosom of the wilderness | K2 |
Votary in vast cathedral where no foot | Y |
Is treading where no other face is seen | A |
Kneeling at prayers or watchman on the top | D |
Of lighthouse beaten by Atlantic waves | K2 |
Or as the soul of that great Power is met | Y |
Sometimes embodied on a public road | Y |
When for the night deserted it assumes | K2 |
A character of quiet more profound | Y |
Than pathless wastes | K2 |
Once when those summer months | K2 |
Were flown and autumn brought its annual show | C |
Of oars with oars contending sails with sails | K2 |
Upon Winander's spacious breast it chanced | Y |
That after I had left a flower decked room | Z3 |
Whose in door pastime lighted up survived | Y |
To a late hour and spirits overwrought | Y |
Were making night do penance for a day | Y |
Spent in a round of strenuous idleness | K2 |
My homeward course led up a long ascent | Y |
Where the road's watery surface to the top | D |
Of that sharp rising glittered to the moon | A |
And bore the semblance of another stream | Q3 |
Stealing with silent lapse to join the brook | Z2 |
That murmured in the vale All else was still | Q |
No living thing appeared in earth or air | C |
And save the flowing water's peaceful voice | K2 |
Sound there was none but lo an uncouth shape | A4 |
Shown by a sudden turning of the road | Y |
So near that slipping back into the shade | Y |
Of a thick hawthorn I could mark him well | P2 |
Myself unseen He was of stature tall | L2 |
A span above man's common measure tall | L2 |
Stiff lank and upright a more meagre man | A |
Was never seen before by night or day | Y |
Long were his arms pallid his hands his mouth | B4 |
Looked ghastly in the moonlight from behind | Y |
A mile stone propped him I could also ken | A |
That he was clothed in military garb | C4 |
Though faded yet entire Companionless | K2 |
No dog attending by no staff sustained | Y |
He stood and in his very dress appeared | Y |
A desolation a simplicity | Y |
To which the trappings of a gaudy world | Y |
Make a strange back ground From his lips ere long | N3 |
Issued low muttered sounds as if of pain | A |
Or some uneasy thought yet still his form | R3 |
Kept the same awful steadiness at his feet | Y |
His shadow lay and moved not From self blame | Z |
Not wholly free I watched him thus at length | D4 |
Subduing my heart's specious cowardice | K2 |
I left the shady nook where I had stood | Y |
And hailed him Slowly from his resting place | K2 |
He rose and with a lean and wasted arm | E4 |
In measured gesture lifted to his head | Y |
Returned my salutation then resumed | Y |
His station as before and when I asked | Y |
His history the veteran in reply | I3 |
Was neither slow nor eager but unmoved | Y |
And with a quiet uncomplaining voice | K2 |
A stately air of mild indifference | K2 |
He told in few plain words a soldier's tale | E3 |
That in the Tropic Islands he had served | Y |
Whence he had landed scarcely three weeks past | Y |
That on his landing he had been dismissed | Y |
And now was travelling towards his native home | F4 |
This heard I said in pity Come with me | Y |
He stooped and straightway from the ground took up | R2 |
An oaken staff by me yet unobserved | Y |
A staff which must have dropped from his slack hand | Y |
And lay till now neglected in the grass | K2 |
Though weak his step and cautious he appeared | Y |
To travel without pain and I beheld | Y |
With an astonishment but ill suppressed | Y |
His ghostly figure moving at my side | Y |
Nor could I while we journeyed thus forbear | C |
To turn from present hardships to the past | Y |
And speak of war battle and pestilence | K2 |
Sprinkling this talk with questions better spared | Y |
On what he might himself have seen or felt | Y |
He all the while was in demeanour calm | G4 |
Concise in answer solemn and sublime | G3 |
He might have seemed but that in all he said | Y |
There was a strange half absence as of one | A |
Knowing too well the importance of his theme | Q3 |
But feeling it no longer Our discourse | K2 |
Soon ended and together on we passed | Y |
In silence through a wood gloomy and still | Q |
Up turning then along an open field | Y |
We reached a cottage At the door I knocked | Y |
And earnestly to charitable care | C |
Commended him as a poor friendless man | A |
Belated and by sickness overcome | H4 |
Assured that now the traveller would repose | K2 |
In comfort I entreated that henceforth | I4 |
He would not linger in the public ways | K2 |
But ask for timely furtherance and help | J4 |
Such as his state required At this reproof | C3 |
With the same ghastly mildness in his look | Z2 |
He said My trust is in the God of Heaven | A |
And in the eye of him who passes me | Y |
- | |
The cottage door was speedily unbarred | Y |
And now the soldier touched his hat once more | C |
With his lean hand and in a faltering voice | K2 |
Whose tone bespake reviving interests | K2 |
Till then unfelt he thanked me I returned | Y |
The farewell blessing of the patient man | A |
And so we parted Back I cast a look | Z2 |
And lingered near the door a little space | K2 |
Then sought with quiet heart my distant home | F4 |
William Wordsworth
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
<< The Affliction Of Margaret Poem
Michael Angelo In Reply To The Passage Upon His Staute Of Sleeping Night Poem>>
Write your comment about The Prelude - Book Fourth poem by William Wordsworth
Best Poems of William Wordsworth