The Prelude - Book Sixth Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFGGGHIJIKGLMNDI MGGIGGIIIGOIPJQRSGTI UG VWIIGCXLMIIGGYIIGZA2 GB2C2D2E2 IF2GORG2IIIGMGH2II2J 2IIOGMK2IH2DGIIL DGIGGGIGGGG2IMDIIIGD I L2IGXGGGGOGIZK2G KIM2GN2CVVO2IIID KGGIGGGL2IIIGGIGMP2G H2MGGGIGI GGIVGGIQ2IK2IIR2GS2I GH2XIGT2 GGM2IIGGU2GV2G2GGIV2 IW2IG2G2PIW2OX2GIGGY GIII GW2DGG2GIIIGM2PW2W2V 2OY2GGW2OM2IGTIGI IG2GGG2Z2Y2A3GB3DIIW 2IC3W2IGGW2K2GGGIGGI IIGGIGGIIIGD3GGIDIIG IGIH2GG2GGGGGIGIGW2I GG2 E3GF3 GK2G3GGH3IW2G2IK2GW2 IW2GZ2GIG2 II3GYIKG2IIJ3IIIGGIQ 2GIIIV2GTW2GIIIIOG2Q 2IW2G2W2GIWGIGOV2GGQ 2GG2IGGW2K3Z2G2IQ2GG W2G2L3IG2GIIIM3IKYGG GOGIGG2GORGV2IW2IG2G 2M2GGIGIN3GK3GW2G2IG IIGOGIIIGGO3GQ2DW2GI IIN3IK3H2IGGW2GGZ2IG 2M2IIGH3P3OIQ3Z2 IR3GIG2GD3GIB2OCGW2M 2G2GGD3G2GGGG2IS3II GIL3GIIGGGGH3GL3G2II IIIGT3G2IGI GGL2GG2GGG2GGO3U3IW2 WZ2 IGGIG2W2GGL2GGGV3G2S 3GGL2IO3IGGGGW2IGW2W 3IG2III GX3IIGKITIGGGW2OGZ2G Y3IIGGZ3IG2 GG2GGGGIGGIG2G2GIGGW 2IGIGIGG GGGGGGQ3I GGQ3GKIO3GG2GGLA4O3I IIG2IIOIF2G2V2GIGGGG GIPGGGII GO3GGGIIGB4O3G2G2G2I IGU3G2W2Z2GC4Q3IG2IJ 3GC4IIGK2GG2GGII RGIWG2GGA3Z2GZ2GGGD4 Z2W2L3Y3GGG2IGG2FG2 W2IIGI3GF2GGW2GGG2IG G2GIGGIIDII

CAMBRIDGE AND THE ALPS	A
	-
The leaves were fading when to Esthwaite's banks	B
And the simplicities of cottage life	C
I bade farewell and one among the youth	D
Who summoned by that season reunite	E
As scattered birds troop to the fowler's lure	F
Went back to Granta's cloisters not so prompt	G
Or eager though as gay and undepressed	G
In mind as when I thence had taken flight	G
A few short months before I turned my face	H
Without repining from the coves and heights	I
Clothed in the sunshine of the withering fern	J
Quitted not loth the mild magnificence	I
Of calmer lakes and louder streams and you	K
Frank hearted maids of rocky Cumberland	G
You and your not unwelcome days of mirth	L
Relinquished and your nights of revelry	M
And in my own unlovely cell sate down	N
In lightsome mood such privilege has youth	D
That cannot take long leave of pleasant thoughts	I
	-
The bonds of indolent society	M
Relaxing in their hold henceforth I lived	G
More to myself Two winters may be passed	G
Without a separate notice many books	I
Were skimmed devoured or studiously perused	G
But with no settled plan I was detached	G
Internally from academic cares	I
Yet independent study seemed a course	I
Of hardy disobedience toward friends	I
And kindred proud rebellion and unkind	G
This spurious virtue rather let it bear	O
A name it now deserves this cowardice	I
Gave treacherous sanction to that over love	P
Of freedom which encouraged me to turn	J
From regulations even of my own	Q
As from restraints and bonds Yet who can tell	R
Who knows what thus may have been gained both then	S
And at a later season or preserved	G
What love of nature what original strength	T
Of contemplation what intuitive truths	I
The deepest and the best what keen research	U
Unbiassed unbewildered and unawed	G
	-
The Poet's soul was with me at that time	V
Sweet meditations the still overflow	W
Of present happiness while future years	I
Lacked not anticipations tender dreams	I
No few of which have since been realised	G
And some remain hopes for my future life	C
Four years and thirty told this very week	X
Have I been now a sojourner on earth	L
By sorrow not unsmitten yet for me	M
Life's morning radiance hath not left the hills	I
Her dew is on the flowers Those were the days	I
Which also first emboldened me to trust	G
With firmness hitherto but slightly touched	G
By such a daring thought that I might leave	Y
Some monument behind me which pure hearts	I
Should reverence The instinctive humbleness	I
Maintained even by the very name and thought	G
Of printed books and authorship began	Z
To melt away and further the dread awe	A2
Of mighty names was softened down and seemed	G
Approachable admitting fellowship	B2
Of modest sympathy Such aspect now	C2
Though not familiarly my mind put on	D2
Content to observe to achieve and to enjoy	E2
	-
All winter long whenever free to choose	I
Did I by night frequent the College grove	F2
And tributary walks the last and oft	G
The only one who had been lingering there	O
Through hours of silence till the porter's bell	R
A punctual follower on the stroke of nine	G2
Rang with its blunt unceremonious voice	I
Inexorable summons Lofty elms	I
Inviting shades of opportune recess	I
Bestowed composure on a neighbourhood	G
Unpeaceful in itself A single tree	M
With sinuous trunk boughs exquisitely wreathed	G
Grew there an ash which Winter for himself	H2
Decked out with pride and with outlandish grace	I
Up from the ground and almost to the top	I2
The trunk and every master branch were green	J2
With clustering ivy and the lightsome twigs	I
And outer spray profusely tipped with seeds	I
That hung in yellow tassels while the air	O
Stirred them not voiceless Often have I stood	G
Foot bound uplooking at this lovely tree	M
Beneath a frosty moon The hemisphere	K2
Of magic fiction verse of mine perchance	I
May never tread but scarcely Spenser's self	H2
Could have more tranquil visions in his youth	D
Or could more bright appearances create	G
Of human forms with superhuman powers	I
Than I beheld loitering on calm clear nights	I
Alone beneath this fairy work of earth	L
	-
On the vague reading of a truant youth	D
'Twere idle to descant My inner judgment	G
Not seldom differed from my taste in books	I
As if it appertained to another mind	G
And yet the books which then I valued most	G
Are dearest to me 'now' for having scanned	G
Not heedlessly the laws and watched the forms	I
Of Nature in that knowledge I possessed	G
A standard often usefully applied	G
Even when unconsciously to things removed	G
From a familiar sympathy In fine	G2
I was a better judge of thoughts than words	I
Misled in estimating words not only	M
By common inexperience of youth	D
But by the trade in classic niceties	I
The dangerous craft of culling term and phrase	I
From languages that want the living voice	I
To carry meaning to the natural heart	G
To tell us what is passion what is truth	D
What reason what simplicity and sense	I
	-
Yet may we not entirely overlook	L2
The pleasure gathered from the rudiments	I
Of geometric science Though advanced	G
In these enquiries with regret I speak	X
No farther than the threshold there I found	G
Both elevation and composed delight	G
With Indian awe and wonder ignorance pleased	G
With its own struggles did I meditate	G
On the relation those abstractions bear	O
To Nature's laws and by what process led	G
Those immaterial agents bowed their heads	I
Duly to serve the mind of earth born man	Z
From star to star from kindred sphere to sphere	K2
From system on to system without end	G
	-
More frequently from the same source I drew	K
A pleasure quiet and profound a sense	I
Of permanent and universal sway	M2
And paramount belief there recognised	G
A type for finite natures of the one	N2
Supreme Existence the surpassing life	C
Which to the boundaries of space and time	V
Of melancholy space and doleful time	V
Superior and incapable of change	O2
Nor touched by welterings of passion is	I
And hath the name of God Transcendent peace	I
And silence did await upon these thoughts	I
That were a frequent comfort to my youth	D
	-
'Tis told by one whom stormy waters threw	K
With fellow sufferers by the shipwreck spared	G
Upon a desert coast that having brought	G
To land a single volume saved by chance	I
A treatise of Geometry he wont	G
Although of food and clothing destitute	G
And beyond common wretchedness depressed	G
To part from company and take this book	L2
Then first a self taught pupil in its truths	I
To spots remote and draw his diagrams	I
With a long staff upon the sand and thus	I
Did oft beguile his sorrow and almost	G
Forget his feeling so if like effect	G
From the same cause produced 'mid outward things	I
So different may rightly be compared	G
So was it then with me and so will be	M
With Poets ever Mighty is the charm	P2
Of those abstractions to a mind beset	G
With images and haunted by herself	H2
And specially delightful unto me	M
Was that clear synthesis built up aloft	G
So gracefully even then when it appeared	G
Not more than a mere plaything or a toy	G
To sense embodied not the thing it is	I
In verity an independent world	G
Created out of pure intelligence	I
	-
Such dispositions then were mine unearned	G
By aught I fear of genuine desert	G
Mine through heaven's grace and inborn aptitudes	I
And not to leave the story of that time	V
Imperfect with these habits must be joined	G
Moods melancholy fits of spleen that loved	G
A pensive sky sad days and piping winds	I
The twilight more than dawn autumn than spring	Q2
A treasured and luxurious gloom of choice	I
And inclination mainly and the mere	K2
Redundancy of youth's contentedness	I
To time thus spent add multitudes of hours	I
Pilfered away by what the Bard who sang	R2
Of the Enchanter Indolence hath called	G
Good natured lounging and behold a map	S2
Of my collegiate life far less intense	I
Than duty called for or without regard	G
To duty 'might' have sprung up of itself	H2
By change of accidents or even to speak	X
Without unkindness in another place	I
Yet why take refuge in that plea the fault	G
This I repeat was mine mine be the blame	T2
	-
In summer making quest for works of art	G
Or scenes renowned for beauty I explored	G
That streamlet whose blue current works its way	M2
Between romantic Dovedale's spiry rocks	I
Pried into Yorkshire dales or hidden tracts	I
Of my own native region and was blest	G
Between these sundry wanderings with a joy	G
Above all joys that seemed another morn	U2
Risen on mid noon blest with the presence Friend	G
Of that sole Sister her who hath been long	V2
Dear to thee also thy true friend and mine	G2
Now after separation desolate	G
Restored to me such absence that she seemed	G
A gift then first bestowed The varied banks	I
Of Emont hitherto unnamed in song	V2
And that monastic castle 'mid tall trees	I
Low standing by the margin of the stream	W2
A mansion visited as fame reports	I
By Sidney where in sight of our Helvellyn	G2
Or stormy Cross fell snatches he might pen	G2
Of his Arcadia by fraternal love	P
Inspired that river and those mouldering towers	I
Have seen us side by side when having clomb	W2
The darksome windings of a broken stair	O
And crept along a ridge of fractured wall	X2
Not without trembling we in safety looked	G
Forth through some Gothic window's open space	I
And gathered with one mind a rich reward	G
From the far stretching landscape by the light	G
Of morning beautified or purple eve	Y
Or not less pleased lay on some turret's head	G
Catching from tufts of grass and hare bell flowers	I
Their faintest whisper to the passing breeze	I
Given out while mid day heat oppressed the plains	I
	-
Another maid there was who also shed	G
A gladness o'er that season then to me	W2
By her exulting outside look of youth	D
And placid under countenance first endeared	G
That other spirit Coleridge who is now	G2
So near to us that meek confiding heart	G
So reverenced by us both O'er paths and fields	I
In all that neighbourhood through narrow lanes	I
Of eglantine and through the shady woods	I
And o'er the Border Beacon and the waste	G
Of naked pools and common crags that lay	M2
Exposed on the bare fell were scattered love	P
The spirit of pleasure and youth's golden gleam	W2
O Friend we had not seen thee at that time	W2
And yet a power is on me and a strong	V2
Confusion and I seem to plant thee there	O
Far art thou wandered now in search of health	Y2
And milder breezes melancholy lot	G
But thou art with us with us in the past	G
The present with us in the times to come	W2
There is no grief no sorrow no despair	O
No languor no dejection no dismay	M2
No absence scarcely can there be for those	I
Who love as we do Speed thee well divide	G
With us thy pleasure thy returning strength	T
Receive it daily as a joy of ours	I
Share with us thy fresh spirits whether gift	G
Of gales Etesian or of tender thoughts	I
	-
I too have been a wanderer but alas	I
How different the fate of different men	G2
Though mutually unknown yea nursed and reared	G
As if in several elements we were framed	G
To bend at last to the same discipline	G2
Predestined if two beings ever were	Z2
To seek the same delights and have one health	Y2
One happiness Throughout this narrative	A3
Else sooner ended I have borne in mind	G
For whom it registers the birth and marks the growth	B3
Of gentleness simplicity and truth	D
And joyous loves that hallow innocent days	I
Of peace and self command Of rivers fields	I
And groves I speak to thee my Friend to thee	W2
Who yet a liveried schoolboy in the depths	I
Of the huge city on the leaded roof	C3
Of that wide edifice thy school and home	W2
Wert used to lie and gaze upon the clouds	I
Moving in heaven or of that pleasure tired	G
To shut thine eyes and by internal light	G
See trees and meadows and thy native stream	W2
Far distant thus beheld from year to year	K2
Of a long exile Nor could I forget	G
In this late portion of my argument	G
That scarcely as my term of pupilage	G
Ceased had I left those academic bowers	I
When thou wert thither guided From the heart	G
Of London and from cloisters there thou camest	G
And didst sit down in temperance and peace	I
A rigorous student What a stormy course	I
Then followed Oh it is a pang that calls	I
For utterance to think what easy change	G
Of circumstances might to thee have spared	G
A world of pain ripened a thousand hopes	I
For ever withered Through this retrospect	G
Of my collegiate life I still have had	G
Thy after sojourn in the self same place	I
Present before my eyes have played with times	I
And accidents as children do with cards	I
Or as a man who when his house is built	G
A frame locked up in wood and stone doth still	D3
As impotent fancy prompts by his fireside	G
Rebuild it to his liking I have thought	G
Of thee thy learning gorgeous eloquence	I
And all the strength and plumage of thy youth	D
Thy subtle speculations toils abstruse	I
Among the schoolmen and Platonic forms	I
Of wild ideal pageantry shaped out	G
From things well matched or ill and words for things	I
The self created sustenance of a mind	G
Debarred from Nature's living images	I
Compelled to be a life unto herself	H2
And unrelentingly possessed by thirst	G
Of greatness love and beauty Not alone	G2
Ah surely not in singleness of heart	G
Should I have seen the light of evening fade	G
From smooth Cam's silent waters had we met	G
Even at that early time needs must I trust	G
In the belief that my maturer age	G
My calmer habits and more steady voice	I
Would with an influence benign have soothed	G
Or chased away the airy wretchedness	I
That battened on thy youth But thou hast trod	G
A march of glory which doth put to shame	W2
These vain regrets health suffers in thee else	I
Such grief for thee would be the weakest thought	G
That ever harboured in the breast of man	G2
	-
A passing word erewhile did lightly touch	E3
On wanderings of my own that now embraced	G
With livelier hope a region wider far	F3
	-
When the third summer freed us from restraint	G
A youthful friend he too a mountaineer	K2
Not slow to share my wishes took his staff	G3
And sallying forth we journeyed side by side	G
Bound to the distant Alps A hardy slight	G
Did this unprecedented course imply	H3
Of college studies and their set rewards	I
Nor had in truth the scheme been formed by me	W2
Without uneasy forethought of the pain	G2
The censures and ill omening of those	I
To whom my worldly interests were dear	K2
But Nature then was sovereign in my mind	G
And mighty forms seizing a youthful fancy	W2
Had given a charter to irregular hopes	I
In any age of uneventful calm	W2
Among the nations surely would my heart	G
Have been possessed by similar desire	Z2
But Europe at that time was thrilled with joy	G
France standing on the top of golden hours	I
And human nature seeming born again	G2
	-
Lightly equipped and but a few brief looks	I
Cast on the white cliffs of our native shore	I3
From the receding vessel's deck we chanced	G
To land at Calais on the very eve	Y
Of that great federal day and there we saw	I
In a mean city and among a few	K
How bright a face is worn when joy of one	G2
Is joy for tens of millions Southward thence	I
We held our way direct through hamlets towns	I
Gaudy with reliques of that festival	J3
Flowers left to wither on triumphal arcs	I
And window garlands On the public roads	I
And once three days successively through paths	I
By which our toilsome journey was abridged	G
Among sequestered villages we walked	G
And found benevolence and blessedness	I
Spread like a fragrance everywhere when spring	Q2
Hath left no corner of the land untouched	G
Where elms for many and many a league in files	I
With their thin umbrage on the stately roads	I
Of that great kingdom rustled o'er our heads	I
For ever near us as we paced along	V2
How sweet at such a time with such delight	G
On every side in prime of youthful strength	T
To feed a Poet's tender melancholy	W2
And fond conceit of sadness with the sound	G
Of undulations varying as might please	I
The wind that swayed them once and more than once	I
Unhoused beneath the evening star we saw	I
Dances of liberty and in late hours	I
Of darkness dances in the open air	O
Deftly prolonged though grey haired lookers on	G2
Might waste their breath in chiding	Q2
Under hills	I
The vine clad hills and slopes of Burgundy	W2
Upon the bosom of the gentle Saone	G2
We glided forward with the flowing stream	W2
Swift Rhone thou wert the 'wings' on which we cut	G
A winding passage with majestic ease	I
Between thy lofty rocks Enchanting show	W
Those woods and farms and orchards did present	G
And single cottages and lurking towns	I
Reach after reach succession without end	G
Of deep and stately vales A lonely pair	O
Of strangers till day closed we sailed along	V2
Clustered together with a merry crowd	G
Of those emancipated a blithe host	G
Of travellers chiefly delegates returning	Q2
From the great spousals newly solemnised	G
At their chief city in the sight of Heaven	G2
Like bees they swarmed gaudy and gay as bees	I
Some vapoured in the unruliness of joy	G
And with their swords flourished as if to fight	G
The saucy air In this proud company	W2
We landed took with them our evening meal	K3
Guests welcome almost as the angels were	Z2
To Abraham of old The supper done	G2
With flowing cups elate and happy thoughts	I
We rose at signal given and formed a ring	Q2
And hand in hand danced round and round the board	G
All hearts were open every tongue was loud	G
With amity and glee we bore a name	W2
Honoured in France the name of Englishmen	G2
And hospitably did they give us hail	L3
As their forerunners in a glorious course	I
And round and round the board we danced again	G2
With these blithe friends our voyage we renewed	G
At early dawn The monastery bells	I
Made a sweet jingling in our youthful ears	I
The rapid river flowing without noise	I
And each uprising or receding spire	M3
Spake with a sense of peace at intervals	I
Touching the heart amid the boisterous crew	K
By whom we were encompassed Taking leave	Y
Of this glad throng foot travellers side by side	G
Measuring our steps in quiet we pursued	G
Our journey and ere twice the sun had set	G
Beheld the Convent of Chartreuse and there	O
Rested within an awful 'solitude'	G
Yes for even then no other than a place	I
Of soul affecting 'solitude' appeared	G
That far famed region though our eyes had seen	G2
As toward the sacred mansion we advanced	G
Arms flashing and a military glare	O
Of riotous men commissioned to expel	R
The blameless inmates and belike subvert	G
That frame of social being which so long	V2
Had bodied forth the ghostliness of things	I
In silence visible and perpetual calm	W2
Stay stay your sacrilegious hands The voice	I
Was Nature's uttered from her Alpine throne	G2
I heard it then and seem to hear it now	G2
Your impious work forbear perish what may	M2
Let this one temple last be this one spot	G
Of earth devoted to eternity	G
She ceased to speak but while St Bruno's pines	I
Waved their dark tops not silent as they waved	G
And while below along their several beds	I
Murmured the sister streams of Life and Death	N3
Thus by conflicting passions pressed my heart	G
Responded Honour to the patriot's zeal	K3
Glory and hope to new born Liberty	G
Hail to the mighty projects of the time	W2
Discerning sword that Justice wields do thou	G2
Go forth and prosper and ye purging fires	I
Up to the loftiest towers of Pride ascend	G
Fanned by the breath of angry Providence	I
But oh if Past and Future be the wings	I
On whose support harmoniously conjoined	G
Moves the great spirit of human knowledge spare	O
These courts of mystery where a step advanced	G
Between the portals of the shadowy rocks	I
Leaves far behind life's treacherous vanities	I
For penitential tears and trembling hopes	I
Exchanged to equalise in God's pure sight	G
Monarch and peasant be the house redeemed	G
With its unworldly votaries for the sake	O3
Of conquest over sense hourly achieved	G
Through faith and meditative reason resting	Q2
Upon the word of heaven imparted truth	D
Calmly triumphant and for humbler claim	W2
Of that imaginative impulse sent	G
From these majestic floods yon shining cliffs	I
The untransmuted shapes of many worlds	I
Cerulean ether's pure inhabitants	I
These forests unapproachable by death	N3
That shall endure as long as man endures	I
To think to hope to worship and to feel	K3
To struggle to be lost within himself	H2
In trepidation from the blank abyss	I
To look with bodily eyes and be consoled	G
Not seldom since that moment have I wished	G
That thou O Friend the trouble or the calm	W2
Hadst shared when from profane regards apart	G
In sympathetic reverence we trod	G
The floors of those dim cloisters till that hour	Z2
From their foundation strangers to the presence	I
Of unrestricted and unthinking man	G2
Abroad how cheeringly the sunshine lay	M2
Upon the open lawns Vallombre's groves	I
Entering we fed the soul with darkness thence	I
Issued and with uplifted eyes beheld	G
In different quarters of the bending sky	H3
The cross of Jesus stand erect as if	P3
Hands of angelic powers had fixed it there	O
Memorial reverenced by a thousand storms	I
Yet then from the undiscriminating sweep	Q3
And rage of one State whirlwind insecure	Z2
	-
'Tis not my present purpose to retrace	I
That variegated journey step by step	R3
A march it was of military speed	G
And Earth did change her images and forms	I
Before us fast as clouds are changed in heaven	G2
Day after day up early and down late	G
From hill to vale we dropped from vale to hill	D3
Mounted from province on to province swept	G
Keen hunters in a chase of fourteen weeks	I
Eager as birds of prey or as a ship	B2
Upon the stretch when winds are blowing fair	O
Sweet coverts did we cross of pastoral life	C
Enticing valleys greeted them and left	G
Too soon while yet the very flash and gleam	W2
Of salutation were not passed away	M2
Oh sorrow for the youth who could have seen	G2
Unchastened unsubdued unawed unraised	G
To patriarchal dignity of mind	G
And pure simplicity of wish and will	D3
Those sanctified abodes of peaceful man	G2
Pleased though to hardship born and compassed round	G
With danger varying as the seasons change	G
Pleased with his daily task or if not pleased	G
Contented from the moment that the dawn	G2
Ah surely not without attendant gleams	I
Of soul illumination calls him forth	S3
To industry by glistenings flung on rocks	I
Whose evening shadows lead him to repose	I
	-
Well might a stranger look with bounding heart	G
Down on a green recess the first I saw	I
Of those deep haunts an aboriginal vale	L3
Quiet and lorded over and possessed	G
By naked huts wood built and sown like tents	I
Or Indian cabins over the fresh lawns	I
And by the river side	G
That very day	G
From a bare ridge we also first beheld	G
Unveiled the summit of Mont Blanc and grieved	G
To have a soulless image on the eye	H3
That had usurped upon a living thought	G
That never more could be The wondrous Vale	L3
Of Chamouny stretched far below and soon	G2
With its dumb cataracts and streams of ice	I
A motionless array of mighty waves	I
Five rivers broad and vast made rich amends	I
And reconciled us to realities	I
There small birds warble from the leafy trees	I
The eagle soars high in the element	G
There doth the reaper bind the yellow sheaf	T3
The maiden spread the haycock in the sun	G2
While Winter like a well tamed lion walks	I
Descending from the mountain to make sport	G
Among the cottages by beds of flowers	I
	-
Whate'er in this wide circuit we beheld	G
Or heard was fitted to our unripe state	G
Of intellect and heart With such a book	L2
Before our eyes we could not choose but read	G
Lessons of genuine brotherhood the plain	G2
And universal reason of mankind	G
The truths of young and old Nor side by side	G
Pacing two social pilgrims or alone	G2
Each with his humour could we fail to abound	G
In dreams and fictions pensively composed	G
Dejection taken up for pleasure's sake	O3
And gilded sympathies the willow wreath	U3
And sober posies of funereal flowers	I
Gathered among those solitudes sublime	W2
From formal gardens of the lady Sorrow	W
Did sweeten many a meditative hour	Z2
	-
Yet still in me with those soft luxuries	I
Mixed something of stern mood an underthirst	G
Of vigour seldom utterly allayed	G
And from that source how different a sadness	I
Would issue let one incident make known	G2
When from the Vallais we had turned and clomb	W2
Along the Simplon's steep and rugged road	G
Following a band of muleteers we reached	G
A halting place where all together took	L2
Their noon tide meal Hastily rose our guide	G
Leaving us at the board awhile we lingered	G
Then paced the beaten downward way that led	G
Right to a rough stream's edge and there broke off	V3
The only track now visible was one	G2
That from the torrent's further brink held forth	S3
Conspicuous invitation to ascend	G
A lofty mountain After brief delay	G
Crossing the unbridged stream that road we took	L2
And clomb with eagerness till anxious fears	I
Intruded for we failed to overtake	O3
Our comrades gone before By fortunate chance	I
While every moment added doubt to doubt	G
A peasant met us from whose mouth we learned	G
That to the spot which had perplexed us first	G
We must descend and there should find the road	G
Which in the stony channel of the stream	W2
Lay a few steps and then along its banks	I
And that our future course all plain to sight	G
Was downwards with the current of that stream	W2
Loth to believe what we so grieved to hear	W3
For still we had hopes that pointed to the clouds	I
We questioned him again and yet again	G2
But every word that from the peasant's lips	I
Came in reply translated by our feelings	I
Ended in this 'that we had crossed the Alps'	I
	-
Imagination here the Power so called	G
Through sad incompetence of human speech	X3
That awful Power rose from the mind's abyss	I
Like an unfathered vapour that enwraps	I
At once some lonely traveller I was lost	G
Halted without an effort to break through	K
But to my conscious soul I now can say	I
I recognise thy glory in such strength	T
Of usurpation when the light of sense	I
Goes out but with a flash that has revealed	G
The invisible world doth greatness make abode	G
There harbours whether we be young or old	G
Our destiny our being's heart and home	W2
Is with infinitude and only there	O
With hope it is hope that can never die	G
Effort and expectation and desire	Z2
And something evermore about to be	G
Under such banners militant the soul	Y3
Seeks for no trophies struggles for no spoils	I
That may attest her prowess blest in thoughts	I
That are their own perfection and reward	G
Strong in herself and in beatitude	G
That hides her like the mighty flood of Nile	Z3
Poured from his fount of Abyssinian clouds	I
To fertilise the whole Egyptian plain	G2
	-
The melancholy slackening that ensued	G
Upon those tidings by the peasant given	G2
Was soon dislodged Downwards we hurried fast	G
And with the half shaped road which we had missed	G
Entered a narrow chasm The brook and road	G
Were fellow travellers in this gloomy strait	G
And with them did we journey several hours	I
At a slow pace The immeasurable height	G
Of woods decaying never to be decayed	G
The stationary blasts of waterfalls	I
And in the narrow rent at every turn	G2
Winds thwarting winds bewildered and forlorn	G2
The torrents shooting from the clear blue sky	G
The rocks that muttered close upon our ears	I
Black drizzling crags that spake by the way side	G
As if a voice were in them the sick sight	G
And giddy prospect of the raving stream	W2
The unfettered clouds and region of the Heavens	I
Tumult and peace the darkness and the light	G
Were all like workings of one mind the features	I
Of the same face blossoms upon one tree	G
Characters of the great Apocalypse	I
The types and symbols of Eternity	G
Of first and last and midst and without end	G
	-
That night our lodging was a house that stood	G
Alone within the valley at a point	G
Where tumbling from aloft a torrent swelled	G
The rapid stream whose margin we had trod	G
A dreary mansion large beyond all need	G
With high and spacious rooms deafened and stunned	G
By noise of waters making innocent sleep	Q3
Lie melancholy among weary bones	I
	-
Uprisen betimes our journey we renewed	G
Led by the stream ere noon day magnified	G
Into a lordly river broad and deep	Q3
Dimpling along in silent majesty	G
With mountains for its neighbours and in view	K
Of distant mountains and their snowy tops	I
And thus proceeding to Locarno's Lake	O3
Fit resting place for such a visitant	G
Locarno spreading out in width like Heaven	G2
How dost thou cleave to the poetic heart	G
Bask in the sunshine of the memory	G
And Como thou a treasure whom the earth	L
Keeps to herself confined as in a depth	A4
Of Abyssinian privacy I spake	O3
Of thee thy chestnut woods and garden plots	I
Of Indian corn tended by dark eyed maids	I
Thy lofty steeps and pathways roofed with vines	I
Winding from house to house from town to town	G2
Sole link that binds them to each other walks	I
League after league and cloistral avenues	I
Where silence dwells if music be not there	O
While yet a youth undisciplined in verse	I
Through fond ambition of that hour I strove	F2
To chant your praise nor can approach you now	G2
Ungreeted by a more melodious Song	V2
Where tones of Nature smoothed by learned Art	G
May flow in lasting current Like a breeze	I
Or sunbeam over your domain I passed	G
In motion without pause but ye have left	G
Your beauty with me a serene accord	G
Of forms and colours passive yet endowed	G
In their submissiveness with power as sweet	G
And gracious almost might I dare to say	I
As virtue is or goodness sweet as love	P
Or the remembrance of a generous deed	G
Or mildest visitations of pure thought	G
When God the giver of all joy is thanked	G
Religiously in silent blessedness	I
Sweet as this last herself for such it is	I
	-
With those delightful pathways we advanced	G
For two days' space in presence of the Lake	O3
That stretching far among the Alps assumed	G
A character more stern The second night	G
From sleep awakened and misled by sound	G
Of the church clock telling the hours with strokes	I
Whose import then we had not learned we rose	I
By moonlight doubting not that day was nigh	G
And that meanwhile by no uncertain path	B4
Along the winding margin of the lake	O3
Led as before we should behold the scene	G2
Hushed in profound repose We left the town	G2
Of Gravedona with this hope but soon	G2
Were lost bewildered among woods immense	I
And on a rock sate down to wait for day	I
An open place it was and overlooked	G
From high the sullen water far beneath	U3
On which a dull red image of the moon	G2
Lay bedded changing oftentimes its form	W2
Like an uneasy snake From hour to hour	Z2
We sate and sate wondering as if the night	G
Had been ensnared by witchcraft On the rock	C4
At last we stretched our weary limbs for sleep	Q3
But 'could not' sleep tormented by the stings	I
Of insects which with noise like that of noon	G2
Filled all the woods the cry of unknown birds	I
The mountains more by blackness visible	J3
And their own size than any outward light	G
The breathless wilderness of clouds the clock	C4
That told with unintelligible voice	I
The widely parted hours the noise of streams	I
And sometimes rustling motions nigh at hand	G
That did not leave us free from personal fear	K2
And lastly the withdrawing moon that set	G
Before us while she still was high in heaven	G2
These were our food and such a summer's night	G
Followed that pair of golden days that shed	G
On Como's Lake and all that round it lay	I
Their fairest softest happiest influence	I
	-
But here I must break off and bid farewell	R
To days each offering some new sight or fraught	G
With some untried adventure in a course	I
Prolonged till sprinklings of autumnal snow	W
Checked our unwearied steps Let this alone	G2
Be mentioned as a parting word that not	G
In hollow exultation dealing out	G
Hyperboles of praise comparative	A3
Not rich one moment to be poor for ever	Z2
Not prostrate overborne as if the mind	G
Herself were nothing a mere pensioner	Z2
On outward forms did we in presence stand	G
Of that magnificent region On the front	G
Of this whole Song is written that my heart	G
Must in such Temple needs have offered up	D4
A different worship Finally whate'er	Z2
I saw or heard or felt was but a stream	W2
That flowed into a kindred stream a gale	L3
Confederate with the current of the soul	Y3
To speed my voyage every sound or sight	G
In its degree of power administered	G
To grandeur or to tenderness to the one	G2
Directly but to tender thoughts by means	I
Less often instantaneous in effect	G
Led me to these by paths that in the main	G2
Were more circuitous but not less sure	F
Duly to reach the point marked out by Heaven	G2
	-
Oh most beloved Friend a glorious time	W2
A happy time that was triumphant looks	I
Were then the common language of all eyes	I
As if awaked from sleep the Nations hailed	G
Their great expectancy the fife of war	I3
Was then a spirit stirring sound indeed	G
A blackbird's whistle in a budding grove	F2
We left the Swiss exulting in the fate	G
Of their near neighbours and when shortening fast	G
Our pilgrimage nor distant far from home	W2
We crossed the Brabant armies on the fret	G
For battle in the cause of Liberty	G
A stripling scarcely of the household then	G2
Of social life I looked upon these things	I
As from a distance heard and saw and felt	G
Was touched but with no intimate concern	G2
I seemed to move along them as a bird	G
Moves through the air or as a fish pursues	I
Its sport or feeds in its proper element	G
I wanted not that joy I did not need	G
Such help the ever living universe	I
Turn where I might was opening out its glories	I
And the independent spirit of pure youth	D
Called forth at every season new delights	I
Spread round my steps like sunshine o'er green fields	I

William Wordsworth

Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme

Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation

<< The White Doe Of Rylstone, Or, The Fate Of The Nortons - Canto First Poem The Prelude - Book First Poem>>

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

Best Poems of William Wordsworth

Recent Interactions*

This poem was read 30 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)