The Prelude - Book Third Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDEFG HIJKLMNOPQR SKTUUVUUUWXU UYZA2B2C2D2E2UKF2G2U H2UUU I2UJ2UK2L2UM2UA2N2UU UUO2C2P2 Q2UR2R2R2UR2R2US2T2R 2UR2R2R2UC2U2J2DSV2W 2R2X2UUR2R2JUY2Z2UA3 UB3R2UR2UUG2R2C3UC3U D3R2UR2E3JUR2F3G3H3Z 2UUC2UX2R2I3Y2J3H2R2 K3UUUL3P2UUUR2R2M3UN 3UO3R2F2R2G2Z2R2R2G2 P3R2R2Q3E3UR3 S3T3UC2D3RR2R2UUR2UU P2UU3R3R2R2V3R2D3W3X 3R2UC2 R3QR2UUUR2 UR2D3D2UT3R2R2Y3R2Z3 UUUT3UUKJR2Z3UR2R2UZ 3UR2P2UA4UM3 UR2R2UUUR2R2UC3UUR2T 3UR2R2Z3T3UR2U UUUR2Y3R2UUUR2Y3D3UB 4US3R2UU Y3UR2UUY3R2UUZ3UUB4R 2Z3R2C4UY3Q2UUUUUY3Y 3Y3R2Z2JT3R2UUR2O3S3 UUR2UUR2C2R2Z2UO3UD4 R2UR2E4UR2UUUT3R2R2U R2UUY3UN3R2T3UN3Z3S3 KR2UR2R2KUZ3F4R2UUS3 C2G4UUT3US3UR2W3Y3R2 R2UUR2UR2UY3R2UUS3UR 2UR2J2UUZ3T3Y3T3R2R2 J2Y3UY3W3T3Y3S3UY3R2 UUR2UJ2R2F4R2UR2UZ3Y 3R2R2T3JM3Z3US3UR2R2 H4J2Y3UUY3UR2UUUUY3U UR2S3UI4UR2Y3JR2R2UR 2UJJ2UZ3R2UC4Y3R2R2R 2US3Y3UUR2U UR2R2S3J2UR2UJ2S3T3S 3Z3R2T3S3R2UD2UT3UUU Y3T3R2R2R2UU O3US3N3J2Z3R2R2R2Z3J 4UR2J2UZ3US3Y3UR2T3R 2UR2K4Q2Y3UUJ2UY2L4R 2J2UR2 J2UM4UG2US3R2J2W3UR2 S3R2Y3UR2UU3UUUR2UUU UY3R2S3UR2 UUR2UUJ2UR2J2UR2T3R2 R2R2USR2N4J2Z3UT3UUZ 3S3R2Z3Y3 R2Z3JS3UQ3UUR2UUY3R2 T3S3R2US3UW2 UY2Z3R2

RESIDENCE AT CAMBRIDGE	A
	-
It was a dreary morning when the wheels	B
Rolled over a wide plain o'erhung with clouds	C
And nothing cheered our way till first we saw	D
The long roofed chapel of King's College lift	E
Turrets and pinnacles in answering files	F
Extended high above a dusky grove	G
	-
Advancing we espied upon the road	H
A student clothed in gown and tasselled cap	I
Striding along as if o'ertasked by Time	J
Or covetous of exercise and air	K
He passed nor was I master of my eyes	L
Till he was left an arrow's flight behind	M
As near and nearer to the spot we drew	N
It seemed to suck us in with an eddy's force	O
Onward we drove beneath the Castle caught	P
While crossing Magdalene Bridge a glimpse of Cam	Q
And at the Hoop alighted famous Inn	R
	-
My spirit was up my thoughts were full of hope	S
Some friends I had acquaintances who there	K
Seemed friends poor simple schoolboys now hung round	T
With honour and importance in a world	U
Of welcome faces up and down I roved	U
Questions directions warnings and advice	V
Flowed in upon me from all sides fresh day	U
Of pride and pleasure to myself I seemed	U
A man of business and expense and went	U
From shop to shop about my own affairs	W
To Tutor or to Tailor as befell	X
From street to street with loose and careless mind	U
	-
I was the Dreamer they the Dream I roamed	U
Delighted through the motley spectacle	Y
Gowns grave or gaudy doctors students streets	Z
Courts cloisters flocks of churches gateways towers	A2
Migration strange for a stripling of the hills	B2
A northern villager	C2
As if the change	D2
Had waited on some Fairy's wand at once	E2
Behold me rich in monies and attired	U
In splendid garb with hose of silk and hair	K
Powdered like rimy trees when frost is keen	F2
My lordly dressing gown I pass it by	G2
With other signs of manhood that supplied	U
The lack of beard The weeks went roundly on	H2
With invitations suppers wine and fruit	U
Smooth housekeeping within and all without	U
Liberal and suiting gentleman's array	U
	-
The Evangelist St John my patron was	I2
Three Gothic courts are his and in the first	U
Was my abiding place a nook obscure	J2
Right underneath the College kitchens made	U
A humming sound less tuneable than bees	K2
But hardly less industrious with shrill notes	L2
Of sharp command and scolding intermixed	U
Near me hung Trinity's loquacious clock	M2
Who never let the quarters night or day	U
Slip by him unproclaimed and told the hours	A2
Twice over with a male and female voice	N2
Her pealing organ was my neighbour too	U
And from my pillow looking forth by light	U
Of moon or favouring stars I could behold	U
The antechapel where the statue stood	U
Of Newton with his prism and silent face	O2
The marble index of a mind for ever	C2
Voyaging through strange seas of Thought alone	P2
	-
Of College labours of the Lecturer's room	Q2
All studded round as thick as chairs could stand	U
With loyal students faithful to their books	R2
Half and half idlers hardy recusants	R2
And honest dunces of important days	R2
Examinations when the man was weighed	U
As in a balance of excessive hopes	R2
Tremblings withal and commendable fears	R2
Small jealousies and triumphs good or bad	U
Let others that know more speak as they know	S2
Such glory was but little sought by me	T2
And little won Yet from the first crude days	R2
Of settling time in this untried abode	U
I was disturbed at times by prudent thoughts	R2
Wishing to hope without a hope some fears	R2
About my future worldly maintenance	R2
And more than all a strangeness in the mind	U
A feeling that I was not for that hour	C2
Nor for that place But wherefore be cast down	U2
For not to speak of Reason and her pure	J2
Reflective acts to fix the moral law	D
Deep in the conscience nor of Christian Hope	S
Bowing her head before her sister Faith	V2
As one far mightier hither I had come	W2
Bear witness Truth endowed with holy powers	R2
And faculties whether to work or feel	X2
Oft when the dazzling show no longer new	U
Had ceased to dazzle ofttimes did I quit	U
My comrades leave the crowd buildings and groves	R2
And as I paced alone the level fields	R2
Far from those lovely sights and sounds sublime	J
With which I had been conversant the mind	U
Drooped not but there into herself returning	Y2
With prompt rebound seemed fresh as heretofore	Z2
At least I more distinctly recognised	U
Her native instincts let me dare to speak	A3
A higher language say that now I felt	U
What independent solaces were mine	B3
To mitigate the injurious sway of place	R2
Or circumstance how far soever changed	U
In youth or 'to' be changed in after years	R2
As if awakened summoned roused constrained	U
I looked for universal things perused	U
The common countenance of earth and sky	G2
Earth nowhere unembellished by some trace	R2
Of that first Paradise whence man was driven	C3
And sky whose beauty and bounty are expressed	U
By the proud name she bears the name of Heaven	C3
I called on both to teach me what they might	U
Or turning the mind in upon herself	D3
Pored watched expected listened spread my thoughts	R2
And spread them with a wider creeping felt	U
Incumbencies more awful visitings	R2
Of the Upholder of the tranquil soul	E3
That tolerates the indignities of Time	J
And from the centre of Eternity	U
All finite motions overruling lives	R2
In glory immutable But peace enough	F3
Here to record that I was mounting now	G3
To such community with highest truth	H3
A track pursuing not untrod before	Z2
From strict analogies by thought supplied	U
Or consciousnesses not to be subdued	U
To every natural form rock fruits or flower	C2
Even the loose stones that cover the highway	U
I gave a moral life I saw them feel	X2
Or linked them to some feeling the great mass	R2
Lay bedded in a quickening soul and all	I3
That I beheld respired with inward meaning	Y2
Add that whate'er of Terror or of Love	J3
Or Beauty Nature's daily face put on	H2
From transitory passion unto this	R2
I was as sensitive as waters are	K3
To the sky's influence in a kindred mood	U
Of passion was obedient as a lute	U
That waits upon the touches of the wind	U
Unknown unthought of yet I was most rich	L3
I had a world about me 'twas my own	P2
I made it for it only lived to me	U
And to the God who sees into the heart	U
Such sympathies though rarely were betrayed	U
By outward gestures and by visible looks	R2
Some called it madness so indeed it was	R2
If child like fruitfulness in passing joy	M3
If steady moods of thoughtfulness matured	U
To inspiration sort with such a name	N3
If prophecy be madness if things viewed	U
By poets in old time and higher up	O3
By the first men earth's first inhabitants	R2
May in these tutored days no more be seen	F2
With undisordered sight But leaving this	R2
It was no madness for the bodily eye	G2
Amid my strongest workings evermore	Z2
Was searching out the lines of difference	R2
As they lie hid in all external forms	R2
Near or remote minute or vast an eye	G2
Which from a tree a stone a withered leaf	P3
To the broad ocean and the azure heavens	R2
Spangled with kindred multitudes of stars	R2
Could find no surface where its power might sleep	Q3
Which spake perpetual logic to my soul	E3
And by an unrelenting agency	U
Did bind my feelings even as in a chain	R3
	-
And here O Friend have I retraced my life	S3
Up to an eminence and told a tale	T3
Of matters which not falsely may be called	U
The glory of my youth Of genius power	C2
Creation and divinity itself	D3
I have been speaking for my theme has been	R
What passed within me Not of outward things	R2
Done visibly for other minds words signs	R2
Symbols or actions but of my own heart	U
Have I been speaking and my youthful mind	U
O Heavens how awful is the might of souls	R2
And what they do within themselves while yet	U
The yoke of earth is new to them the world	U
Nothing but a wild field where they were sown	P2
This is in truth heroic argument	U
This genuine prowess which I wished to touch	U3
With hand however weak but in the main	R3
It lies far hidden from the reach of words	R2
Points have we all of us within our souls	R2
Where all stand single this I feel and make	V3
Breathings for incommunicable powers	R2
But is not each a memory to himself	D3
And therefore now that we must quit this theme	W3
I am not heartless for there's not a man	X3
That lives who hath not known his god like hours	R2
And feels not what an empire we inherit	U
As natural beings in the strength of Nature	C2
	-
No more for now into a populous plain	R3
We must descend A Traveller I am	Q
Whose tale is only of himself even so	R2
So be it if the pure of heart be prompt	U
To follow and if thou my honoured Friend	U
Who in these thoughts art ever at my side	U
Support as heretofore my fainting steps	R2
	-
It hath been told that when the first delight	U
That flashed upon me from this novel show	R2
Had failed the mind returned into herself	D3
Yet true it is that I had made a change	D2
In climate and my nature's outward coat	U
Changed also slowly and insensibly	T3
Full oft the quiet and exalted thoughts	R2
Of loneliness gave way to empty noise	R2
And superficial pastimes now and then	Y3
Forced labour and more frequently forced hopes	R2
And worst of all a treasonable growth	Z3
Of indecisive judgments that impaired	U
And shook the mind's simplicity And yet	U
This was a gladsome time Could I behold	U
Who less insensible than sodden clay	T3
In a sea river's bed at ebb of tide	U
Could have beheld with undelighted heart	U
So many happy youths so wide and fair	K
A congregation in its budding time	J
Of health and hope and beauty all at once	R2
So many divers samples from the growth	Z3
Of life's sweet season could have seen unmoved	U
That miscellaneous garland of wild flowers	R2
Decking the matron temples of a place	R2
So famous through the world To me at least	U
It was a goodly prospect for in sooth	Z3
Though I had learnt betimes to stand unpropped	U
And independent musings pleased me so	R2
That spells seemed on me when I was alone	P2
Yet could I only cleave to solitude	U
In lonely places if a throng was near	A4
That way I leaned by nature for my heart	U
Was social and loved idleness and joy	M3
	-
Not seeking those who might participate	U
My deeper pleasures nay I had not once	R2
Though not unused to mutter lonesome songs	R2
Even with myself divided such delight	U
Or looked that way for aught that might be clothed	U
In human language easily I passed	U
From the remembrances of better things	R2
And slipped into the ordinary works	R2
Of careless youth unburthened unalarmed	U
'Caverns' there were within my mind which sun	C3
Could never penetrate yet did there not	U
Want store of leafy 'arbours' where the light	U
Might enter in at will Companionships	R2
Friendships acquaintances were welcome all	T3
We sauntered played or rioted we talked	U
Unprofitable talk at morning hours	R2
Drifted about along the streets and walks	R2
Read lazily in trivial books went forth	Z3
To gallop through the country in blind zeal	T3
Of senseless horsemanship or on the breast	U
Of Cam sailed boisterously and let the stars	R2
Come forth perhaps without one quiet thought	U
	-
Such was the tenor of the second act	U
In this new life Imagination slept	U
And yet not utterly I could not print	U
Ground where the grass had yielded to the steps	R2
Of generations of illustrious men	Y3
Unmoved I could not always lightly pass	R2
Through the same gateways sleep where they had slept	U
Wake where they waked range that inclosure old	U
That garden of great intellects undisturbed	U
Place also by the side of this dark sense	R2
Of noble feeling that those spiritual men	Y3
Even the great Newton's own ethereal self	D3
Seemed humbled in these precincts thence to be	U
The more endeared Their several memories here	B4
Even like their persons in their portraits clothed	U
With the accustomed garb of daily life	S3
Put on a lowly and a touching grace	R2
Of more distinct humanity that left	U
All genuine admiration unimpaired	U
	-
Beside the pleasant Mill of Trompington	Y3
I laughed with Chaucer in the hawthorn shade	U
Heard him while birds were warbling tell his tales	R2
Of amorous passion And that gentle Bard	U
Chosen by the Muses for their Page of State	U
Sweet Spenser moving through his clouded heaven	Y3
With the moon's beauty and the moon's soft pace	R2
I called him Brother Englishman and Friend	U
Yea our blind Poet who in his later day	U
Stood almost single uttering odious truth	Z3
Darkness before and danger's voice behind	U
Soul awful if the earth has ever lodged	U
An awful soul I seemed to see him here	B4
Familiarly and in his scholar's dress	R2
Bounding before me yet a stripling youth	Z3
A boy no better with his rosy cheeks	R2
Angelical keen eye courageous look	C4
And conscious step of purity and pride	U
Among the band of my compeers was one	Y3
Whom chance had stationed in the very room	Q2
Honoured by Milton's name O temperate Bard	U
Be it confest that for the first time seated	U
Within thy innocent lodge and oratory	U
One of a festive circle I poured out	U
Libations to thy memory drank till pride	U
And gratitude grew dizzy in a brain	Y3
Never excited by the fumes of wine	Y3
Before that hour or since Then forth I ran	Y3
From the assembly through a length of streets	R2
Ran ostrich like to reach our chapel door	Z2
In not a desperate or opprobrious time	J
Albeit long after the importunate bell	T3
Had stopped with wearisome Cassandra voice	R2
No longer haunting the dark winter night	U
Call back O Friend a moment to thy mind	U
The place itself and fashion of the rites	R2
With careless ostentation shouldering up	O3
My surplice through the inferior throng I clove	S3
Of the plain Burghers who in audience stood	U
On the last skirts of their permitted ground	U
Under the pealing organ Empty thoughts	R2
I am ashamed of them and that great Bard	U
And thou O Friend who in thy ample mind	U
Hast placed me high above my best deserts	R2
Ye will forgive the weakness of that hour	C2
In some of its unworthy vanities	R2
Brother to many more	Z2
In this mixed sort	U
The months passed on remissly not given up	O3
To wilful alienation from the right	U
Or walks of open scandal but in vague	D4
And loose indifference easy likings aims	R2
Of a low pitch duty and zeal dismissed	U
Yet Nature or a happy course of things	R2
Not doing in their stead the needful work	E4
The memory languidly revolved the heart	U
Reposed in noontide rest the inner pulse	R2
Of contemplation almost failed to beat	U
Such life might not inaptly be compared	U
To a floating island an amphibious spot	U
Unsound of spongy texture yet withal	T3
Not wanting a fair face of water weeds	R2
And pleasant flowers The thirst of living praise	R2
Fit reverence for the glorious Dead the sight	U
Of those long vistas sacred catacombs	R2
Where mighty 'minds' lie visibly entombed	U
Have often stirred the heart of youth and bred	U
A fervent love of rigorous discipline	Y3
Alas such high emotion touched not me	U
Look was there none within these walls to shame	N3
My easy spirits and discountenance	R2
Their light composure far less to instil	T3
A calm resolve of mind firmly addressed	U
To puissant efforts Nor was this the blame	N3
Of others but my own I should in truth	Z3
As far as doth concern my single self	S3
Misdeem most widely lodging it elsewhere	K
For I bred up 'mid Nature's luxuries	R2
Was a spoiled child and rumbling like the wind	U
As I had done in daily intercourse	R2
With those crystalline rivers solemn heights	R2
And mountains ranging like a fowl of the air	K
I was ill tutored for captivity	U
To quit my pleasure and from month to month	Z3
Take up a station calmly on the perch	F4
Of sedentary peace Those lovely forms	R2
Had also left less space within my mind	U
Which wrought upon instinctively had found	U
A freshness in those objects of her love	S3
A winning power beyond all other power	C2
Not that I slighted books that were to lack	G4
All sense but other passions in me ruled	U
Passions more fervent making me less prompt	U
To in door study than was wise or well	T3
Or suited to those years Yet I though used	U
In magisterial liberty to rove	S3
Culling such flowers of learning as might tempt	U
A random choice could shadow forth a place	R2
If now I yield not to a flattering dream	W3
Whose studious aspect should have bent me down	Y3
To instantaneous service should at once	R2
Have made me pay to science and to arts	R2
And written lore acknowledged my liege lord	U
A homage frankly offered up like that	U
Which I had paid to Nature Toil and pains	R2
In this recess by thoughtful Fancy built	U
Should spread from heart to heart and stately groves	R2
Majestic edifices should not want	U
A corresponding dignity within	Y3
The congregating temper that pervades	R2
Our unripe years not wasted should be taught	U
To minister to works of high attempt	U
Works which the enthusiast would perform with love	S3
Youth should be awed religiously possessed	U
With a conviction of the power that waits	R2
On knowledge when sincerely sought and prized	U
For its own sake on glory and on praise	R2
If but by labour won and fit to endure	J2
The passing day should learn to put aside	U
Her trappings here should strip them off abashed	U
Before antiquity and stedfast truth	Z3
And strong book mindedness and over all	T3
A healthy sound simplicity should reign	Y3
A seemly plainness name it what you will	T3
Republican or pious	R2
If these thoughts	R2
Are a gratuitous emblazonry	J2
That mocks the recreant age 'we' live in then	Y3
Be Folly and False seeming free to affect	U
Whatever formal gait of discipline	Y3
Shall raise them highest in their own esteem	W3
Let them parade among the Schools at will	T3
But spare the House of God Was ever known	Y3
The witless shepherd who persists to drive	S3
A flock that thirsts not to a pool disliked	U
A weight must surely hang on days begun	Y3
And ended with such mockery Be wise	R2
Ye Presidents and Deans and till the spirit	U
Of ancient times revive and youth be trained	U
At home in pious service to your bells	R2
Give seasonable rest for 'tis a sound	U
Hollow as ever vexed the tranquil air	J2
And your officious doings bring disgrace	R2
On the plain steeples of our English Church	F4
Whose worship 'mid remotest village trees	R2
Suffers for this Even Science too at hand	U
In daily sight of this irreverence	R2
Is smitten thence with an unnatural taint	U
Loses her just authority falls beneath	Z3
Collateral suspicion else unknown	Y3
This truth escaped me not and I confess	R2
That having 'mid my native hills given loose	R2
To a schoolboy's vision I had raised a pile	T3
Upon the basis of the coming time	J
That fell in ruins round me Oh what joy	M3
To see a sanctuary for our country's youth	Z3
Informed with such a spirit as might be	U
Its own protection a primeval grove	S3
Where though the shades with cheerfulness were filled	U
Nor indigent of songs warbled from crowds	R2
In under coverts yet the countenance	R2
Of the whole place should bear a stamp of awe	H4
A habitation sober and demure	J2
For ruminating creatures a domain	Y3
For quiet things to wander in a haunt	U
In which the heron should delight to feed	U
By the shy rivers and the pelican	Y3
Upon the cypress spire in lonely thought	U
Might sit and sun himself Alas Alas	R2
In vain for such solemnity I looked	U
Mine eyes were crossed by butterflies ears vexed	U
By chattering popinjays the inner heart	U
Seemed trivial and the impresses without	U
Of a too gaudy region	Y3
Different sight	U
Those venerable Doctors saw of old	U
When all who dwelt within these famous walls	R2
Led in abstemiousness a studious life	S3
When in forlorn and naked chambers cooped	U
And crowded o'er the ponderous books they hung	I4
Like caterpillars eating out their way	U
In silence or with keen devouring noise	R2
Not to be tracked or fathered Princes then	Y3
At matins froze and couched at curfew time	J
Trained up through piety and zeal to prize	R2
Spare diet patient labour and plain weeds	R2
O seat of Arts renowned throughout the world	U
Far different service in those homely days	R2
The Muses' modest nurslings underwent	U
From their first childhood in that glorious time	J
When Learning like a stranger come from far	J2
Sounding through Christian lands her trumpet roused	U
Peasant and king when boys and youths the growth	Z3
Of ragged villages and crazy huts	R2
Forsook their homes and errant in the quest	U
Of Patron famous school or friendly nook	C4
Where pensioned they in shelter might sit down	Y3
From town to town and through wide scattered realms	R2
Journeyed with ponderous folios in their hands	R2
And often starting from some covert place	R2
Saluted the chance comer on the road	U
Crying An obolus a penny give	S3
To a poor scholar when illustrious men	Y3
Lovers of truth by penury constrained	U
Bucer Erasmus or Melancthon read	U
Before the doors or windows of their cells	R2
By moonshine through mere lack of taper light	U
	-
But peace to vain regrets We see but darkly	U
Even when we look behind us and best things	R2
Are not so pure by nature that they needs	R2
Must keep to all as fondly all believe	S3
Their highest promise If the mariner	J2
When at reluctant distance he hath passed	U
Some tempting island could but know the ills	R2
That must have fallen upon him had he brought	U
His bark to land upon the wished for shore	J2
Good cause would oft be his to thank the surf	S3
Whose white belt scared him thence or wind that blew	T3
Inexorably adverse for myself	S3
I grieve not happy is the gowned youth	Z3
Who only misses what I missed who falls	R2
No lower than I fell	T3
I did not love	S3
Judging not ill perhaps the timid course	R2
Of our scholastic studies could have wished	U
To see the river flow with ampler range	D2
And freer pace but more far more I grieved	U
To see displayed among an eager few	T3
Who in the field of contest persevered	U
Passions unworthy of youth's generous heart	U
And mounting spirit pitiably repaid	U
When so disturbed whatever palms are won	Y3
From these I turned to travel with the shoal	T3
Of more unthinking natures easy minds	R2
And pillowy yet not wanting love that makes	R2
The day pass lightly on when foresight sleeps	R2
And wisdom and the pledges interchanged	U
With our own inner being are forgot	U
	-
Yet was this deep vacation not given up	O3
To utter waste Hitherto I had stood	U
In my own mind remote from social life	S3
At least from what we commonly so name	N3
Like a lone shepherd on a promontory	J2
Who lacking occupation looks far forth	Z3
Into the boundless sea and rather makes	R2
Than finds what he beholds And sure it is	R2
That this first transit from the smooth delights	R2
And wild outlandish walks of simple youth	Z3
To something that resembles an approach	J4
Towards human business to a privileged world	U
Within a world a midway residence	R2
With all its intervenient imagery	J2
Did better suit my visionary mind	U
Far better than to have been bolted forth	Z3
Thrust out abruptly into Fortune's way	U
Among the conflicts of substantial life	S3
By a more just gradation did lead on	Y3
To higher things more naturally matured	U
For permanent possession better fruits	R2
Whether of truth or virtue to ensue	T3
In serious mood but oftener I confess	R2
With playful zest of fancy did we note	U
How could we less the manners and the ways	R2
Of those who lived distinguished by the badge	K4
Of good or ill report or those with whom	Q2
By frame of Academic discipline	Y3
We were perforce connected men whose sway	U
And known authority of office served	U
To set our minds on edge and did no more	J2
Nor wanted we rich pastime of this kind	U
Found everywhere but chiefly in the ring	Y2
Of the grave Elders men unscoured grotesque	L4
In character tricked out like aged trees	R2
Which through the lapse of their infirmity	J2
Give ready place to any random seed	U
That chooses to be reared upon their trunks	R2
	-
Here on my view confronting vividly	J2
Those shepherd swains whom I had lately left	U
Appeared a different aspect of old age	M4
How different yet both distinctly marked	U
Objects embossed to catch the general eye	G2
Or portraitures for special use designed	U
As some might seem so aptly do they serve	S3
To illustrate Nature's book of rudiments	R2
That book upheld as with maternal care	J2
When she would enter on her tender scheme	W3
Of teaching comprehension with delight	U
And mingling playful with pathetic thoughts	R2
	-
The surfaces of artificial life	S3
And manners finely wrought the delicate race	R2
Of colours lurking gleaming up and down	Y3
Through that state arras woven with silk and gold	U
This wily interchange of snaky hues	R2
Willingly or unwillingly revealed	U
I neither knew nor cared for and as such	U3
Were wanting here I took what might be found	U
Of less elaborate fabric At this day	U
I smile in many a mountain solitude	U
Conjuring up scenes as obsolete in freaks	R2
Of character in points of wit as broad	U
As aught by wooden images performed	U
For entertainment of the gaping crowd	U
At wake or fair And oftentimes do flit	U
Remembrances before me of old men	Y3
Old humourists who have been long in their graves	R2
And having almost in my mind put off	S3
Their human names have into phantoms passed	U
Of texture midway between life and books	R2
	-
I play the loiterer 'tis enough to note	U
That here in dwarf proportions were expressed	U
The limbs of the great world its eager strifes	R2
Collaterally pourtrayed as in mock fight	U
A tournament of blows some hardly dealt	U
Though short of mortal combat and whate'er	J2
Might in this pageant be supposed to hit	U
An artless rustic's notice this way less	R2
More that way was not wasted upon me	J2
And yet the spectacle may well demand	U
A more substantial name no mimic show	R2
Itself a living part of a live whole	T3
A creek in the vast sea for all degrees	R2
And shapes of spurious fame and short lived praise	R2
Here sate in state and fed with daily alms	R2
Retainers won away from solid good	U
And here was Labour his own bond slave Hope	S
That never set the pains against the prize	R2
Idleness halting with his weary clog	N4
And poor misguided Shame and witless Fear	J2
And simple Pleasure foraging for Death	Z3
Honour misplaced and Dignity astray	U
Feuds factions flatteries enmity and guile	T3
Murmuring submission and bald government	U
The idol weak as the idolater	U
And Decency and Custom starving Truth	Z3
And blind Authority beating with his staff	S3
The child that might have led him Emptiness	R2
Followed as of good omen and meek Worth	Z3
Left to herself unheard of and unknown	Y3
	-
Of these and other kindred notices	R2
I cannot say what portion is in truth	Z3
The naked recollection of that time	J
And what may rather have been called to life	S3
By after meditation But delight	U
That in an easy temper lulled asleep	Q3
Is still with Innocence its own reward	U
This was not wanting Carelessly I roamed	U
As through a wide museum from whose stores	R2
A casual rarity is singled out	U
And has its brief perusal then gives way	U
To others all supplanted in their turn	Y3
Till 'mid this crowded neighbourhood of things	R2
That are by nature most unneighbourly	T3
The head turns round and cannot right itself	S3
And though an aching and a barren sense	R2
Of gay confusion still be uppermost	U
With few wise longings and but little love	S3
Yet to the memory something cleaves at last	U
Whence profit may be drawn in times to come	W2
	-
Thus in submissive idleness my Friend	U
The labouring time of autumn winter spring	Y2
Eight months rolled pleasingly away the ninth	Z3
Came and returned me to my native hills	R2

William Wordsworth

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