The swallow oft, beneath my thatch, Shall twitter from her clay-built nest; Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch,
And share my meal, a welcome guest.
Around my ivied porch shall spring Each fragrant flow'r that drinks the dew; And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing In russet gown and apron blue.
The village church, among the trees, Where first our marriage vows were given, With merry peals shall swell the breeze, And point with taper spire to Heaven.'
CHILD of the sun! pursue thy rapturous flight, Mingling with her thou lovest in fields of light; And, where the flowers of Paradise unfold, Quaff fragrant nectar from their cups of gold. There shall thy wings, rich as an evening sky, Expand and shut with silent ecstasy!
-Yet wert thou once a worm, a thing that crept On the bare earth, then wrought a tomb and slept. And such is man; soon from his cell of clay To burst a seraph in the blaze of day!
FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain springs
With a sweet inland murmur.
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, That on a wild, secluded scene impress Thoughts of more deep seclusion, and connect The landscape with the quiet of the sky. The day is come when I again repose Here, under this dark sycamore, and view These plots of cottage ground, these orchard tufts, Which at this season, with their unripe fruits, Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves Among the woods and copses, nor disturb The wild green landscape. Once again I see These hedgerows, hardly hedgerows, little lines Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms, Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke Sent up in silence from among the trees! With some uncertain notice, as might seem, Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods, Or of some hermit's cave, where, by his fire, The hermit sits alone.
These beauteous forms, Through a long absence, have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din Of towns and cities, I have owed to them, In hours of weariness, sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart; And passing even into my purer mind, With tranquil restoration: feelings, too, Of unremember'd pleasure: such, perhaps, As have no slight or trivial influence On that best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremember'd acts Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust, To them I may have owed another gift, Of aspect more sublime; that bless'd mood In which the burden of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight
Of all this unintelligible world
Is lighten'd: that serene and blessed mood In which the affections gently lead us on, Until the breath of this corporeal frame, And even the motion of our human blood Almost suspended, we are laid asleep In body, and become a living soul: While, with an eye made quiet by the power Of harmony and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things.
Be but a vain belief, yet oh! how oft, In darkness, and amid the many shapes Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world, Have hung upon the beatings of my heart, How oft, in spirit, have I turn'd to thee,
Oh sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer through the woods, How often has my spirit turn'd to thee!
And now, with gleams of half-extinguish'd thought, With many recognitions dim and faint, And somewhat of a sad perplexity,
The picture of the mind revives again : While here I stand, not only with the sense Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts, That in this moment there is life and food For future years. And so I dare to hope,
Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when I came among these hills; when like a roe I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides Of the deep rivers and the lonely streams, Wherever Nature led: more like a man Flying from something that he dreads, than one Who sought the thing he loved. For Nature then (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days, And their glad animal movements all gone by) To me was all in all. I cannot paint
Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colours and their forms, were then to me An appetite; a feeling and a love
That had no need of a remoter charm, By thought supplied, or any interest Unborrow'd from the eye. That time is past, And all its aching joys are now no more, And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this Faint I, nor mourn, nor murmur; other gifts Have follow'd, for such loss, I would believe, Abundant recompense. For I have learn'd To look on Nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth; but, hearing oftentimes The still, sad music of humanity,
Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power To chasten and subdue. And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean, and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man : A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still A lover of the meadows, and the woods
And mountains, and of all that we behold From this green earth; of all the mighty world Of eye and ear, both what they half create And what perceive; well pleased to recognise In Nature and the language of the sense, The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being.
SHE was a phantom of delight When first she gleam'd upon my sight; A lovely apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of twilight fair; Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful dawn; A dancing shape, an image gay, To haunt, to startle, and waylay.
I saw her upon nearer view, A spirit, yet a woman too!
Her household motions light and free, And steps of virgin liberty;
A countenance in which did meet Sweet records, promises as sweet; A creature not too bright or good For human nature's daily food; For transient sorrows, simple wiles, Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.
And now I see with eye serene The very pulse of the machine; A being breathing thoughtful breath, A traveller between life and death; The reason firm, the temperate will, Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill; A perfect woman, nobly plann'd, To warn, to comfort, and command; And yet a spirit still, and bright With something of an angel light,
THREE years she grew in sun and shower, Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower
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