Then did the little Maid reply,
30 'Seven boys and girls are we; Two of us in the church-yard lie, Beneath the church-yard tree.'
1. Written at Alfoxden in the spring of 1798. . . . walking to and fro,' he composed the last stanza The little girl who is the heroine I met within the first, beginning with the last line, and that Cole- area of Goodrich Castle [in the Wye Valley north ridge contributed the first stanza. of Tintern Abbey] in the year 1793 [Wordsworth's 2. A seaport town in north Wales. note, 1843]. Wordsworth also tells us that, 'while
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W E AR E SEVE N / 24 9 'You run about, my little Maid, Your limbs they are alive; 35 If two are in the church-yard laid, Then ye are only five.' 'Their graves are green, they may be seen,' The little Maid replied, 'Twelve steps or more from my mother's door, 40 And they are side by side. 'My stockings there I often knit, My kerchief there I hem; And there upon the ground I sit, And sing a song to them. 45 'And often after sun-set, Sir, When it is light and fair, I take my little porringer,3 And eat my supper there. 'The first that died was sister Jane; 50 In bed she moaning lay, Till God released her of her pain; And then she went away. 'So in the church-yard she was laid; And, when the grass was dry, 55 Together round her grave we played, My brother John and I. 'And when the ground was white with snow, And I could run and slide, My brother John was forced to go, 60 And he lies by her side.' 'How many are you, then,' said I, 'If they two are in heaven?' Quick was the little Maid's reply, 'O Master! we are seven.' 65 'But they are dead; those two are dead! Their spirits are in heaven!' 'Twas throwing words away; for still The little Maid would have her will, And said, 'Nay, we are seven!' 1798 1798
3. Bowl for porridge.
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25 0 / WILLIA M WORDSWORT H Lines Written in Early Spring I heard a thousand blended notes, While in a grove I sate reclined, In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind. 5 To her fair works did Nature link The human soul that through me ran; And much it grieved my heart to think What man has made of man. 10Through primrose tufts, in that green bower, The periwinkle1 trailed its wreaths, And 'tis my faith that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes. 15The birds around me hopped and played, Their thoughts I cannot measure:? But the least motion which they made, It seemed a thrill of pleasure. 20The budding twigs spread out their fan, To catch the breezy air; And I must think, do all I can, That there was pleasure there. If this belief from heaven be sent, If such be Nature's holy plan,2 Have I not reason to lament What man has made of man? 1798 1798
Expostulation and Reply1
'Why, William, on that old grey stone, Thus for the length of half a day, Why, William, sit you thus alone, And dream your time away?
5 'Where are your books??that light bequeathed To Beings else forlorn and blind!
1. A trailing evergreen plant with small blue flow-usual device of overstating parts of a whole truth. ers (U.S. myrtle). In the 1798 Advertisement to Lyrical Ballads, 2. The version of these two lines in the Lyrical Wordsworth said that the pieces originated in a Ballads of 1798 reads: 'If I these thoughts may not conversation 'with a friend who was somewhat prevent, / If such be of my creed the plan.' unreasonably attached to modern books of moral 1. This and the following companion poem have philosophy.' In 1843 he noted that the idea of often been attacked?and defended?as Words-learning when the mind is in a state of 'wise pasworth's own statement about the comparative mer-siveness' made this poem a favorite of the Quakits of nature and of books. But they are a dialogue ers, who rejected religious ritual for informal and between two friends who rally one another by the spontaneous worship.
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THE TABLES TURNED / 251
Up! up! and drink the spirit breathed From dead men to their kind.
'You look round on your Mother Earth,
10 As if she for no purpose bore you; As if you were her first-born birth, And none had lived before you!'
One morning thus, by Esthwaite lake, When life was sweet, I knew not why, is To me my good friend Matthew spake, And thus I made reply.
'The eye?it cannot choose but see; We cannot bid the ear be still; Our bodies feel, where'er they be,
20 Against or with our will.
'Nor less I deem that there are Powers Which of themselves our minds impress; That we can feed this mind of ours In a wise passiveness.
25 'Think you, 'mid all this mighty sum Of things for ever speaking, That nothing of itself will come, But we must still be seeking?
'?Then ask not wherefore, here, alone,
30 Conversing2 as I may, I sit upon this old grey stone, And dream my time away.'
Spring 1798 1798
The Tables Turned
An Evening Scene on the Same Subject
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books; Or surely you'll grow double:0 double over Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks; Why all this toil and trouble?
5 The sun, above the mountain's head, A freshening lustre mellow Through all the long green fields has spread, His first sweet evening yellow.
Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife: 10 Come, hear the woodland linnet,0 small finch
2. In the old sense of 'communing' (with the 'things for ever speaking').
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