9. Influences to which his soul responded as an human life. Eolian harp, placed in an open window, responds 2. That time of rest.
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THE PRELUDE, BOOK FIRST / 327
To night unbroken cheerfulness serene.
But speedily an earnest longing rose
us To brace myself to some determined aim,
Reading or thinking; either to lay up
New stores, or rescue from decay the old
Ry timely interference: and therewith
Came hopes still higher, that with outward life
120 I might endue' some airy phantasies invest That had been floating loose about for years;
And to such Beings temperately deal forth
The many feelings that oppressed my heart.
That hope hath been discouraged; welcome light
125 Dawns from the East, but dawns?to disappear
And mock me with a sky that ripens not
Into a steady morning: if my mind,
Remembering the bold promise of the past,
Would gladly grapple with some noble theme,
BO Vain is her wish: where'er she turns, she finds
Impediments from day to day renewed. And now it would content me to yield up
Those lofty hopes awhile for present gifts
Of humbler industry. But, O dear Friend!
135 The Poet, gentle Creature as he is, Hath, like the Lover, his unruly times,
His fits when he is neither sick nor well,
Though no distress be near him but his own
Unmanageable thoughts: his mind, best pleas'd
HO While she, as duteous as the Mother Dove,
Sits brooding,3 lives not always to that end,
But, like the innocent Bird, hath goadings on
That drive her, as in trouble, through the groves:
With me is now such passion, to be blamed
145 No otherwise than as it lasts too long. When as becomes a Man who would prepare
For such an arduous Work, I through myself
Make rigorous inquisition, the report
Is often chearing; for I neither seem
150 To lack that first great gift, the vital Soul, Nor general Truths, which are themselves a sort
Of Elements and Agents, Under-powers,
Subordinate helpers of the living Mind:
Nor am I naked of external things,
155 Forms, images, nor numerous other aids Of less regard, though won perhaps with toil,
And needful to build up a Poet's praise.
Time, place, and manners do I seek, and these
Are found in plenteous store, but no where such
160 As may be singled out with steady choice:
No little band of yet remembered names
Whom I in perfect confidence might hope
3. An echo of Milton's reference in Paradise Lost to the original act of creation in his invocation to the Holy Spirit: Thou 'Dovelike satst brooding on the vast Abyss / And mad'st it pregnant' (1.21?22).
