34 8 / WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
To serve in Nature's Temple, thou hast been
465 The most assiduous of her Ministers,2 In many things my Brother, chiefly here In this our deep devotion.
Fare Thee well! Health, and the quiet of a healthful mind, Attend Thee! seeking oft the haunts of Men,
470 And yet more often living with thyself And for thyself, so haply shall thy days Be many, and a blessing to mankind.
From Book Third Residence at Cambridge
[ARRIVAL AT ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE. 'THE GLORY OF MY YOUTH']
It was a drear)' Morning when the Wheels Rolled over a wide plain o'erhung with clouds, And nothing cheered our way till first we saw The long-roof'd Chapel of King's College lift
5 Turrets, and pinnacles in answering files Extended high above a dusky grove.
Advancing, we espied upon the road A Student, clothed in Gown and tasselled Cap, Striding along, as if o'ertasked by Time
10 Or covetous of exercise and air. He passed?nor was I Master of my eyes Till he was left an arrow's flight behind. As near and nearer to the Spot we drew, It seemed to suck us in with an eddy's force;
15 Onward we drove beneath the Castle, caught, While crossing Magdalene Bridge, a glimpse of Cam,1 And at the Hoop alighted, famous Inn!
My Spirit was up, my thoughts were full of hope; Some friends I had, acquaintances who there
20 Seemed friends, poor simple School-boys! now hung round With honor and importance: in a world Of welcome faces up and down I roved; Questions, directions, warnings, and advice Flowed in upon me, from all sides; fresh day
25 Of pride and pleasure! to myself I seemed A man of business and expence, and went From shop to shop, about my own affairs, To Tutor or to Tailor, as befel, From street to street, with loose and careless mind.
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I was the Dreamer, they the dream: I roamed Delighted through the motley spectacle;
2. Wordsworth may be recalling the conclusion of on a 'sea-cliff's verge,' 'O Liberty! my spirit felt Coleridge's 'France: An Ode' (1798), where, dis-thee there.' Wordsworth added lines 461?64 some illusioned about the promise of liberty by the years after Coleridge's death in 1834. French Revolution, he writes that, while standing I. The river that flows through Cambridge.
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THE PRELUDE, BOOK THIRTEENTH / 349
Gowns grave or gaudy, Doctors, Students, Streets, Courts, Cloisters, flocks of Churches, gateways, towers. Migration strange for a Stripling0 of the Hills, youngster
35 A Northern Villager! As if the change Had waited on some Fairy's wand, at once Behold me rich in monies; and attired In splendid garb, with hose? of silk, and hair stockings Powdered like rimy2 trees, when frost is keen.
40 My lordly dressing-gown, I pass it by, With other signs of manhood that supplied0 compensated for The lack of beard.?The weeks went roundly on With invitations, suppers, wine and fruit, Smooth housekeeping within, and all without
45 Liberal,0 and suiting Gentleman's array! generous
The Evangelist St. John my Patron was;3 Three gothic Courts are his, and in the first Was my abiding-place, a nook obscure! Right underneath, the College Kitchens made
50 A humming sound, less tuneable than bees, But hardly less industrious; with shrill notes Of sharp command and scolding intermixed. Near me hung Trinity's loquacious Clock, Who never let the quarters, night or day,
55 Slip by him unproclaimed, and told the hours Twice over, with a male and female voice. Her pealing Organ was my neighbour too; And from my pillow, looking forth by light Of moon or favoring stars, I could behold
60 The Antechapel, where the Statue stood Of Newton, with his prism,4 and silent face: The marble index of a Mind for ever Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.
Of College labors, of the Lecturer's room
65 All studded round, as thick as chairs could stand, With loyal Students faithful to their books, Half-and-half Idlers, hardy Recusants,5 And honest Dunces?of important days, Examinations when the man was weighed
70 As in a balance! of excessive hopes, Tremblings withal, and commendable fears; Small jealousies, and triumphs good or bad, Let others, that know more, speak as they know. Such glory was but little sought by me 75 And little won. Yet, from the first crude days Of settling time in this untried abode, I was disturbed at times by prudent thoughts,
2. Covered with rime, frosted over. Fashion John's College, stands Roubiliac's statue of New- required the late-18th-century gentleman to wear ton holding the prism with which he had con- powder in his hair. ducted the experiments described in his Optics 3. Wordsworth was a student at St. Johns Col-(1704). lege, Cambridge University, in 1787?91. Book 3 5. Those who do not conform to college discipline, deals with his first year there, when he was particularly regulations about religious obserseventeen. vance. 4. In the west end of Trinity Chapel, adjoining St.
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35 0 / WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
