160 Was searching out the lines of difference
As they lie hid in all external forms,
Near or remote, minute or vast, an eye
Which from a tree, a stone, a withered leaf,
To the broad ocean, and the azure heavens
165 Spangled with kindred multitudes of Stars,
Could find no surface where its power might sleep;
Which spake perpetual logic to my Soul,
And by an unrelenting agency
Did bind my feelings, even as in a chain.
170 And here, O friend! have I retraced my life
Up to an eminence,0 and told a tale high ground, hill
Of matters which not falsely may be called
The glory of my Youth. Of genius, power,
Creation, and Divinity itself,
175 I have been speaking, for my theme has been
What passed within me. Not of outward things
9. I.e., as an Eolian harp.
.
35 2 / WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Done visibly for other minds; words, signs, Symbols, or actions, but of my own heart Have I been speaking, and my youthful mind.
180 O Heavens! how awful is the might of Souls And what they do within themselves, while yet The yoke of earth is new to them, the world Nothing but a wild field where they were sown. This is, in truth, heroic argument,
185 This genuine prowess, which I wished to touch With hand however weak,1 but in the main It lies far hidden from the reach of words. Points have we, all of us, within our Souls, Where all stand single: this I feel, and make
190 Breathings for incommunicable powers.2 But is not each a memory to himself? And, therefore, now that we must quit this theme, I am not heartless;0 for there's not a man disheartened
That lives who hath not known his god-like hours, 195 And feels not what an empire we inherit, As natural Beings, in the strength of Nature.
No more:?for now into a populous plain We must descend.?A Traveller I am Whose tale is only of himself; even so,
200 So be it, if the pure of heart be prompt To follow, and if Thou, O honored Friend! Who in these thoughts art ever at my side, Support, as heretofore, my fainting steps.3
From Book Fourth Summer Vacation1
[THE WALKS WITH HIS TERRIER. THE CIRCUIT OF THE LAKE]
Among the favorites whom it pleased me well To see again, was one, by ancient right
95 Our Inmate, a rough terrier of the hills, By birth and call of nature pre-ordained To hunt the badger, and unearth the fox, Among the impervious crags; but having been From youth our own adopted, he had passed
ioo Into a gentler service. And when first The boyish spirit flagged, and day by day Along my veins I kindled with the stir, The fermentation and the vernal0 heat springtime Of poesy, affecting2 private shades
1. An echo of Paradise Lost 9.28-29, where Milton declares his subject to be as suitable for 'heroic argument' as was the warfare that traditionally had been represented in epics. 2. This obscure assertion may mean that he tries, inadequately, to express the inexpressible. 3. The terms of this request to Coleridge suggest the relation to Dante of Virgil, his guide in the
Inferno.
1. Wordsworth returned to Hawkshead for his first summer vacation in 1788. 2. 'Affecting' in the sense of 'preferring,' but also suggesting a degree of affectation.
.
THE PRELUDE, BOOK THIRTEENTH / 35 3
105 Like a sick lover, then this Dog was used To watch me, an attendant and a friend Obsequious to my steps, early and late, Though often of such dilatory walk Tired, and uneasy at the halts I made,
no A hundred times when, roving high and low, I have been harrassed with the toil of verse, Much pains and little progress, and at once Some lovely Image in the Song rose up Full-formed, like Venus rising from the Sea;3
ii5 Then have I darted forwards and let loose My hand upon his back, with stormy joy; Caressing him again, and yet again. And when at evening on the public Way I sauntered, like a river murmuring
