An oaken staff, by me yet unobserved?
A staff which must have dropped from his slack hand
And lay till now neglected in the grass.
Though weak his step and cautious, he appeared
To travel without pain, and I beheld,
With an astonishment but ill suppressed,
His ghastly figure moving at my side;
Nor could I, while we journeyed thus, forbear
To turn from present hardships to the past,
And speak of war, battle, and pestilence,
Sprinkling this talk with questions, better spared,
On what he might himself have seen or felt.
He all the while was in demeanour calm,
4. I.e., he had been deceiving himself in thinking from the French and to quell slave rebellions. that the motive for his delay was not cowardice. Many contracted tropical diseases and died, or else 5. The Tropic Islands are the West Indies. During were rendered unfit for further service and dis- the 1790s tens of thousands of soldiers were sta-charged. tioned there to protect Britain's colonial holdings
.
THE PRELUDE, BOOK THIRTEENTH / 357
Concise in answer; solemn and sublime He might have seemed, but that in all he said There was a strange half-absence, as of one Knowing too well the importance of his theme,
445 But feeling it no longer. Our discourse Soon ended, and together on we passed, In silence, through a wood, gloomy and still. Up-turning then along an open field, We reached a Cottage. At the door I knocked,
450 And earnestly to charitable care Commended him, as a poor friendless Man Belated, and by sickness overcome. Assured that now the Traveller would repose In comfort, I entreated, that henceforth
455 He would not linger in the public ways, But ask for timely furtherance0 and help, assistance Such as his state required.?At this reproof, With the same ghastly mildness in his look, He said, 'My trust is in the God of Heaven,
460 And in the eye of him who passes me.'
The Cottage door was speedily unbarred, And now the Soldier touched his hat once more With his lean hand; and, in a faltering voice Whose tone bespake reviving interests
465 Till then unfelt, he thanked me; I returned The farewell blessing of the patient Man, And so we parted. Back I cast a look, And lingered near the door a little space; Then sought with quiet heart my distant home.
From- Book Fifth Books
[THE DREAM OF THE ARAB]
45 * * 4 Oh! why hath not the Mind Some element to stamp her image on In nature somewhat nearer to her own? Why gifted with such powers to send abroad Her spirit, must it lodge in shrines so frail?1
50 One day, when from my lips a like complaint Had fallen in presence of a studious friend, He with a smile made answer that in truth 'Twas going far to seek disquietude, But, on the front of his reproof, confessed
55
That he himself had oftentimes given way To kindred hauntings. Whereupon I told That once in the stillness of a summer's noon, While I was seated in a rocky cave
1. Wordsworth is describing his recurrent fear that some holocaust might wipe out all books, the frail and perishable repositories of all human wisdom and poetry.
.
35 8 / WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
By the sea-side, perusing, so it chanced,
60 The famous history of the errant Knight Recovered by Cervantes,2 these same thoughts Beset me, and to height unusual rose, While listlessly I sate, and, having closed The Book, had turned my eyes tow'rd the wide Sea.
65 On Poetry, and geometric truth, And their high privilege of lasting life, From all internal injury exempt, I mused; upon these chiefly: and, at length, My senses yielding to the sultry air,
70 Sleep seized me, and I passed into a dream. I saw before me stretched a boundless plain, Of sandy wilderness, all blank and void; And as I looked around, distress and fear Came creeping over me, when at my side,
75 Close at my side, an uncouth0 Shape appeared strange Upon a Dromedary,0 mounted high. camel He seemed an Arab of the Bedouin Tribes:3 A Lance he bore, and underneath one arm A Stone; and, in the opposite hand, a Shell
so Of a surpassing brightness. At the sight Much I rejoiced, not doubting but a Guide Was present, one who with unerring skill Would through the desert lead me; and while yet I looked, and looked, self-questioned what this freight
