290 A conflict of sensations without name, Of which he only who may love the sight Of a Village Steeple as I do can judge, When, in the Congregation bending all To their great Father, prayers were offered up,
295 Or praises, for our Country's victories, And, 'mid the simple Worshippers, perchance I only, like an uninvited Guest, Whom no one owned, sate silent, shall I add, Fed on the day of vengeance yet to come?
* & $ [THE REIGN OF TERROR. NIGHTMARES]
?Domestic carnage now filled the whole year With Feast-days;4 old Men from the Chimney-nook, The Maiden from the bosom of her Love, The Mother from the Cradle of her Babe,
360 The Warrior from the Field, all perished, all, Friends, enemies, of all parties, ages, ranks, Head after head, and never heads enough For those that bade them fall. They found their joy, They made it, proudly eager as a Child
365 (If like desires of innocent little ones May with such heinous appetites be compared), Pleased in some open field to exercise A toy that mimics with revolving wings The motion of a windmill, though the air
370 Do of itself blow fresh and make the Vanes Spin in his eyesight, that contents him not, But, with the play-thing at arm's length, he sets His front against the blast, and runs amain That it may whirl the faster.
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Most melancholy at that time, O Friend! Were my day-thoughts, my nights were miserable; Through months, through years, long after the last beat
400 Of those atrocities, the hour of sleep To me came rarely charged with natural gifts,
3. The French defeated the English in the battle of Hondschoote, September 6, 1793. 4. I.e., festivals celebrated by human slaughter ('carnage'). Wordsworth alludes ironically to the patriotic festivals created to replace Catholic feast days within the new Republic's calendar. Lines 356?63 describe the Reign of Terror organized by Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety. In 1794 a total of 1,376 people were guillotined in Paris in forty-nine days.
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37 4 / WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
Such ghastly Visions had I of despair And tyranny, and implements of death, And innocent victims sinking under fear,
405 And momentary hope, and worn-out prayer, Each in his separate cell, or penned in crowds For sacrifice, and struggling with forced mirth And levity in dungeons where the dust Was laid with tears. Then suddenly the scene
410 Changed, and the unbroken dream entangled me In long orations which I strove to plead Before unjust tribunals?with a voice Labouring, a brain confounded, and a sense Death-like of treacherous desertion, felt
415 In the last place of refuge, my own soul.
From Book Eleventh France, concluded1
[RETROSPECT: 'BLISS WAS IT IN THAT DAWN.' RECOURSE TO 'REASON'S NAKED SELF']
O pleasant exercise of hope and joy!2 For mighty were the Auxiliars0 which then stood allies Upon our side, we who were strong in Love! Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very Heaven! O times,
no In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways Of custom, law, and statute, took at once The attraction of a Country in Romance! When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights, When most intent on making of herself
115 A prime Enchantress?to assist the work Which then was going forward in her name! Not favored spots alone, but the whole earth The beauty wore of promise?that which sets (As at some moments might not be unfelt
120 Among the bowers of Paradise itself) The budding rose above the rose full blown. What Temper0 at the prospect did not wake temperament To happiness unthought of? The inert Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!3 125 They who had fed their Childhood upon dreams, The play-fellows of Fancy, who had made All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and strength Their ministers,?who in lordly wise had stirred Among the grandest objects of the Sense,
1. Book 11 deals with the year from August 1794 down. through September 1795: Wordsworth's growing 2. Wordsworth in this passage turns back to the disillusionment with the French Revolution, his summer of 1792, when his enthusiasm for the Rev- recourse to abstract theories of politics, his despair olution was at its height. and nervous breakdown, and the beginning of his 3. Enraptured; carried away by enthusiasm. recovery when he moved from London to Race
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THE PRELUDE, BOOK THIRTEENTH / 375
130 And dealt with whatsoever they found there As if they had within some lurking right To wield it;?they, too, who of gentle mood Had watched all gentle motions, and to these Had fitted their own thoughts, schemers more mild,
135 And in the region of their peaceful selves;? Now was it that both found, the Meek and Lofty Did both find helpers to their hearts' desire, And stuff at hand, plastic' as they could wish,? malleable Were called upon to exercise their skill,
140 Not in Utopia,?subterranean Fields,? Or some secreted Island, Heaven knows where! But in the very world, which is the world Of all of us,?the place where in the end We find our happiness, or not at all!
145 Why should I not confess that Earth was then To me what an Inheritance new-fallen Seems, when the first time visited, to one Who thither comes to find in it his home? He walks about and looks upon the spot
150 With cordial transport, moulds it and remoulds, And is half-pleased with things that are amiss, 'Twill be such joy to see them disappear.
