The King Of Sweden by William Wordsworth
THE Voice of song from distant lands shall call To that great King; shall hail the crowned Youth Who, taking counsel of unbending Truth, By one example hath set forth to all How they with dignity may stand; or fall, If fall they must. Now, whither doth it tend? And what to him and his […]
The Idle Shepherd Boys by William Wordsworth
The valley rings with mirth and joy; Among the hills the echoes play A never never ending song, To welcome in the May. The magpie chatters with delight; The mountain raven’s youngling brood Have left the mother and the nest; And they go rambling east and west In search of their own food; Or through […]
The Horn Of Egremont Castle by William Wordsworth
ERE the Brothers through the gateway Issued forth with old and young, To the Horn Sir Eustace pointed Which for ages there had hung. Horn it was which none could sound, No one upon living ground, Save He who came as rightful Heir To Egremont’s Domains and Castle fair. Heirs from times of earliest record […]
The Highland Broach by William Wordsworth
If to Tradition faith be due, And echoes from old verse speak true, Ere the meek Saint, Columba, bore Glad tidings to Iona’s shore, No common light of nature blessed The mountain region of the west, A land where gentle manners ruled O’er men in dauntless virtues schooled, That raised, for centuries, a bar Impervious […]
The Happy Warrior by William Wordsworth
‘Tis, finally, the man, who, lifted high, Conspicuous object in a nation’s eye, Or left unthought of in obscurity, Who, with a toward or untoward lot, Prosperous or adverse, to his wish or not,– Plays, in the many games of life, that one Where what he most doth value must be won; Whom neither shape […]
The Green Linnet by William Wordsworth
BENEATH these fruit-tree boughs that shed Their snow-white blossoms on my head, With brightest sunshine round me spread Of spring’s unclouded weather, In this sequestered nook how sweet To sit upon my orchard-seat! And birds and flowers once more to greet, My last year’s friends together. One have I marked, the happiest guest In all […]
The Germans On The Heighs Of Hochheim by William Wordsworth
ABRUPTLY paused the strife;–the field throughout Resting upon his arms each warrior stood, Checked in the very act and deed of blood, With breath suspended, like a listening scout. O Silence! thou wert mother of a shout That through the texture of yon azure dome Cleaves its glad way, a cry of harvest home Uttered […]
The French Revolution as it appeared to Enthusiasts by William Wordsworth
. Oh! pleasant exercise of hope and joy! For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood 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!-Oh! times, In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways Of custom, law, and statute, took […]
The French Army In Russia, 1812-13 by William Wordsworth
HUMANITY, delighting to behold A fond reflection of her own decay, Hath painted Winter like a traveller old, Propped on a staff, and, through the sullen day, In hooded mantle, limping o’er the plain, As though his weakness were disturbed by pain: Or, if a juster fancy should allow An undisputed symbol of command, The […]
The French And the Spanish Guerillas by William Wordsworth
HUNGER, and sultry heat, and nipping blast From bleak hill-top, and length of march by night Through heavy swamp, or over snow-clad height– These hardships ill-sustained, these dangers past, The roving Spanish Bands are reached at last, Charged, and dispersed like foam: but as a flight Of scattered quails by signs do reunite, So these,–and, […]
The Fountain by William Wordsworth
A Conversation We talked with open heart, and tongue Affectionate and true, A pair of friends, though I was young, And Matthew seventy-two. We lay beneath a spreading oak, Beside a mossy seat; And from the turf a fountain broke And gurgled at our feet. `Now, Matthew!’ said I, `let us match This water’s pleasant […]
The Forsaken by William Wordsworth
The peace which others seek they find; The heaviest storms not longest last; Heaven grants even to the guiltiest mind An amnesty for what is past; When will my sentence be reversed? I only pray to know the worst; And wish as if my heart would burst. O weary struggle! silent year Tell seemingly no […]
The Force Of Prayer, Or, The Founding Of Bolton, A Tradition by William Wordsworth
“What is good for a bootless bene?” With these dark words begins my Tale; And their meaning is, whence can comfort spring When Prayer is of no avail? “What is good for a bootless bene?” The Falconer to the Lady said; And she made answer “ENDLESS SORROW!” For she knew that her Son was dead. […]
The Farmer Of Tilsbury Vale by William Wordsworth
‘TIS not for the unfeeling, the falsely refined, The squeamish in taste, and the narrow of mind, And the small critic wielding his delicate pen, That I sing of old Adam, the pride of old men. He dwells in the centre of London’s wide Town; His staff is a sceptre–his grey hairs a crown; And […]
The Fairest, Brightest, Hues Of Ether Fade by William Wordsworth
The fairest, brightest, hues of ether fade; The sweetest notes must terminate and die; O Friend! thy flute has breathed a harmony Softly resounded through this rocky glade; Such strains of rapture as the Genius played In his still haunt on Bagdad’s summit high; He who stood visible to Mirza’s eye, Never before to human […]
The Emigrant Mother by William Wordsworth
ONCE in a lonely hamlet I sojourned In which a Lady driven from France did dwell; The big and lesser griefs with which she mourned, In friendship she to me would often tell. This Lady, dwelling upon British ground, Where she was childless, daily would repair To a poor neighbouring cottage; as I found, For […]
The Eagle and the Dove by William Wordsworth
SHADE of Caractacus, if spirits love The cause they fought for in their earthly home To see the Eagle ruffled by the Dove May soothe thy memory of the chains of Rome. These children claim thee for their sire; the breath Of thy renown, from Cambrian mountains, fans A flame within them that despises death […]
The Danish Boy by William Wordsworth
I BETWEEN two sister moorland rills There is a spot that seems to lie Sacred to flowerets of the hills, And sacred to the sky. And in this smooth and open dell There is a tempest-stricken tree; A corner-stone by lightning cut, The last stone of a lonely hut; And in this dell you see […]
The Cottager To Her Infant by William Wordsworth
THE days are cold, the nights are long, The north-wind sings a doleful song; Then hush again upon my breast; All merry things are now at rest, Save thee, my pretty Love! The kitten sleeps upon the hearth, The crickets long have ceased their mirth; There’s nothing stirring in the house Save one ‘wee’, hungry, […]
The Complaint Of A Forsaken Indian Woman by William Wordsworth
I Before I see another day, Oh let my body die away! In sleep I heard the northern gleams; The stars, they were among my dreams; In rustling conflict through the skies, I heard, I saw the flashes drive, And yet they are upon my eyes, And yet I am alive; Before I see another […]
The Childless Father by William Wordsworth
“UP, Timothy, up with your staff and away! Not a soul in the village this morning will stay; The hare has just started from Hamilton’s grounds, And Skiddaw is glad with the cry of the hounds.” -Of coats and of jackets grey, scarlet, and green, On the slopes of the pastures all colours were seen; […]
The Brothers by William Wordsworth
“THESE Tourists, heaven preserve us! needs must live A profitable life: some glance along, Rapid and gay, as if the earth were air, And they were butterflies to wheel about Long as the summer lasted: some, as wise, Perched on the forehead of a jutting crag, Pencil in hand and book upon the knee, Will […]
The Birth Of Love by William Wordsworth
When Love was born of heavenly line, What dire intrigues disturbed Cythera’s joy! Till Venus cried, “A mother’s heart is mine; None but myself shall nurse my boy,” But, infant as he was, the child In that divine embrace enchanted lay; And, by the beauty of the vase beguiled, Forgot the beverage-and pined away. “And […]
The Affliction Of Margaret by William Wordsworth
I WHERE art thou, my beloved Son, Where art thou, worse to me than dead? Oh find me, prosperous or undone! Or, if the grave be now thy bed, Why am I ignorant of the same That I may rest; and neither blame Nor sorrow may attend thy name? II Seven years, alas! to have […]
Surprised By Joy by William Wordsworth
Surprised by joy-impatient as the Wind I turned to share the transport-Oh! with whom But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb, That spot which no vicissitude can find? Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind- But how could I forget thee? Through what power, Even for the least division of an hour, Have […]
Stray Pleasures by William Wordsworth
BY their floating mill, That lies dead and still, Behold yon Prisoners three, The Miller with two Dames, on the breast of the Thames! The platform is small, but gives room for them all; And they’re dancing merrily. From the shore come the notes To their mill where it floats, To their house and their […]
Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known by William Wordsworth
Strange fits of passion have I known: And I will dare to tell, But in the lover’s ear alone, What once to me befell. When she I loved looked every day Fresh as a rose in June, I to her cottage bent my way, Beneath an evening-moon. Upon the moon I fixed my eye, All […]
Stepping Westward by William Wordsworth
“What, you are stepping westward?””Yea.” ‘T would be a wildish destiny, If we, who thus together roam In a strange land, and far from home, Were in this place the guests of Chance: Yet who would stop, or fear to advance, Though home or shelter he had none, With such a sky to lead him […]
Star-Gazers by William Wordsworth
WHAT crowd is this? what have we here! we must not pass it by; A Telescope upon its frame, and pointed to the sky: Long is it as a barber’s pole, or mast of little boat, Some little pleasure-skiff, that doth on Thames’s waters float. The Showman chooses well his place, ’tis Leicester’s busy Square; […]
Stanzas by William Wordsworth
ONCE I could hail (howe’er serene the sky) The Moon re-entering her monthly round, No faculty yet given me to espy The dusky Shape within her arms imbound, That thin memento of effulgence lost Which some have named her Predecessor’s ghost. . Young, like the Crescent that above me shone, Nought I perceived within it […]
Stanzas Written In My Pocket Copy Of Thomson’s “Castle Of Indolence” by William Wordsworth
WITHIN our happy Castle there dwelt One Whom without blame I may not overlook; For never sun on living creature shone Who more devout enjoyment with us took: Here on his hours he hung as on a book, On his own time here would he float away, As doth a fly upon a summer brook; […]
Spanish Guerillas by William Wordsworth
THEY seek, are sought; to daily battle led, Shrink not, though far outnumbered by their Foes, For they have learnt to open and to close The ridges of grim war; and at their head Are captains such as erst their country bred Or fostered, self-supported chiefs,–like those Whom hardy Rome was fearful to oppose; Whose […]
Sonnet: On seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams weep at a tale of distress by William Wordsworth
She wept.–Life’s purple tide began to flow In languid streams through every thrilling vein; Dim were my swimming eyes–my pulse beat slow, And my full heart was swell’d to dear delicious pain. Life left my loaded heart, and closing eye; A sigh recall’d the wanderer to my breast; Dear was the pause of life, and […]
Sonnet: “It is not to be thought of” by William Wordsworth
IT is not to be thought of that the Flood Of British freedom, which, to the open sea Of the world’s praise, from dark antiquity Hath flowed, “with pomp of waters, unwithstood,” Roused though it be full often to a mood Which spurns the check of salutary bands, That this most famous Stream in bogs […]
Song Of The Wandering Jew by William Wordsworth
THOUGH the torrents from their fountains Roar down many a craggy steep, Yet they find among the mountains Resting-places calm and deep. Clouds that love through air to hasten, Ere the storm its fury stills, Helmet-like themselves will fasten On the heads of towering hills. What, if through the frozen centre Of the Alps the […]
Song Of The Spinning Wheel by William Wordsworth
FOUNDED UPON A BELIEF PREVALENT AMONG THE PASTORAL VALES OF WESTMORELAND SWIFTLY turn the murmuring wheel! Night has brought the welcome hour, When the weary fingers feel Help, as if from faery power; Dewy night o’ershades the ground; Turn the swift wheel round and round! Now, beneath the starry sky, Couch the widely-scattered sheep;– Ply […]
Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle by William Wordsworth
High in the breathless Hall the Minstrel sate, And Emont’s murmur mingled with the Song.- The words of ancient time I thus translate, A festal strain that hath been silent long:- “From town to town, from tower to tower, The red rose is a gladsome flower. Her thirty years of winter past, The red rose […]
Simon Lee: The Old Huntsman by William Wordsworth
. With an incident in which he was concerned In the sweet shire of Cardigan, Not far from pleasant Ivor-hall, An old Man dwells, a little man,- ‘Tis said he once was tall. For five-and-thirty years he lived A running huntsman merry; And still the centre of his cheek Is red as a ripe cherry. […]
Siege Of Vienna Raised By Jihn Sobieski by William Wordsworth
FEBRUARY 1816 OH, for a kindling touch from that pure flame Which ministered, erewhile, to a sacrifice Of gratitude, beneath Italian skies, In words like these: ‘Up, Voice of song! proclaim ‘Thy saintly rapture with celestial aim: ‘For lo! the Imperial City stands released ‘From bondage threatened by the embattled East, ‘And Christendom respires; from […]
She Was A Phantom Of Delight by William Wordsworth
She was a Phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight; A lovely Apparition, sent To be a moment’s ornament; Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; Like Twilight’s, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; A dancing Shape, an Image gay, To […]