The Prelude ; Or, Growth of a Poet's Mind: An Autobiographical PoemLondon, 1850 - 304 pages |
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Page v
... mountains with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary work that might live , it was a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his own mind , and examine how far Nature and Education had qualified him for such an ...
... mountains with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary work that might live , it was a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his own mind , and examine how far Nature and Education had qualified him for such an ...
Page 14
... When he had left the mountains and received On his smooth breast the shadow of those towers That yet survive , a shattered monument Of feudal sway , the bright blue river passed Along 14 [ воок 1 . CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL - TIME .
... When he had left the mountains and received On his smooth breast the shadow of those towers That yet survive , a shattered monument Of feudal sway , the bright blue river passed Along 14 [ воок 1 . CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL - TIME .
Page 15
... wider range . Ere I had told Ten birth - days , when among the mountain slopes Frost , and the breath of frosty wind , had snapped The last autumnal crocus , ' twas my joy With BOOK I. ] 15 CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL - TIME .
... wider range . Ere I had told Ten birth - days , when among the mountain slopes Frost , and the breath of frosty wind , had snapped The last autumnal crocus , ' twas my joy With BOOK I. ] 15 CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL - TIME .
Page 18
... mountain - echoes did my boat move on ; Leaving behind her still , on either side , Small circles glittering idly in the moon , Until they melted all into one track Of sparkling light . But now , like one who rows , Proud of his skill ...
... mountain - echoes did my boat move on ; Leaving behind her still , on either side , Small circles glittering idly in the moon , Until they melted all into one track Of sparkling light . But now , like one who rows , Proud of his skill ...
Page 23
... mountain brooks . -Unfading recollections at this hour The heart is almost mine with which I felt , From some hill - top on sunny afternoons , The paper kite high among fleecy clouds Pull at her rein like an impetuous courser ; Or ...
... mountain brooks . -Unfading recollections at this hour The heart is almost mine with which I felt , From some hill - top on sunny afternoons , The paper kite high among fleecy clouds Pull at her rein like an impetuous courser ; Or ...
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Common terms and phrases
acknowledged law Alps amid Babes in arms beauty beheld beneath BOOK breathe Buttermere calm clouds cottage dark day of vengeance dear delight doth dream earth EDWARD MOXON eyes faith fancy fear feel felt flowers flowery field France Friend gleam glory Goslar groves happiness hath haunts heard heart heaven Helvellyn hills honour hope hour human immortal verse Jack the Giant-killer kindred labour less Liberty light living living mind look mighty mind mountain Nature Nature's night o'er objects once pain passion peace plain pleased pleasure reason Robespierre rocks rose round sate scene seemed sense shade shape side sight silent solitude song sorrow soul sound speak spirit stars stood stream strong sublime summer sweet thee things thou thoughts trees truth turned Twas Vale verse voice walks whence wild WILLIAM WORDSWORTH wind Windermere woods words youth
Popular passages
Page 20 - Wisdom and Spirit of the universe ! Thou Soul that art the eternity of thought, That givest to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion, not in vain By day or star-light thus from my first dawn Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me The passions that build up our human soul ; Not with the mean and vulgar works of man, But with high objects, with enduring things — With life and nature — purifying thus The elements of feeling and of thought, And sanctifying, by such discipline, Both...
Page 21 - And not a voice was idle : with the din Smitten, the precipices rang aloud; The leafless trees and every icy crag Tinkled like iron; while the distant hills Into the tumult sent an alien sound Of melancholy, not unnoticed while the stars, Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west The orange sky of evening died away.
Page 122 - There was a Boy : ye knew him well, ye cliffs And islands of Winander !—many a time At evening, when the earliest stars began To move along the edges of the hills, Rising or setting, would he stand alone Beneath the trees or by the glimmering lake. And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands Pressed closely palm to palm, and to his mouth Uplifted, he, as through an instrument, Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls, That they might answer him...
Page 14 - Was it for this That one, the fairest of all rivers, loved To blend his murmurs with my nurse's song, And, from his alder shades and rocky falls, And from his fords and shallows, sent a voice That flowed along my dreams? For this, didst thou, O Derwent ! winding among grassy holms Where I was looking on, a babe in arms, Make ceaseless music that composed my thoughts To more than infant softness, giving me Amid the fretful dwellings of mankind A foretaste, a dim earnest, of the calm That Nature breathes...
Page 18 - I dipped my oars into the silent lake, And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boat Went heaving through the water like a swan ; When, from behind that craggy steep till then The horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge, As if with voluntary power instinct, Upreared its head.
Page 339 - The Moon hung naked in a firmament Of azure without cloud, and at my feet Rested a silent sea of hoary mist. A hundred hills their dusky backs upheaved All over this still ocean...
Page 345 - This spiritual Love acts not nor can exist Without Imagination, which, in truth, Is but another name for absolute power And clearest insight, amplitude of mind, And Reason in her most exalted mood.
Page 98 - And in the meadows and the lower grounds Was all the sweetness of a common dawn — Dews, vapors, and the melody of birds, And laborers going forth to till the fields. Ah ! need I say, dear Friend...
Page 60 - To every natural form, rock, fruit or flower, Even the loose stones that cover the high-way, I gave a moral life : I saw them feel, Or linked them to some feeling : the great mass Lay bedded in a quickening soul, and all That I beheld respired with inward meaning.
Page 297 - Did both find helpers to their hearts' desire, And stuff at hand, plastic as they could wish, — Were called upon to exercise their skill, 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...