Poetry
From "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth:
...These beauteous froms,
through a long absence, have not been to me
as is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
of towns and cities, I have owed to them
in hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
and passing even into my purer mind,
with tranquil restoration--feelings too
of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
as have no slight or trivial influence
on that best portion of a good ma's life.
his little, namesless, unremembered, acts
of kindness and of love. nor less, i trust,
to them i may have owed another gift
of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
in which the burthen of the mystery,
in which the bheavy and the weary weight
of all this unintelligible world
is lightened--that serene and blessed mood,
in which the affections gently lead us on--
until, the breath of thiscorporeal frame
and even the motion of our human blood
almost suspended, we are laid asleep
in body, and become a living soul;
while with an eye made quiet by the power
of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
we see into the life of things...
...And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
with many recognitions dim and faint,
and somewhat of a sad perplexity,
the picture of the mind revives again;
while here i stand, not only with the sense
of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
that this moment there is life and food
for future years. And so I dare to hope...
...For I have learned
to look on nature, not as in the hour
of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
the still, sad music of humanity,
nor harsh nor grating, though the ample power
to chasten and subdue. And I have felt
a presence that disturbs me with the joy
of elevated thought; a sense sublime
of something far more deeply interfused,
whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
and the round ocean and the living air,
and the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
a motion and spirit, that impels
all thinking things, all object of all thought,
and rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
a lover of the meadows and the woods
and mountians; and of all that we behold
from this green earth; of all themighty world
of eye, and ear--both what they half create,
and what perceive; well pleased to recognize
in nature and the language of the sense,
the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
of all my moral being...
...Knowing that Nature never did betray
the heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
through all the years of this our life, to lead
from joy to joy; for she can so inform
the mind that is within us, so ipmress
with quietness and beauty, and so feed
with lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
the dreary intercourse of daily life,
shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
and let the misty mountain winds be free
to blow against thee: and, in after years,
Then these wild ecstasies shall be matured
into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
thy memory be as a dwelling place
for all sweet sound and harmonies....
...These beauteous froms,
through a long absence, have not been to me
as is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
of towns and cities, I have owed to them
in hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
and passing even into my purer mind,
with tranquil restoration--feelings too
of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,
as have no slight or trivial influence
on that best portion of a good ma's life.
his little, namesless, unremembered, acts
of kindness and of love. nor less, i trust,
to them i may have owed another gift
of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,
in which the burthen of the mystery,
in which the bheavy and the weary weight
of all this unintelligible world
is lightened--that serene and blessed mood,
in which the affections gently lead us on--
until, the breath of thiscorporeal frame
and even the motion of our human blood
almost suspended, we are laid asleep
in body, and become a living soul;
while with an eye made quiet by the power
of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
we see into the life of things...
...And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,
with many recognitions dim and faint,
and somewhat of a sad perplexity,
the picture of the mind revives again;
while here i stand, not only with the sense
of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
that this moment there is life and food
for future years. And so I dare to hope...
...For I have learned
to look on nature, not as in the hour
of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
the still, sad music of humanity,
nor harsh nor grating, though the ample power
to chasten and subdue. And I have felt
a presence that disturbs me with the joy
of elevated thought; a sense sublime
of something far more deeply interfused,
whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
and the round ocean and the living air,
and the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
a motion and spirit, that impels
all thinking things, all object of all thought,
and rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
a lover of the meadows and the woods
and mountians; and of all that we behold
from this green earth; of all themighty world
of eye, and ear--both what they half create,
and what perceive; well pleased to recognize
in nature and the language of the sense,
the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
of all my moral being...
...Knowing that Nature never did betray
the heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,
through all the years of this our life, to lead
from joy to joy; for she can so inform
the mind that is within us, so ipmress
with quietness and beauty, and so feed
with lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,
rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,
nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
the dreary intercourse of daily life,
shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb
our cheerful faith, that all which we behold
is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon
shine on thee in thy solitary walk;
and let the misty mountain winds be free
to blow against thee: and, in after years,
Then these wild ecstasies shall be matured
into a sober pleasure; when thy mind
shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,
thy memory be as a dwelling place
for all sweet sound and harmonies....