Prelude - Prefixed To The Volume Entitled "Poems Chiefly Of Early And Late Years

In desultory walk through orchard grounds, Or some deep chestnut grove, oft have I paused The while a Thrush, urged rather than restrained By gusts of vernal storm, attuned his song To his own genial instincts; and was heard (Though not without some plaintive tones between) To utter, above showers of blossom swept From tossing boughs, the promise of a calm, Which the unsheltered traveler might receive With thankful spirit. The descant, and the wind That seemed to play with it in love or scorn, Encouraged and endeared the strain of words That haply flowed from me, by fits of silence Impelled to livelier pace. But now, my Book! Charged with those lays, and others of like mood, Or loftier pitch if higher rose the theme, Go, single yet aspiring to be joined With thy Forerunners that through many a year Have faithfully prepared each other's way Go forth upon a mission best fulfilled When and wherever, in this changeful world, Power hath been given to please for higher ends Than pleasure only; gladdening to prepare For wholesome sadness, troubling to refine, Calming to raise; and, by a sapient Art Diffused through all the mysteries of our Being, Softening the toils and pains that have not ceased To cast their shadows on our mother Earth Since the primeval doom. Such is the grace Which, though unsued for, fails not to descend With heavenly inspiration; such the aim That Reason dictates; and, as even the wish Has virtue in it, why should hope to me Be wanting that sometimes, where fancied ills Harass the mind and strip from off the bowers Of private life their natural pleasantness, A Voice devoted to the love whose seeds Are sown in every human breast, to beauty Lodged within compass of the humblest sight, To cheerful intercourse with wood and field, And sympathy with man's substantial griefs Will not be heard in vain? And in those days When unforeseen distress spreads far and wide Among a People mournfully cast down, Or into anger roused by venal words In recklessness flung out to overturn The judgment, and divert the general heart From mutual good some strain of thine, my Book! Caught at propitious intervals, may win Listeners who not unwillingly admit Kindly emotion tending to console And reconcile; and both with young and old Exalt the sense of thoughtful gratitude For benefits that still survive, by faith In progress, under laws divine, maintained.