William Wordsworth

"The martial courage of a day is vain, An empty noise of death the battle's roar, If vital hope be wanting to restore, Or fortitude be wanting to su"

"In series, 1821-22. Part I. From the introduction of Christianity into Britain, to the consummation of the papal dominion "a verse may catch a wand"

"A winged Goddess, clothed in vesture wrought Of rainbow colours; One whose port was bold, Whose overburthened hand could scarcely hold The glit"

"Why cast ye back upon the Gallic shore, Ye furious waves! a patriotic Son Of England, who in hope her coast had won, His project crowned, his p"

"By chain yet stronger must the Soul be tied: One duty more, last stage of this ascent, Brings to thy food, mysterious Sacrament! The Offspring,"

"For what contend the wise? for nothing less Than that the Soul, freed from the bonds of Sense, And to her God restored by evidence Of things no"

"II. Continued From Rite and Ordinance abused they fled To Wilds where both were utterly unknown; But not to them had Providence foreshown Wha"

"I The God of Love "ah, benedicite!" How mighty and how great a Lord is he! For he of low hearts can make high, of high He can make low, and"

"Lament! for Diocletian's fiery sword Works busy as the lightning; but instinct With malice ne'er to deadliest weapon linked Which God's etherea"

"No fiction was it of the antique age: A sky-blue stone, within this sunless cleft, Is of the very footmarks unbereft Which tiny Elves impressed"

"Why sleeps the future, as a snake enrolled, Coil within coil, at noon-tide? For the WORD Yields, if with unpresumptuous faith explored, Power a"

"Not utterly unworthy to endure Was the supremacy of crafty Rome; Age after age to the arch of Christendom Aerial keystone haughtily secure; S"

"Pansies, lilies, kingcups, daisies, Let them live upon their praises; Long as there's a sun that sets, Primroses will have their glory; Long as th"

"By Art's bold privilege Warrior and War-horse stand On ground yet strewn with their last battle's wreck; Let the Steed glory while his Master's h"

"How shall I paint thee? Be this naked stone My seat, while I give way to such intent; Pleased could my verse, a speaking monument, Make to the"

"Lady! the songs of Spring were in the grove While I was shaping beds for winter flowers; While I was planting green unfading bowers, And shrubs--to"

"'Tis said, that some have died for love: And here and there a churchyard grave is found In the cold north's unhallowed ground, Because the wretched"

"No record tells of lance opposed to lance, Horse charging horse, 'mid these retired domains; Tells that their turf drank purple from the veins"

"The unremitting voice of nightly streams That wastes so oft, we think, its tuneful powers, If neither soothing to the worm that gleams Through"

"There is a Yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale, Which to this day stands single, in the midst Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore: Not loathe to fu"

"Open your gates, ye everlasting Piles! Types of the spiritual Church which God hath reared; Not loth we quit the newly-hallowed sward And humbl"

"O blithe New-comer! I have heard, I hear thee and rejoice. O Cuckoo! Shall I call thee Bird, Or but a wandering Voice? While I am lying on the gr"

"By Moscow self-devoted to a blaze Of dreadful sacrifice, by Russian blood Lavished in fight with desperate hardihood; The unfeeling Elements no cla"

""As the cold aspect of a sunless way Strikes through the Traveller's frame with deadlier chill, Oft as appears a grove, or obvious hill, Gliste"

"The embowering rose, the acacia, and the pine, Will not unwillingly their place resign; If but the Cedar thrive that near them stands, Planted by B"

"What He who, 'mid the kindred throng Of Heroes that inspired his song, Doth yet frequent the hill of storms, The stars dim-twinkling through th"

"Prompt transformation works the novel Lore; The Council closed, the Priest in full career Rides forth, an armed man, and hurls a spear To desec"

"Advance, come forth from thy Tyrolean ground, Dear Liberty! stern Nymph of soul untamed; Sweet Nymph, O rightly of the mountains named! Through the"

"Great men have been among us; hands that pennd And tongues that utterd wisdombetter none: The later Sidney, Marvel, Harrington, Young Vane, and"

"Now joy for you who from the towers Of Brancepeth look in doubt and fear, Telling melancholy hours! Proclaim it, let your Masters hear That Norton"

"High on a broad unfertile tract of forest-skirted Down, Nor kept by Nature for herself, nor made by man his own, From home and company remote and"

"SIX YEARS OLD O thou! whose fancies from afar are brought; Who of thy words dost make a mock apparel, And fittest to unutterable thought The bree"

"These times strike monied worldlings with dismay: Even rich men, brave by nature, taint the air With words of apprehension and despair: While tens"

"I rose while yet the cattle, heat-opprest, Crowded together under rustling trees Brushed by the current of the water-breeze; And for 'their' sa"

"Behold a pupil of the monkish gown, The pious Alfred, King to Justice dear! Lord of the harp and liberating spear; Mirror of Princes! Indigent"

"Among the mountains were we nursed, loved Stream Thou near the eagle's nest, within brief sail, I, of his bold wing floating on the gale, Where"

"Now we are tired of boisterous joy, Have romped enough, my little Boy! Jane hangs her head upon my breast, And you shall bring your stool and r"

"No more: the end is sudden and abrupt, Abrupt, as without preconceived design Was the beginning; yet the several Lays Have moved in order, to e"

"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 s"

"I How blest the Maid whose heart, yet free From Love's uneasy sovereignty Beats with a fancy running high, Her simple cares to magnify; Who"

"If from the public way you turn your steps Up the tumultuous brook of Green-head Ghyll, You will suppose that with an upright path Your feet mu"

"Behold an emblem of our human mind Crowded with thoughts that need a settled home, Yet, like to eddying balls of foam Within this whirlpool, th"

"The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given ou"

"Oft have I caught, upon a fitful breeze, Fragments of far-off melodies, With ear not coveting the whole, A part so charmed the pensive soul."

"When, far and wide, swift as the beams of morn The tidings past of servitude repealed, And of that joy which shook the Isthmian Field, The rough Ae"

"The Spirit of Antiquity, enshrined In sumptuous buildings, vocal in sweet song, In picture, speaking with heroic tongue, And with devout solemn"

"A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags, A rude and natural causeway, interposed Between the water and a winding slope Of copse and thicket, leav"

"The Land we from our fathers had in trust, And to our children will transmit, or die: This is our maxim, this our piety; And God and Nature say tha"

"On his morning rounds the Master Goes to learn how all things fare; Searches pasture after pasture, Sheep and cattle eyes with care; And, for sile"

"What awful perspective! while from our sight With gradual stealth the lateral windows hide Their Portraitures, their stone-work glimmers, dyed"

"The turbaned Race are poured in thickening swarms Along the west; though driven from Aquitaine, The Crescent glitters on the towers of Spain; A"

"Here, where, of havoc tired and rash undoing, Man left this Structure to become Time's prey A soothing spirit follows in the way That Nature ta"

"There's more in words than I can teach: Yet listen, Child! I would not preach; But only give some plain directions To guide your speech and you"

"Were there, below, a spot of holy ground Where from distress a refuge might be found, And solitude prepare the soul for heaven; Sure, nature's God"

"Long-favoured England! be not thou misled By monstrous theories of alien growth, Lest alien frenzy seize thee, waxing wroth, Self-smitten till"

"There was a roaring in the wind all night; The rain came heavily and fell in floods; But now the sun is rising calm and bright; The birds are s"

"As often as I murmur here My half-formed melodies, Straight from her osier mansion near, The Turtledove replies: Though silent as a leaf befo"

""Miserrimus," and neither name nor date, Prayer, text, or symbol, graven upon the stone; Nought but that word assigned to the unknown, That sol"

"Look now on that Adventurer who hath paid His vows to Fortune; who, in cruel slight Of virtuous hope, of liberty, and right, Hath followed wheresoe"

"Bruges I saw attired with golden light (Streamed from the west) as with a robe of power: The splendour fled; and now the sunless hour, That, sl"