William Wordsworth

"Those old credulities, to nature dear, Shall they no longer bloom upon the stock Of History, stript naked as a rock 'Mid a dry desert? What is"

"Rise! they 'have' risen: of brave Aneurin ask How they have scourged old foes, perfidious friends: The Spirit of Caractacus descends Upon the P"

"The child is father of the man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. (Wordsworth, My Heart Leaps Up) There was a"

"Oerweening Statesmen have full long relied On fleets and armies, and external wealth: But from 'within' proceeds a Nation's health; Which shall no"

"Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the hero"

"Excuse is needless when with love sincere Of occupation, not by fashion led, Thou turn'st the Wheel that slept with dust o'erspread; 'My' nerve"

"If the whole weight of what we think and feel, Save only far as thought and feeling blend With action, were as nothing, patriot Friend! From th"

"Yes! thou art fair, yet be not moved To scorn the declaration, That sometimes I in thee have loved My fancy's own creation. Imagination need"

"A Famous man is Robin Hood, The English ballad-singer's joy! And Scotland has a thief as good, An outlaw of as daring mood; She has her brave ROB"

"In this still place, remote from men, Sleeps Ossian, in the NARROW GLEN; In this still place, where murmurs on But one meek streamlet, only one: H"

"Here pause: the poet claims at least this praise, That virtuous Liberty hath been the scope Of his pure song, which did not shrink from hope In the"

"Loving she is, and tractable, though wild; And Innocence hath privilege in her To dignify arch looks and laughing eyes; And feats of cunning; and t"

"February 1816 Oh, for a kindling touch from that pure flame Which ministered, erewhile, to a sacrifice Of gratitude, beneath Italian skies, In wo"

"Calm is all nature as a resting wheel. The kine are couched upon the dewy grass; The horse alone, seen dimly as I pass, Is cropping audibly his"

"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"

""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,"

"SUMMER VACATION Bright was the summer's noon when quickening steps Followed each other till a dreary moor Was crossed, a bare ridge clomb, upon wh"

"Brave Schill! by death delivered, take thy flight From Prussia's timid region. Go, and rest With heroes, 'mid the islands of the Blest, Or in the f"

"But liberty, and triumphs on the Main, And laureled armies, not to be withstood What serve they? if, on transitory good Intent, and sedulous of"

"What aim had they, the Pair of Monks, in size Enormous, dragged, while side by side they sate, By panting steers up to this convent gate? How,"

"From the Pier's head, musing, and with increase Of wonder, I have watched this sea-side Town, Under the white cliff's battlemented crown, Hushe"

"Doubling and doubling with laborious walk, Who, that has gained at length the wished-for Height, This brief this simple wayside Call can slight,"

"There is a change and I am poor; Your love hath been, nor long ago, A fountain at my fond heart's door, Whose only business was to flow; And flow"

"O thou who movest onward with a mind Intent upon thy way, pause, though in haste! 'Twill be no fruitless moment. I was born Within Savona's wal"

"O happy time of youthful lovers (thus My story may begin) O balmy time, In which a love-knot on a lady's brow Is fairer than the fairest star in he"

"Not sedentary all: there are who roam To scatter seeds of life on barbarous shores; Or quit with zealous step their knee-worn floors To seek th"

"From this deep chasm, where quivering sunbeams play Upon its loftiest crags, mine eyes behold A gloomy Niche, capacious, blank, and cold; A con"

"A Rock there is whose homely front The passing traveller slights; Yet there the glow-worms hang their lamps, Like stars, at various heights; And o"

"A voice, from long-expecting thousands sent, Shatters the air, and troubles tower and spire; For Justice hath absolved the innocent, And Tyrann"

"Rude is this Edifice, and Thou hast seen Buildings, albeit rude, that have maintained Proportions more harmonious, and approached To closer fel"

"Methought I saw the footsteps of a throne Which mists and vapours from mine eyes did shroud Nor view of who might sit thereon allowed; But all the"

"Fly, some kind Harbinger, to Grasmere-dale! Say that we come, and come by this day's light; Fly upon swiftest wing round field and height, But chie"

"A youth too certain of his power to wade On the smooth bottom of this clear bright sea, To sight so shallow, with a bather's glee Leapt from th"

"Shout, for a mighty Victory is won! On British ground the Invaders are laid low; The breath of Heaven has drifted them like snow, And left them lyi"

"IMAGINATION AND TASTE, HOW IMPAIRED AND RESTORED (concluded) From Nature doth emotion come, and moods Of calmness equally are Nature's gift: This"

"From the dark chambers of dejection freed, Spurning the unprofitable yoke of care, Rise, Gillies, rise; the gales of youth shall bear Thy genius fo"

"Dear Fellow-travellers! think not that the Muse, To You presenting these memorial Lays, Can hope the general eye thereon would gaze, As on a mi"

""Powers there are That touch each other to the quick in modes Which the gross world no sense hath to perceive, No soul to dream of." Thou Spiri"

"I The Sheep-boy whistled loud, and lo! That instant, startled by the shock, The Buzzard mounted from the rock Deliberate and slow: Lord of"

""To every Form of being is assigned," Thus calmly spake the venerable Sage, "An 'active' Principle: howe'er removed From sense and observation,"

"Sylph was it? or a Bird more bright Than those of fabulous stock? A second darted by; and lo! Another of the flock, Through sunshine flitting"

"By a blest Husband guided, Mary came From nearest kindred, Vernon her new name; She came, though meek of soul, in seemly pride Of happiness and"

"It is the first mild day of March: Each minute sweeter than before The redbreast sings from the tall larch That stands beside our door. There is"

"Lo! where she stands fixed in a saint-like trance, One upward hand, as if she needed rest From rapture, lying softly on her breast! Nor wants h"

"Child of loud-throated War! the mountain Stream     Roars in thy hearing; but thy hour of rest     Is come, and thou art silent in thy age;"

""How disappeared he?" Ask the newt and toad; Ask of his fellow-men, and they will tell How he was found, cold as an icicle, Under an arch of th"

"Departed Child! I could forget thee once Though at my bosom nursed; this woeful gain Thy dissolution brings, that in my soul Is present and perpetu"

"Here, on our native soil, we breathe once more. The cock that crows, the smoke that curls, that sound Of bells; those boys who in yon meadow-ground"

"Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth, like a"

"Show me the noblest Youth of present time, Whose trembling fancy would to love give birth; Some God or Hero, from the Olympian clime Returned,"

"Who but is pleased to watch the moon on high Traveling where she from time to time enshrouds Her head, and nothing loth her Majesty Renounces,"

"From Little down to Least, in due degree, Around the Pastor, each in new-wrought vest, Each with a vernal posy at his breast, We stood, a tremb"

""Beloved Vale!" I said, "when I shall con Those many records of my childish years, Remembrance of myself and of my peers Will press me down: to thi"

"Inmate of a mountain-dwelling, Thou hast clomb aloft, and gazed From the watch-towers of Helvellyn; Awed, delighted, and amazed! Potent was the s"

"Genius of Raphael! if thy wings Might bear thee to this glen, With faithful memory left of things To pencil dear and pen, Thou would'st foreg"

""Her divine skill taught me this, That from every thing I saw I could some instruction draw, And raise pleasure to the height Through the mea"

"Stranger! this hillock of mis-shapen stones Is not a Ruin spared or made by time, Nor, as perchance thou rashly deem'st, the Cairn Of some old"

"Come ye who, if (which Heaven avert!) the Land Were with herself at strife, would take your stand, Like gallant Falkland, by the Monarch's side, An"

"Even such the contrast that, where'er we move, To the mind's eye Religion doth present; Now with her own deep quietness content; Then, like the"

"Though to give timely warning and deter Is one great aim of penalty, extend Thy mental vision further and ascend Far higher, else full surely s"