The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Volume 2

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Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, 1892 - 951 pages

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Page 670 - Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide; The Form remains, the Function never dies ; While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise, We Men, who in our morn of youth defied The elements, must vanish ; — be it so ! Enough, if something from our hands have power To live, and act, and serve the future hour ; And if, as toward the silent tomb we go, Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower, We feel that we are greater than we know.
Page 581 - O for the coming of that glorious time When, prizing knowledge as her noblest wealth And best protection, this imperial realm, While she exacts allegiance, shall admit An obligation on her part to teach Them who are born to serve her and obey ; Binding herself by statute to secure For all the children whom her soil maintains The rudiments of letters, and inform The mind with moral and religious truth...
Page 893 - What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones, The labour of an age in piled stones, Or that his hallowed relics should be hid Under a star-ypointing pyramid? Dear son of memory, great heir of Fame, What need'st thou such weak witness of thy name? Thou in our wonder and astonishment Hast built thyself a livelong monument.
Page 800 - MOST sweet it is with unuplifted eyes To pace the ground, if path be there or none, While a fair region round the traveller lies Which he forbears again to look upon; Pleased rather with some soft ideal scene, The work of Fancy, or some happy tone Of meditation, slipping in between The beauty coming and the beauty gone.
Page 490 - And self-withdrawn into a boundless depth Far sinking into splendour— without end ! Fabric it seemed of diamond and of gold, With alabaster domes, and silver spires, And blazing terrace upon terrace, high Uplifted ; here, serene pavilions bright, In avenues disposed ; there, towers begirt With battlements that on their restless fronts Bore stars...
Page 865 - So fair, so sweet, withal so sensitive, Would that the little Flowers were born to live, Conscious of half the pleasure which they give ; That to this mountain-daisy's self were known The beauty of its star-shaped shadow, thrown On the smooth surface of this naked stone...
Page 577 - The moving waters, and the invisible air. Whate'er exists hath properties that spread Beyond itself, communicating good, A simple blessing, or with evil mixed ; Spirit that knows no insulated spot, No chasm, no solitude ; from link to link It circulates, the Soul of all the worlds.
Page 597 - O that some minstrel's harp were near, To utter notes of gladness, And chase this silence from the air, That fills my heart with sadness ! Yet why? a silvery current flows With uncontrolled meanderings; Nor have these eyes by greener hills Been soothed, in all my wanderings.
Page 885 - Of troublous and distress'd mortality, That thus make way unto the ugly birth Of their own sorrows, and do still beget Affliction upon imbecility ; Yet, seeing thus the course of things must run, He looks thereon not strange, but as fore-done. And whilst distraught Ambition compasses And is encompassed ; whilst as Craft deceives And is deceived ; whilst man doth ransack man, And builds on blood, and rises by distress ; And th...
Page 517 - twas ever meant That we should pry far off, yet be unraised ; That we should pore, and dwindle as we pore, Viewing all objects unremittingly In disconnection dead and spiritless; And still dividing and dividing still Break down all grandeur, still unsatisfied With the perverse attempt, while littleness May yet become more little ; waging thus An impious warfare with the very life Of our own souls...

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