Wordsworth: The Prelude

Quotes & Sources
The Fairfield Review, An On-line Literary Magazine for the Global Community.

See lines 633-644.

"THE PRELUDE"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Wordsworth 1805: Original Text Reference.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

From BOOK FIRST: CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL-TIME

609 Thus, often in those fits of vulgar joy
610 Which, through all seasons, on a child's pursuits
611 Are prompt attendants, 'mid that giddy bliss
612 Which, like a tempest, works along the blood
613 And is forgotten; even then I felt
614 Gleams like the flashing of a shield; the earth
615 And common face of Nature spake to me
616 Rememberable things; sometimes, 'tis true,
617 By chance collisions and quaint accidents
618 Like those ill-sorted unions, work suppos'd
619 Of evil-minded fairies, yet not vain
620 Nor profitless, if haply they impress'd
621 Collateral objects and appearances,
622 Albeit lifeless then, and doom'd to sleep
623 Until maturer seasons call'd them forth
624 To impregnate and to elevate the mind.
625 --And if the vulgar joy by its own weight
626 Wearied itself out of the memory,
627 The scenes which were a witness of that joy
628 Remained, in their substantial lineaments
629 Depicted on the brain, and to the eye
630 Were visible, a daily sight; and thus
631 By the impressive discipline of fear,
632 By pleasure and repeated happiness,
633 So frequently repeated, and by force
634 Of obscure feelings representative
635 Of joys that were forgotten, these same scenes,
636 So beauteous and majestic in themselves,
637 Though yet the day was distant, did at length
638 Become habitually dear, and all
639 Their hues and forms were by invisible links
640 Allied to the affections. I began
641 My story early, feeling as I fear,
642 The weakness of a human love, for days
643 Disown'd by memory, ere the birth of spring
644 Planting my snowdrops among winter snows.
645 Nor will it seem to thee, my Friend! so prompt
646 In sympathy, that I have lengthen'd out,
647 With fond and feeble tongue, a tedious tale.
648 Meanwhile, my hope has been that I might fetch
649 Invigorating thoughts from former years,
650 Might fix the wavering balance of my wind,
651 And haply meet reproaches, too, whose power
652 May spur me on, in manhood now mature,
653 To honorable toil. Yet should these hopes
654 Be vain, and thus should neither I be taught
655 To understand myself, nor thou to know
656 With better knowledge how the heart was fram'd
657 Of him thou lovest, need I dread from thee
658 Harsh judgments, if I am so loth to quit
659 Those recollected hours that have the charm
660 Of visionary things, and lovely forms
661 And sweet sensations that throw back our life
662 And almost make our Infancy itself
663 A visible scene, on which the sun is shining?