WORDSWORTH. ODE. INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF I. THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. Turn wheresoe'er I may, By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more! II. The rainbow comes and goes, And lovely is the rose; The moon doth with delight Look round her when the heavens are bare; Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth; But yet I know, where'er I go, That there hath past away a glory from the earth. III. Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, As to the tabor's sound, To me alone there came a thought of grief; 5 10 15 20 The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep; Give themselves up to jolity, And with the heart of May Doth every beast keep holiday! Thou child of joy, 25 30 Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy shepherd boy! And the babe leaps up on his mother's arm: I hear, I hear, with joy I hear! But there's a tree, of many, one, A single field which I have look'd upon, Both of them speak of something that is gone; The pansy at my feet Doth the same tale repeat. Whither is fled the visionary gleam? Where is it now, the glory and the dream? V. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The soul that rises with us, our life's star, And cometh from afar; Not in entire forgetfulness, And not in utter nakedness, 45 50 55 60 |