The Prelude. BOOK FIRST. INTRODUCTION-CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL-TIME. OH THERE is blessing in this gentle breeze, | Are mine in prospect; whither shall I A visitant that while it fans my cheek turn, Doth seem half-conscious of the joy it By road or pathway, or through trackles brings field, From the green fields, and from yon Up hill or down, or shall some floating azure sky. Whate'er its mission, the soft breeze can come 5 To none more grateful than to me; es caped thing Upon the river point me out my course! Dear Liberty! Yet what would it avail But for a gift that consecrates the joy? From the vast city, where I long had For I, methought, while the sweet breath pined A discontented sojourner: now free, What dwelling shall receive me? in what vale Shall be my harbour? underneath what grove Shall I take up my home? and what Vexing its own creation. Thanks to both Of active days urged on by flying hoursBe nothing better than a wandering Days of sweet leisure, taxed with pati Spontaneously to clothe in priestly robe A renovated spirit singled out, Such hope was mine, for holy services. My own voice cheered me, and, far more, the mind's 55 Dislodged, through sere leaves rustled, or at once To the bare earth dropped with a startling sound. 85 From that soft couch I rose not, till the sun nternal echo of the imperfect sound; To both I listened, drawing from them Had almost touched the horizon; casting both wo hours declined towards the west; a day 'ith silver clouds, and sunshine on the grass, then And lastly utter silence! "Be it so; nd in the sheltered and the sheltering Why think of anything but present grove acouraged and dismissed, till choice was made good?" 100 So, like a home-bound labourer, I pursued My way beneath the mellowing sun, that shed Mild influence; nor left in me one wish i a known Vale, whither my feet should Again to bend the Sabbath of that time turn, or rest till they had reached the very door the one cottage which methought I saw. 74 o picture of mere memory ever looked fair; and while upon the fancied scene gazed with growing love, a higher power Jan Fancy gave assurance of some work glory there forthwith to be begun, erhaps too there performed. Thus long I mused, 80 or e'er lost sight of what I mused upon, ve when, amid the stately grove of oaks, ow here, now there, an acorn, from its New stores, or rescue from decay the old eup By timely interference: and therewith The many feelings that oppressed my Subordinate helpers of the living mind: heart. Nor am I naked of external things, That hope hath been discouraged; wel- Forms, images, nor numerous other aids Of less regard, though won perhaps with toil come light Dawns from the east, but dawns to dis Would gladly grapple with some noble As may be singled out with steady chore With me is now such passion, to be blamed No otherwise than as it lasts too long. 145 When, as becomes a man who would prepare Whence inspiration for a song that win For such an arduous work, I through Through ever-changing scenes of vot Wrongs to redress, harmonious tribute paid To patient courage and unblemished truth, To firm devotion, zeal unquenchable, And Christian meekness hallowing faithful loves. 185 Sometimes, more sternly moved, I would relate How vanquished Mithridates northward passed, And, hidden in the cloud of years, became Odin, the Father of a race by whom Perished the Roman Empire: how the friends 190 And followers of Sertorius, out of Spain flying, found shelter in the Fortunate Isles, And left their usages, their arts and laws, fo disappear by a slow gradual death, fo dwindle and to perish one by one, 195 starved in those narrow bounds: but not the soul Of Liberty, which fifteen hundred years Jurvived, and, when the European came With skill and power that might not be withstood, Did, like a pestilence, maintain its hold And wasted down by glorious death that How that one Frenchman1, through continued force of meditation on the inhuman deeds f those who conquered first the Indian Isles, Fent single in his ministry across How Wallace fought for Scotland; left the name Of Wallace to be found, like a wild flower, 215 All over his dear Country; left the deeds Of Wallace, like a family of Ghosts, To people the steep rocks and river banks, 220 Her natural sanctuaries, with a local soul Of Truth that cherishes our daily life; 230 With meditations passionate from deep Recesses in man's heart, immortal verse Thoughtfully fitted to the Orphean lyre; But from this awful burthen I full soon Take refuge and beguile myself with trust 235 That mellower years will bring a riper mind And clearer insight. Thus my days are past In contradiction; with no skill to part Vague longing, haply bred by want of he Ocean; not to comfort the op- Betray me, serving often for a cloak 244 pressed, 210 t, like a thirsty wind, to roam about ithering the Oppressor: how Gustavus sought elp at his need in Dalecarlia's mines: Dominique de Gourgues, who in 1567 sailed Florida to avenge the massacre of the French Che Spaniards.-ED. of 1850. To a more subtle selfishness; that now 251 And ask no record of the hours, resigned Oh, many a time have I, a five years child, In a small mill-race severed from his stream, Made one long bathing of a summers day; To vacant musing, unreproved neglect thought Hang like an interdict upon her hopes. Much wanting, so much wanting, in my- That I recoil and droop, and seek repose And renders nothing back. Was it for this That one, the fairest of all rivers, loved To blend his murmurs with my nurse's song, 271 And, from his alder shades and rocky falls, And from his fords and shallows, sent a voice That flowed along my dreams? For this, didst thou, 274 basked again groves 200 Of yellow ragwort; or when rock and hill, The woods, and distant Skiddaw's lofty height, 295 Were bronzed with deepest radiante stood alone Beneath the sky, as if I had been born Had run abroad in wantonness, to sport, (Fair seed-time had my soul, and I gree up Fostered alike by beauty and by fear: Much favoured in my birthplace, and m less In that beloved Vale to which erelong We were transplanted-there were we loose O Derwent! winding among grassy holms For sports of wider range. Ese I had Where I was looking on, a babe in arms, told Ten birth-days, when among the mountais slopes Frost, and the breath of frosty wind, had snapped The last autumnal crocus, 'twas my jo With store of springes o'er my shoulder hung To range the open heights where wood cocks run Among the smooth green turf. Thr half the night, Scudding away from snare to snare That anxious visitation ;-moon and sta |