THE SOLITARY REAPER Behold her, single in the field, Alone she cuts and binds the grain, No nightingale did ever chaunt A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard In spring-time from the cuckoo-bird, Breaking the silence of the seas Among the farthest Hebrides. Will no one tell me what she sings!- Or is it some more humble lay, Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang 5 10 15 20 25 Ye blessed Creatures, I have heard the call Ye to each other make; I see The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee; 35 The poet seems to mean simply the quiet, peaceful fields of the more remote country districts. Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep 110 115 120 Mighty Prophet! Seer blest! On whom those truths do rest, Which we are toiling all our lives to find, In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave; Thou, over whom thy Immortality Broods like the Day, a Master o'er a Slave, A Presence which is not to be put by; Thou little Child, yet glorious in the might Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height, Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke The years to bring the inevitable yoke, Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife? 125 Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight, And custom lie upon thee with a weight, Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life! ? The stage on which men and women are exhibited in various moods and whims. The quotation is from Daniel's Musophilus. 3 Wordsworth tells us that at times the external world became vague and unreal to him, and adds: "Many times while going to school have I grasped at a wall or tree to recall myself from this abyss of idealism to the reality." This questioning of the reality of the world, this occasional feeling that things of the senses are falling from us, vanishing, suggests to Wordsworth the immortality of the soul; and it is for these experiences that he is chiefly thankful. X "I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD” (From Poems, 1807) I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, A host, of golden daffodils; Continuous as the stars that shine They stretched in never-ending line Ten thousand saw I at a glance, The waves beside them danced; but they In such a jocund company: I gazed-and gazed-but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song! [For oft, when on my couch I lie And let the young Lambs bound We in thought will join your throng, Ye that through your hearts to-day 170 What though the radiance which was once so bright Be now forever taken from my sight, 175 Though nothing can bring back the hour Which having been must ever be; 180 In the faith that looks through death 185 In years that bring the philosophic mind. 10 15 I'm stuck In vacant or in pensive mood, And then my heart with pleasure fills, "SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT" (From Poems, 1807) Yort. She was a Phantom of delight To be a moment's ornament; Her eyes are stars of Twilight fair; But all things else about her drawn Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair; |