William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworthwas a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication Lyrical Ballads...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth7 April 1770
royal saint tax vain
Tax not the royal Saint with vain expense.
earth whom youth
A youth to whom was givenSo much of earth, so much of heaven.And such impetuous blood.
characters eternity great symbols types
Characters of the great Apocalypse,/ The types and symbols of Eternity,/ Of first, and last, and midst, and without end.
begin boy close growing heaven lies lies-and-lying shades
Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy
battles numbers perhaps
Perhaps the plaintive numbers flowFor old, unhappy, far-off things,And battles long ago.
bitterness
But hushed be every thought that springsFrom out the bitterness of things.
dreads flying sought
More like a man/ Flying from something that he dreads than one/ Who sought the thing he loved.
impatient joy share surprised wished
Surprised by joy -- impatient as the windI wished to share the transport.
conclude good poem poet produced
A poet who has not produced a good poem before he is twenty-five, we may conclude cannot, and never will do so.
communion imperfect offices praise prayer
Rapt into still communion that transcends/ The imperfect offices of prayer and praise.
beloved childish con records shall
Beloved Vale, I said, When I shall con those many records of my childish years
behold gently singing single solitary
Behold her, single in the field,Yon solitary Highland lass!Reaping and singing by herself;Stop here, or gently pass!
grim living measured motion purpose
The grim shape/ Towered up between me and the stars, and still,/ For so it seemed, with purpose of its own/ And measured motion like a living thing,/ Strode after me.
continued honorable men objects please
All men feel something of an honorable bigotry for the objects which have long continued to please them.