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
age-and-aging beautiful foolish happy nature
With Nature never do they wageA foolish strife; they seeA happy youth, and their old ageIs beautiful and free.
art darling invisible thou
Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!Even yet thou art to meNo bird, but an invisible thing,A voice, a mystery. . . .
dim nights passed three words
Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.
marble mind newton prism seas silent statue strange
Where the statue stood/ Of Newton with his prism and silent face,/ The marble index of a mind for ever/ Voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone.
bow custom growing life light moves potent substitute universe vulgar weight
The tendency, too potent in itself,Of use and custom to bow down the soulUnder a growing weight of vulgar sense,And substitute a universe of deathFor that which moves with light and life informed,Actual, divine, and true.
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
grow life shall
So was it when my life began;So is it now I am a man;So be it when I shall grow old,Or let me die!
fixed man open solitary wind
As if the man had fixed his face,In many a solitary place,Against the wind and open sky!
noisy strongest whom
Strongest mindsAre often those of whom the noisy worldHears least.
bold sanctified shall throughout
How the bold teacher's doctrine, sanctified By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed
lowly sacrifice spirit unto
Give unto me, made lowly wise,/ The spirit of self-sacrifice.
competent difficult soul tasks
And the most difficult of tasks to keepHeights which the soul is competent to gain.
deadly empire mighty shall
Another year! - another deadly blow!/ Another mighty empire overthrown!/ And we are left, or shall be left, alone.
blessings eternal gave
Blessings be with them, and eternal praise,Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares!