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.
ancient beneath coming deem dim distant drink felt fleeting ghostly kindred language listening mind moods night notes obscure possible purer visionary
. . . I would stand, If the night blackened with a coming storm, Beneath some rock, listening to notes that are The ghostly language of the ancient earth, Or make their dim abode in distant winds. Thence did I drink the visionary power; And deem not profitless those fleeting moods Of shadowy exultation: not for this, That they are kindred to our purer mind And intellectual life; but that the soul, Remembering how she felt, but what she felt Remembering not, retains an obscure sense Of possible sublimity. . . .
ancient coming deem dim distant drink fleeting ghostly kindred language listening night notes obscure possible purer visionary
. . . I would stand,If the night blackened with a coming storm,Beneath some rock, listening to notes that areThe ghostly language of the ancient earth,Or make their dim abode in distant winds.Thence did I drink the visionary power;And deem not profitless those fleeting moodsOf shadowy exultation: not for this,That they are kindred to our purer mindAnd intellectual life; but that the soul,Remembering how she felt, but what she feltRemembering not, retains an obscure senseOf possible sublimity. . . .
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!
english-poet
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.