WORDSWORTH. ODE. INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF I. THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. By night or day, The things which I have seen I now can see no more! II. The rainbow comes and goes, The moon doth with delight Look round her when the heavens are bare; Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth; But yet I know, where'er I go, III. Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, To me alone there came a thought of grief; 5 10 15 20 The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep; IV. Ye blessed creatures, I have heard the call The heavens laugh with you in your jubilee; My head hath its coronal; The fulness of your bliss, I feel-I feel it all. And the children are pulling, On every side, In a thousand valleys far and wide, Give themselves up to jolity, And with the heart of May Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy shepherd boy! 35 I hear, I hear, with joy I hear! A single field which I have look'd upon, Both of them speak of something that is gone; Doth the same tale repeat. Whither is fled the visionary gleam? 25 V. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: 30 40 45 50 55 60 |