WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. Born 1770. Died 1850. MIST OPENING IN THE HILLS. O was he lifted gently from the ground, And with their freight homeward the shepherds moved Through the dull mist, I following-when a step, A single step, that freed me from the skirts Of the blind vapour, opened to my view By waking sense or by the dreaming soul! A wilderness of building, sinking far By earthly nature had the effect been wrought The vapours had receded, taking there Their station under a cerulean sky. Oh, 'twas an unimaginable sight! Clouds, mists, streams, watery rocks and emerald turf, Stood fixed; and fixed resemblances were seen But vast in size, in substance glorified; From The Excursion. AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. (Greek Divinities.) NCE more to distant ages of the world ONCE Let us revert, and place before our thoughts The face which rural solitude might wear To the unenlightened swains of pagan Greece. With music lulled his indolent repose: And, in some fit of weariness, if he When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear A beardless Youth, who touched a golden lute, Up towards the crescent moon, with grateful heart By echo multiplied from rock or cave, Swept in the storm or chase; as moon and stars When winds are blowing strong. The traveller slaked Gliding apace, with shadows in their train, Might, with small help from fancy, be transformed The Zephyrs fanning, as they passed, their wings, From The Excursion. |