Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/647

 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

534 Upon Westminster Bridge


 * ARTH has not anything to show more fair:

��Dull would he be of soul who could pass by

A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth like a garment wear The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,

Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie

Open unto the fields, and to the sky; All blight and glittering in the smokeless air. Never did sun more beautifully steep

In his first splendour valley, rock, or hill; Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!

The river glideth at his own sweet will: Dear God 1 the very houses seem asleep,

And all that mighty heart is lying still!

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��535 Evening on Calais Beach

rT is a beauteous evening, calm and free,

The holy time is quiet as a Nun Breathless with adoration ; the broad sun

Is sinking down in its tranquillity;

The gentleness of heaven broods o'er the sea: Listen! the mighty Being is awake, And doth with his eternal motion make

A sound like thunder everlastingly.

Dear Child! dear Girl' that walkest with me here, If thou appear untouch'd by solemn thought, Thy nature is not therefore less divine:

Thou liest in Abraham's bosom all the year; And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine, God being with thee when we know it not.

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