Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/652

 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

I listen'd, motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill, The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.

��545 Perfect Woman


 * HE was a phantom of delight

When first she gleairTd upon my sight, A lovely apparition, bent To be a moment's ornament; Her eyes as starb of twilight fair, Like twilight's, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful dawn, A dancing shape, an image gay, To haunt, to startle, and waylay.

I saw her upon nearer view,

A Spirit, yet a Woman too'

Her household motions light and free,

And steps of virgin liberty,

A countenance in which did meet

Sweet records, promises as sweet;

A creature not too bright or good

For human nature's daily food,

For transient sorrows, simple wile^,

Praise, blame, love, kibses, tears, and smiles.

And now I see with eye serene The very pulse of the machine,

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