Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 1.djvu/157

97 Failed in him; and, not venturing to inquire

Tidings of one whom he so dearly loved,

Towards the church-yard he had turned aside,—

That, as he knew in what particular spot

His family were laid, he thence might learn

If still his Brother lived, or to the file

Another grave was added.—He had found

Another grave,—near which a full half-hour

He had remained; but, as he gazed, there grew

Such a confusion in his memory,

That he began to doubt; and he had hopes

That he had seen this heap of turf before,—

That it was not another grave, but one

He had forgotten. He had lost his path,

As up the vale that afternoon he walked

Through fields which once had been well known to him:

And oh! what joy the recollection now

Sent to his heart! He lifted up his eyes,

And looking round imagined that he saw

Strange alteration wrought on every side

Among the woods and fields, and that the rocks,

And the eternal hills, themselves were changed.

By this the Priest, who down the field had come

Unseen by Leonard, at the church-yard gate