Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 1.djvu/174

114 It was not long ere Leonard reached a grove

That overhung the road: he there stopped short,

And, sitting down beneath the trees, reviewed

All that the Priest had said: his early years

Were with him in his heart: his cherished hopes,

And thoughts which had been his an hour before,

All pressed on him with such a weight, that now,

This vale, where he had been so happy, seemed

A place in which he could not bear to live:

So he relinquished all his purposes.

He travelled on to Egremont: and thence,

That night, he wrote a letter to the Priest,

Reminding him of what had passed between them;

And adding, with a hope to be forgiven,

That it was from the weakness of his heart

He had not dared to tell him who he was.

This done, he went on shipboard, and is now

A Seaman, a gray-headed Mariner.