Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 1.djvu/269

209 And was a public Symbol of the life

The thrifty Pair had lived. For, as it chanced,

Their Cottage on a plot of rising ground

Stood single, with large prospect, North and South,

High into Easedale, up to Dunmal-Raise,

And Westward to the village near the Lake;

And from this constant light, so regular

And so far seen, the House itself, by all

Who dwelt within the limits of the vale,

Both old and young, was named The.

Thus living on through such a length of years,

The Shepherd, if he loved himself, must needs

Have loved his Help-mate; but to Michael's heart

This son of his old age was yet more dear—

Effect which might perhaps have been produced

By that instinctive tenderness, the same

Blind Spirit, which is in the blood of all—

Or that a child, more than all other gifts,

Brings hope with it, and forward-looking thoughts,

And stirrings of inquietude, when they

By tendency of nature needs must fail.

From such, and other causes, to the thoughts

Of the old Man his only Son was now