Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 2.djvu/148

140 "Yet life," you say, "is life; we have seen and see,

And with a living pleasure we describe;

And fits of sprightly malice do but bribe

The languid mind into activity.

Sound sense, and love itself, and mirth and glee,

Are fostered by the comment and the gibe."

Even be it so: yet still among your tribe,

Our daily world's true Worldlings, rank not me!

Children are blest, and powerful; their world lies

More justly balanced; partly at their feet,

And part far from them:—sweetest melodies

Are those that are by distance made more sweet;

Whose mind is but the mind of his own eyes

He is a Slave; the meanest we can meet!

Wings have we,—and as far as we can go

We may find pleasure: wilderness and wood,

Blank ocean and mere sky, support that mood

Which with the lofty sanctifies the low:

Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,

Are a substantial world, both pure and good:

Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,

Our pastime and our happiness will grow.