Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 2.djvu/279

271 And, in the fashion which I have described,

Feeding unthinking fancies, we advanced

Along the indented shore; when suddenly,

Through a thin veil of glittering haze, we saw

Before us on a point of jutting land

The tall and upright figure of a Man

Attired in peasant's garb, who stood alone

Angling beside the margin of the lake.

That way we turned our steps; nor was it long

Ere, making ready comments on the sight

Which then we saw, with one and the same voice

Did all cry out, that he must be indeed

An Idler, he who thus could lose a day

Of the mid harvest, when the labourer's hire

Is ample, and some little might be stored

Wherewith to cheer him in the winter time.

Thus talking of that Peasant we approached

Close to the spot where with his rod and line

He stood alone; whereat he turned his head

To greet us—and we saw a man worn down

By sickness, gaunt and lean, with sunken cheeks

And wasted limbs, his legs so long and lean

That for my single self I looked at them,

Forgetful of the body they sustained.—