Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 2.djvu/283

275 VI.

, to the attractions of the busy World

Preferring studious leisure, I had chosen

A habitation in this peaceful Vale,

Sharp season followed of continual storm

In deepest winter; and, from week to week,

Path-way, and lane, and public road were clogged

With frequent showers of snow. Upon a hill

At a short distance from my Cottage, stands

A stately Fir-grove, whither I was wont

To hasten, for I found, beneath the roof

Of that perennial shade, a cloistral place

Of refuge, with an unincumbered floor.

Here, in safe covert, on the shallow snow,

And, sometimes, on a speck of visible earth,

The redbreast near me hopped; nor was I loth

To sympathize with vulgar coppice Birds

That, for protection from the nipping blast,

Hither repaired.—A single beech-tree grew