Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/263

237 Suffused with something of a feminine hue;

Eyes beaming courtesy and mild regard;

But, in the quicker turns of the discourse,

Expression slowly varying, that evinced

A tardy apprehension. From a fount

Lost, thought I, in the obscurities of time,

But honoured once, these features and that mien

May have descended, though I see them here.

In such a Man, so gentle and subdued,

Withal so graceful in his gentleness,

A race illustrious for heroic deeds,

Humbled, but not degraded, may expire.

This pleasing fancy (cherished and upheld

By sundry recollections of such fall

From high to low, ascent from low to high,

As books record, and even the careless mind

Cannot but notice among men and things)

Went with me to the place of my repose.

Rouzed by the crowing cock at dawn of day,

I yet had risen too late to interchange

A morning salutation with my Host,

Gone forth already to the far-off seat