Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/34

8 But, as the mind was filled with inward light,

So not without distinction had he lived,

Beloved and honoured—far as he was known.

And some small portion of his eloquent speech,

And something that may serve to set in view

The feeling pleasures of his loneliness,

The doings, observations, which his mind

Had dealt with—I will here record in verse;

Which, if with truth it correspond, and sink

Or rise, as venerable Nature leads,

The high and tender Muses shall accept

With gracious smile, deliberately pleased,

And listening Time reward with sacred praise.

Among the hills of Athol he was born:

There, on a small hereditary Farm,

An unproductive slip of rugged ground,

His Father dwelt; and died in poverty;

While He, whose lowly fortune I retrace,

The youngest of three sons, was yet a babe,

A little One—unconscious of their loss.

But ere he had outgrown his infant days

His widowed Mother, for a second Mate,