Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/43

17 Familiar with forgotten years, that shews

Inscribed, as with the silence of the thought,

Upon it's bleak and visionary sides,

The history of many a winter storm,—

Or obscure records of the path of fire.

And thus, before his eighteenth year was told,

Accumulated feelings pressed his heart

With an increasing weight; he was o'erpower'd

By Nature, by the turbulence subdued

Of his own mind; by mystery and hope,

And the first virgin passion of a soul

Communing with the glorious Universe.

Full often wished he that the winds might rage

When they were silent; far more fondly now

Than in his earlier season did he love

Tempestuous nights—the conflict and the sounds

That live in darkness:—from his intellect

And from the stillness of abstracted thought

He asked repose; and I have heard him say

That often, failing at this time to gain

The peace required, he scanned the laws of light