Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/100

78 Which through the lapse of their infirmity

Give ready place to any random seed

That chooses to be reared upon their trunks.

Here on my view, confronting vividly

Those shepherd swains whom I had lately left,

Appeared a different aspect of old age;

How different! yet both distinctly marked,

Objects embossed to catch the general eye,

Or portraitures for special use designed,

As some might seem, so aptly do they serve

To illustrate Nature's book of rudiments—

That book upheld as with maternal care

When she would enter on her tender scheme

Of teaching comprehension with delight,

And mingling playful with pathetic thoughts.

The surfaces of artificial life

And manners finely wrought, the delicate race

Of colours, lurking, gleaming up and down

Through that state arras woven with silk and gold;

This wily interchange of snaky hues,

Willingly or unwillingly revealed,

I neither knew nor cared for; and as such

Were wanting here, I took what might be found