Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/103

BOOK III.] Is still with Innocence its own reward,

This was not wanting. Carelessly I roamed

As through a wide museum from whose stores

A casual rarity is singled out

And has its brief perusal, then gives way

To others, all supplanted in their turn;

Till 'mid this crowded neighbourhood of things

That are by nature most unneighbourly,

The head turns round and cannot right itself;

And though an aching and a barren sense

Of gay confusion still be uppermost,

With few wise longings and but little love,

Yet to the memory something cleaves at last,

Whence profit may be drawn in times to come.

Thus in submissive idleness, my Friend!

The labouring time of autumn, winter, spring,

Eight months! rolled pleasingly away; the ninth

Came and returned me to my native hills.