Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/121

BOOK IV.] My heart was full; I made no vows, but vows

Were then made for me; bond unknown to me

Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly,

A dedicated Spirit. On I walked

In thankful blessedness, which yet survives.

Strange rendezvous! My mind was at that time

A parti-coloured show of grave and gay,

Solid and light, short-sighted and profound;

Of inconsiderate habits and sedate,

Consorting in one mansion unreproved.

The worth I knew of powers that I possessed,

Though slighted and too oft misused. Besides,

That summer, swarming as it did with thoughts

Transient and idle, lacked not intervals

When Folly from the frown of fleeting Time

Shrunk, and the mind experienced in herself

Conformity as just as that of old

To the end and written spirit of God's works,

Whether held forth in Nature or in Man,

Through pregnant vision, separate or conjoined.

When from our better selves we have too long

Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop,

Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired,