Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/131

BOOK V.] The consecrated works of Bard and Sage,

Sensuous or intellectual, wrought by men,

Twin labourers and heirs of the same hopes;

Where would they be? Oh! why hath not the Mind

Some element to stamp her image on

In nature somewhat nearer to her own?

Why, gifted with such powers to send abroad

Her spirit, must it lodge in shrines so frail?

One day, when from my lips a like complaint

Had fallen in presence of a studious friend,

He with a smile made answer, that in truth

'Twas going far to seek disquietude;

But on the front of his reproof confessed

That he himself had oftentimes given way

To kindred hauntings. Whereupon I told,

That once in the stillness of a summer's noon,

While I was seated in a rocky cave

By the sea-side, perusing, so it chanced,

The famous history of the errant knight

Recorded by Cervantes, these same thoughts

Beset me, and to height unusual rose,

While listlessly I sate, and, having closed

The book, had turned my eyes toward the wide sea.

On poetry and geometric truth,