Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/165

BOOK VI.] Of my collegiate life—far less intense

Than duty called for, or, without regard

To duty, might have sprung up of itself

By change of accidents, or even, to speak

Without unkindness, in another place.

Yet why take refuge in that plea?—the fault,

This I repeat, was mine; mine be the blame.

In summer, making quest for works of art,

Or scenes renowned for beauty, I explored

That streamlet whose blue current works its way

Between romantic Dovedale's spiry rocks;

Pried into Yorkshire dales, or hidden tracts

Of my own native region, and was blest

Between these sundry wanderings with a joy

Above all joys, that seemed another morn

Risen on mid noon; blest with the presence, Friend!

Of that sole Sister, her who hath been long

Dear to thee also, thy true friend and mine,

Now, after separation desolate,

Restored to me—such absence that she seemed

A gift then first bestowed. The varied banks

Of Emont, hitherto unnamed in song,

And that monastic castle, 'mid tall trees,

Low-standing by the margin of the stream,