Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/202

180 The Bachelor, that loves to sun himself,

The military Idler, and the Dame,

That field-ward takes her walk with decent steps.

Now homeward through the thickening hubbub, where

See, among less distinguishable shapes,

The begging scavenger, with hat in hand;

The Italian, as he thrids his way with care,

Steadying, far-seen, a frame of images

Upon his head; with basket at his breast

The Jew; the stately and slow-moving Turk,

With freight of slippers piled beneath his arm!

Enough;—the mighty concourse I surveyed

With no unthinking mind, well pleased to note

Among the crowd all specimens of man,

Through all the colours which the sun bestows,

And every character of form and face:

The Swede, the Russian; from the genial south,

The Frenchman and the Spaniard; from remote

America, the Hunter-Indian; Moors,

Malays, Lascars, the Tartar, the Chinese,

And Negro Ladies in white muslin gowns.

At leisure, then, I viewed, from day to day,