Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/209

BOOK VII.] But with its universal freight the tide

Hath rolled along, and this bright innocent,

Mary! may now have lived till he could look

With envy on thy nameless babe that sleeps,

Beside the mountain chapel, undisturbed.

Four rapid years had scarcely then been told

Since, travelling southward from our pastoral hills,

I heard, and for the first time in my life,

The voice of woman utter blasphemy—

Saw woman as she is, to open shame

Abandoned, and the pride of public vice;

I shuddered, for a barrier seemed at once

Thrown in, that from humanity divorced

Humanity, splitting the race of man

In twain, yet leaving the same outward form.

Distress of mind ensued upon the sight

And ardent meditation. Later years

Brought to such spectacle a milder sadness,

Feelings of pure commiseration, grief

For the individual and the overthrow

Of her soul's beauty; farther I was then

But seldom led, or wished to go; in truth

The sorrow of the passion stopped me there.