Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/234

212 When but a half-hour's roam through such a place

Would leave behind a dance of images,

That shall break in upon his sleep for weeks;

Even then the common haunts of the green earth,

And ordinary interests of man,

Which they embosom, all without regard

As both may seem, are fastening on the heart

Insensibly, each with the other's help.

For me, when my affections first were led

From kindred, friends, and playmates, to partake

Love for the human creature's absolute self,

That noticeable kindliness of heart

Sprang out of fountains, there abounding most

Where sovereign Nature dictated the tasks

And occupations which her beauty adorned,

And Shepherds were the men that pleased me first;

Not such as Saturn ruled 'mid Latian wilds,

With arts and laws so tempered, that their lives

Left, even to us toiling in this late day,

A bright tradition of the golden age;

Not such as, 'mid Arcadian fastnesses

Sequestered, handed down among themselves

Felicity, in Grecian song renowned;

Nor such as, when an adverse fate had driven,

From house and home, the courtly band whose fortunes