Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/251

BOOK VIII.] Never forsaken, that, by acting well,

And understanding, I should learn to love

The end of life, and every thing we know.

Grave Teacher, stern Preceptress! for at times

Thou canst put on an aspect most severe;

London, to thee I willingly return.

Erewhile my verse played idly with the flowers

Enwrought upon thy mantle; satisfied

With that amusement, and a simple look

Of child-like inquisition now and then

Cast upwards on thy countenance, to detect

Some inner meanings which might harbour there.

But how could I in mood so light indulge,

Keeping such fresh remembrance of the day,

When, having thridded the long labyrinth

Of the suburban villages, I first

Entered thy vast dominion? On the roof

Of an itinerant vehicle I sate,

With vulgar men about me, trivial forms

Of houses, pavement, streets, of men and things,—

Mean shapes on every side: but, at the instant,

When to myself it fairly might be said,

The threshold now is overpast, (how strange

That aught external to the living mind