Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/265

BOOK IX.] I stood, 'mid those concussions, unconcerned,

Tranquil almost, and careless as a flower

Glassed in a green-house, or a parlour shrub

That spreads its leaves in unmolested peace,

While every bush and tree, the country through,

Is shaking to the roots: indifference this

Which may seem strange: but I was unprepared

With needful knowledge, had abruptly passed

Into a theatre, whose stage was filled

And busy with an action far advanced.

Like others, I had skimmed, and sometimes read

With care, the master pamphlets of the day;

Nor wanted such half-insight as grew wild

Upon that meagre soil, helped out by talk

And public news; but having never seen

A chronicle that might suffice to show

Whence the main organs of the public power

Had sprung, their transmigrations, when and how

Accomplished, giving thus unto events

A form and body; all things were to me

Loose and disjointed, and the affections left

Without a vital interest. At that time,

Moreover, the first storm was overblown,

And the strong hand of outward violence

Locked up in quiet. For myself, I fear