Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/331

BOOK XI.] Where the disturbances of space and time—

Whether in matters various, properties

Inherent, or from human will and power

Derived—find no admission. Then it was—

Thanks to the bounteous Giver of all good!—

That the beloved Sister in whose sight

Those days were passed, now speaking in a voice

Of sudden admonition—like a brook

That did but cross a lonely road, and now

Is seen, heard, felt, and caught at every turn,

Companion never lost through many a league—

Maintained for me a saving intercourse

With my true self; for, though bedimmed and changed

Much, as it seemed, I was no further changed

Than as a clouded and a waning moon:

She whispered still that brightness would return,

She, in the midst of all, preserved me still

A Poet, made me seek beneath that name,

And that alone, my office upon earth;

And, lastly, as hereafter will be shown,

If willing audience fail not, Nature's self,

By all varieties of human love

Assisted, led me back through opening day

To those sweet counsels between head and heart

Whence grew that genuine knowledge, fraught with peace,