Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/371

BOOK XIII.] The monumental hillocks, and the pomp

Is for both worlds, the living and the dead.

At other moments (for through that wide waste

Three summer days I roamed) where'er the Plain

Was figured o'er with circles, lines, or mounds,

That yet survive, a work, as some divine,

Shaped by the Druids, so to represent

Their knowledge of the heavens, and image forth

The constellations; gently was I charmed

Into a waking dream, a reverie

That, with believing eyes, where'er I turned,

Beheld long-bearded teachers, with white wands

Uplifted, pointing to the starry sky,

Alternately, and plain below, while breath

Of music swayed their motions, and the waste

Rejoiced with them and me in those sweet sounds.

This for the past, and things that may be viewed

Or fancied in the obscurity of years

From monumental hints: and thou, O Friend!

Pleased with some unpremeditated strains

That served those wanderings to beguile, hast said

That then and there my mind had exercised

Upon the vulgar forms of present things,

The actual world of our familiar days,