Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/51

BOOK I.] Meanwhile, my hope has been, that I might fetch

Invigorating thoughts from former years;

Might fix the wavering balance of my mind,

And haply meet reproaches too, whose power

May spur me on, in manhood now mature,

To honourable toil. Yet should these hopes

Prove vain, and thus should neither I be taught

To understand myself, nor thou to know

With better knowledge how the heart was framed

Of him thou lovest; need I dread from thee

Harsh judgments, if the song be loth to quit

Those recollected hours that have the charm

Of visionary things, those lovely forms

And sweet sensations that throw back our life,

And almost make remotest infancy

A visible scene, on which the sun is shining?

One end at least hath been attained; my mind

Hath been revived, and if this genial mood

Desert me not, forthwith shall be brought down

Through later years the story of my life.

The road lies plain before me;—'tis a theme

Single and of determined bounds; and hence

I choose it rather at this time, than work