Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/62

40 There, while through half an afternoon we played

On the smooth platform, whether skill prevailed

Or happy blunder triumphed, bursts of glee

Made all the mountains ring. But, ere night-fall,

When in our pinnace we returned at leisure

Over the shadowy lake, and to the beach

Of some small island steered our course with one,

The Minstrel of the Troop, and left him there,

And rowed off gently, while he blew his flute

Alone upon the rock—oh, then, the calm

And dead still water lay upon my mind

Even with a weight of pleasure, and the sky,

Never before so beautiful, sank down

Into my heart, and held me like a dream!

Thus were my sympathies enlarged, and thus

Daily the common range of visible things

Grew dear to me: already I began

To love the sun; a boy I loved the sun,

Not as I since have loved him, as a pledge

And surety of our earthly life, a light

Which we behold and feel we are alive;

Nor for his bounty to so many worlds—

But for this cause, that I had seen him lay

His beauty on the morning hills, had seen

The western mountain touch his setting orb,