Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/66

44 Working but in alliance with the works

Which it beholds.—Such, verily, is the first

Poetic spirit of our human life,

By uniform control of after years,

In most, abated or suppressed; in some,

Through every change of growth and of decay,

Pre-eminent till death.

From early days,

Beginning not long after that first time

In which, a Babe, by intercourse of touch

I held mute dialogues with my Mother's heart,

I have endeavoured to display the means

Whereby this infant sensibility,

Great birthright of our being, was in me

Augmented and sustained. Yet is a path

More difficult before me; and I fear

That in its broken windings we shall need

The chamois' sinews, and the eagle's wing:

For now a trouble came into my mind

From unknown causes. I was left alone

Seeking the visible world, nor knowing why.

The props of my affections were removed,

And yet the building stood, as if sustained

By its own spirit! All that I beheld

Was dear, and hence to finer influxes