Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/69

BOOK II.] Of pleasant wandering. Happy time! more dear

For this, that one was by my side, a Friend,(3)

Then passionately loved; with heart how full

Would he peruse these lines! For many years

Have since flowed in between us, and, our minds

Both silent to each other, at this time

We live as if those hours had never been.

Nor seldom did I lift our cottage latch

Far earlier, ere one smoke-wreath had risen

From human dwelling, or the vernal thrush

Was audible; and sate among the woods

Alone upon some jutting eminence,

At the first gleam of dawn-light, when the Vale,

Yet slumbering, lay in utter solitude.

How shall I seek the origin? where find

Faith in the marvellous things which then I felt?

Oft in these moments such a holy calm

Would overspread my soul, that bodily eyes

Were utterly forgotten, and what I saw

Appeared like something in myself, a dream,

A prospect in the mind.

'Twere long to tell

What spring and autumn, what the winter snows,

And what the summer shade, what day and night,

Evening and morning, sleep and waking, thought