To William Wordsworth[;] Composed on the Night After his Reaction of a Poem in the Growth of an Individual Mind

1. 1Friend of the wise! and Teacher of the Good!
2. 2Into my heart have I received that Lay
3. 3More than historic, that prophetic Lay
4. 4Wherein (high theme by thee first sung aright)
5. 5Of the foundations and the building up
6. 6Of a Human Spirit thou hast dared to tell
7. 7What may be told, to the understanding mind
8. 8Revealable; and what within the mind
9. 9By vital breathings secret as the soul
10. 10Of vernal growth, oft quickens in the heart
11. 11Thoughts all too deep for words!--
12. 12Theme hard as high!
13. 13Of smiles spontaneous, and mysterious fears
14. 14(The first-born they of Reason and twin-birth),
15. 15Of tides obedient to external force,
16. 16And currents self-determined, as might seem,
17. 17Or by some inner Power; of moments awful,
18. 18Now in thy inner life, and now abroad,
19. 19When power streamed from thee, and thy soul received
20. 20The light reflected, as a light bestowed--
21. 21Of fancies fair, and milder hours of youth,
22. 22Hyblean murmurs of poetic thought
23. 23Industrious in its joy, in vales and glens
24. 24Native or outland, lakes and famous hills!
25. 25Or on the lonely high-road, when the stars
26. 26Were rising; or by secret mountain-streams,
27. 27The guides and the companions of thy way!

1. 28Of more than Fancy, of the Social Sense
2. 29Distending wide, and man beloved as man,
3. 30Where France in all her towns lay vibrating
4. 31Like some becalméd bark beneath the burst
5. 32Of Heaven's immediate thunder, when no cloud
6. 33Is visible, or shadow on the main.
7. 34For thou wert there, thine own brows garlanded,
8. 35Amid the tremor of a realm aglow,
9. 36Amid a mighty nation jubilant,
10. 37When from the general heart of human kind
11. 38Hope sprang forth like a full-born Deity!
12. 39----Of that dear Hope afflicted and struck down,
13. 40So summoned homeward, thenceforth calm and sure
14. 41From the dread watch-tower of man's absolute self,
15. 42With light unwaning on her eyes, to look
16. 43Far on--herself a glory to behold,
17. 44The Angel of the vision! Then (last strain)
18. 45Of Duty, chosen Laws controlling choice,
19. 46Action and joy!--An Orphic song indeed,
20. 47A song divine of high and passionate thoughts
21. 48To their own music chaunted!

1. 49O great Bard!
2. 50Ere yet that last strain dying awed the air,
3. 51With stedfast eye I viewed thee in the choir
4. 52Of ever-enduring men. The truly great
5. 53Have all one age, and from one visible space
6. 54Shed influence! They, both in power and act,
7. 55Are permanent, and Time is not with them,
8. 56Save as it worketh for them, they in it.
9. 57Nor less a sacred Roll, than those of old,
10. 58And to be placed, as they, with gradual fame
11. 59Among the archives of mankind, thy work
12. 60Makes audible a linkéd lay of Truth,
13. 61Of Truth profound a sweet continuous lay,
14. 62Not learnt, but native, her own natural notes!
15. 63Ah! as I listened with a heart forlorn,
16. 64The pulses of my being beat anew:
17. 65And even as Life returns upon the drowned,
18. 66Life's joy rekindling roused a throng of pains--
19. 67Keen pangs of Love, awakening as a babe
20. 68Turbulent, with an outcry in the heart;
21. 69And fears self-willed, that shunned the eye of Hope;
22. 70And Hope that scarce would know itself from Fear;
23. 71Sense of past Youth, and Manhood come in vain,
24. 72And Genius given, and Knowledge won in vain;
25. 73And all which I had culled in wood-walks wild,
26. 74And all which patient toil had reared, and all,
27. 75Commune with thee had opened out--but flowers
28. 76Strewed on my corse, and borne upon my bier,
29. 77In the same coffin, for the self-same grave!
30. 78That way no more! and ill beseems it me,
31. 79Who came a welcomer in herald's guise,
32. 80Singing of Glory, and Futurity,
33. 81To wander back on such unhealthful road,
34. 82Plucking the poisons of self-harm! And ill
35. 83Such intertwine beseems triumphal wreaths
36. 84Strew'd before thy advancing!

1. 85Nor do thou,
2. 86Sage Bard! impair the memory of that hour
3. 87Of thy communion with my nobler mind
4. 88By pity or grief, already felt too long!
5. 89Nor let my words import more blame than needs.
6. 90The tumult rose and ceased: for Peace is nigh
7. 91Where Wisdom's voice has found a listening heart.
8. 92Amid the howl of more than wintry storms,
9. 93The Halcyon hears the voice of vernal hours
10. 94Already on the wing.

1. 95Eve following eve,
2. 96Dear tranquil time, when the sweet sense of Home
3. 97Is sweetest! moments for their own sake hailed
4. 98And more desired, more precious, for thy song,
5. 99In silence listening, like a devout child,
6. 100My soul lay passive, by thy various strain
7. 101Driven as in surges now beneath the stars,
8. 102With momentary stars of my own birth,
9. 103Fair constellated foam, still darting off
10. 104Into the darkness; now a tranquil sea,
11. 105Outspread and bright, yet swelling to the moon.

1. 106And when--O Friend! my comforter and guide!
2. 107Strong in thyself, and powerful to give strength!--
3. 108Thy long sustainéd Song finally closed,
4. 109And thy deep voice had ceased--yet thou thyself
5. 110Wert still before my eyes, and round us both
6. 111That happy vision of belovéd faces--
7. 112Scarce conscious, and yet conscious of its close
8. 113I sate, my being blended in one thought
9. 114(Thought was it? or aspiration? or resolve?)
10. 115Absorbed, yet hanging still upon the sound--
11. 116And when I rose, I found myself in prayer.