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Book VI: Cambridge And the Alps 1. France(332) "But 'twas a time when Europe was rejoiced,/ France standing on the top of golden hours,/And human nature seeming born again(352-54)...The supper done,/ With flowing cups elate and happy thoughts/We rose at signal given, and formed a ring/And, hand in hand, danced round and round the board(the table);/All hearts were open, every tongue was loud/With amity and glee; we bore a name/ Honoured in France,the name of Englishmen,/And hospitably did they give us hail,/As their forerunners in a glorious course;(404-12) 2. The Simplon Pass(469-524) Whate’er in this wide circuit we beheld Or heard was fitted to our unripe state Of intellect and heart. By simple strains Of feeling, the pure breath of real life, We were not left untouched. With such a book Before our eyes we could not choose but read A frequent lesson of sound tenderness, The universal reason of mankind, The truth of young and old. Nor, side by side Pacing, two brother pilgrims, or alone Each with his humour, could we fail to abound (Craft this which hath been hinted at before) In dreams and fictions pensively composed: Dejection taken up for pleasure's sake, And gilded sympathies, the willow wreath, Even among those solitudes sublime, And sober posies of funereal flowers, Culled from the gardens of the Lady Sorrow, Did sweeten many a meditative hour.
Yet still in me, mingling with these delights, Was something of stern mood, an under-thirst Of vigor, never utterly asleep. Far different dejection once was mine, A deep and genuine sadness then I felt; The circumstances I will here relate Even as they were. Upturning with a band Of travellers, from the Vallais we had clomb Along the road that leads to Italy; A length of hours, making of these our guides, Did we advance, and, having reached an inn Among the mountains, we together ate Our noon’s repast, from which the travellers rose Leaving us at the board. Erelong we followed, Descending by the beaten road that led Right to a rivulet’s edge, and there broke off; The only track now visible was one Upon the further side, right opposite, And up a lofty mountain. This we took, After a little scruple and short pause, And climbed with eagerness, though not, at length, Without surprise and some anxiety On finding that we did not overtake Our comrades gone before. By fortunate chance, While every moment now encreased our doubts, A peasant met us, and from him we learned That to the place which had perplexed us first We must descend, and there should find the road Which in the stony channel of the stream Lay a few steps, and then along its banks; And further, that thenceforward all our course Was downwards with the current of that stream. Hard of belief, we questioned him again, And all the answers which the man returned To our inquiries, in their sense and substance Translated by the feelings which we had, Ended in this, that we had crossed the Alps.
3. Imagination(525-548)
Imagination!扉lifting up itself Before the eye and progress of my song Like an unfathered vapour, here that power, In all the might of its endowments, came Athwart me. I was lost as in a cloud, Halted without a struggle to break through, And now, recovering, to my soul I say ‘I recognise thy glory’. In such strength Of usurpation, in such visitings Of awful promise, when the light of sense Goes out in flashes that have shewn to us The invisible world, doth greatness make abode, There harbours whether we be young or old. Our destiny, our nature, and our home, Is with infinitude—and only there; With hope it is, hope that can never die, Effort, and expectation, and desire, And something evermore about to be. The mind beneath such banners militant Thinks not of spoils or trophies, nor of aught That may attest its prowess, blest in thoughts That are their own perfection and reward— Strong in itself, and in the access of joy Which hides in like the overflowing Nile. Book VII: Residence in London
1. The Blind Beggar(588-622)
But foolishness, and madness in parade, Though most at home in this their dear domain, Are scattered everywhere, no rarities, Even to the rudest novice of the schools. O friend, one feeling was there which belonged To this great city by exclusive right: How often in the overflowing streets Have I gone forwards with the crowd, and said Unto myself, "The face of every one That passes by me is a mystery? Thus have I looked, nor ceased to look, oppressed By thoughts of what, and whither, when and how, Until the shapes before my eyes became A second-sight procession, such as glides Over still mountains, or appears in dreams, And all the ballast of familiar life扉 The present, and the past, hope, fear, all stays, All laws of acting, thinking, speaking man— Went from me, neither knowing me, nor known. And once, for travelled in such mood, beyond The reach of common indications, lost Amid the moving pageant, ’twas my chance Abruptly to be smitten with the view Of a blind beggar, who, with upright face, Stood propped against a wall, upon his chest Wearing a written paper, to explain The story of the man, and who he was. My mind did at this spectacle turn round As with the might of waters, and it seemed To me that in this label was a type Or emblem of the utmost that we know Both of ourselves and of the universe, And on the shape of this unmoving man, His fixed face and sightless eyes, I looked, As if admonished from another world.
2. London as "blank confusion"(695-706)
O, blank confusion, and a type not false Of what the mighty city is itself To all, except a straggler here and there To the whole swarm of its inhabitants; An undistinguishable world to men, The slaves unrespited of low pursuits, Living amid the same perpetual flow Of trivial objects, melted and reduced To one identity by differences That have no law, no meaning, and no end - Oppression under which even highest minds Must labour, whence the strongest are not free. Book VIII: Retrospect Love of Nature leading to Love of Mankind 1. Shepherds, "My first human love"(385-416) A rambling schoolboy, thus Have I beheld him; without knowing why, Have felt his presence in his own domain As of a lord and master, or a power, Or genius, under Nature, under God, Presiding扉and severest solitude Seemed more commanding oft when he was there. Seeking the raven’s nest and suddenly Surprized with vapours, or on rainy days When I have angled up the lonely brooks, Mine eyes have glanced upon him, few steps off, In size a giant, stalking through the fog, His sheep like Greenland bears. At other times, When round some shady promontory turning, His form hath flashed upon me glorified By the deep radiance of the setting sun; Or him have I descried in distant sky, A solitary object and sublime, Above all height, like an aerial cross, As it is stationed on some spiry rock Of the Chartreuse, for worship. Thus was man Ennobled outwardly before mine eyes, And thus my heart at first was introduced To an unconscious love and reverence Of human nature; hence the human form To me was like an index of delight, Of grace and honour, power and worthiness. 2. "Man...in my own being"(632-33) There came a time of greater dignity, Which had been gradually prepared, and now Rushed in as if on wings—the time in which The pulse of being everywhere was felt, When all the several frames of things, like stars Through every magnitude distinguishable, Were half confounded in each other’s blaze, One galaxy of life and joy. Then rose Man, inwardly contemplated, and present In my own being, to a loftier height, As of all visible natures crown, and first In capability of feeling what Was to be felt, in being rapt away By the divine effect of power and love; As, more than any thing we know, instinct With godhead, and by reason and by will Acknowledging dependency sublime. (624-40)
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