The Poem

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Wisdom and Spirit of the universe!
Thou Soul, that art the Eternity of thought!
And giv'st to forms and images a breath
And everlasting motion! not in vain,
By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn
Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me
The passions that build up our human soul;
Not with the mean and vulgar works of Man:
But with high objects, with enduring things,
With life and nature: purifying thus
The elements of feeling and of thought,
And sanctifying by such discipline
Both pain and fear,—until we recognise
A grandeur in the beatings of the heart.
Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me
With stinted kindness. In November days,
When vapours rolling down the valleys made
A lonely scene more lonesome; among woods
At noon; and 'mid the calm of summer nights,
When, by the margin of the trembling lake,
Beneath the gloomy hills, homeward I went
In solitude, such intercourse was mine:
Mine was it in the fields both day and night,
And by the waters, all the summer long.
And in the frosty season, when the sun
Was set, and, visible for many a mile,
The cottage-windows through the twilight blazed,
I heeded not the summons: happy time
It was indeed for all of us; for me
It was a time of rapture! Clear and loud
The village-clock tolled six—I wheeled about,
Proud and exulting like an untired horse
That cares not for his home.—All shod with steel
We hissed along the polished ice, in games
Confederate, imitative of the chase
And woodland pleasures,—the resounding horn,
The pack loud-chiming, and the hunted hare.
So through the darkness and the cold we flew,
And not a voice was idle: with the din
Smitten, the precipices rang aloud;
The leafless trees and every icy crag
Tinkled like iron; while far-distant hills
Into the tumult sent an alien sound
Of melancholy, not unnoticed while the stars,
Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west
The orange sky of evening died away.
Not seldom from the uproar I retired
Into a silent bay, or sportively
Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng,
To cut across the reflex of a star;
Image, that, flying still before me, gleamed
Upon the glassy plain: and oftentimes,
When we had given our bodies to the wind,
And all the shadowy banks on either side
Came sweeping through the darkness, spinning still
The rapid line of motion, then at once
Have I, reclining back upon my heels,
Stopped short; yet still the solitary cliffs
Wheeled by me—even as if the earth had rolled
With visible motion her diurnal round!
Behind me did they stretch in solemn train,
Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watched
Till all was tranquil as a summer sea.
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[Variant 1:]

1809
That givest ... The Prelude, 1850.

That givest ...

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[Variant 2:]

1815
Nor ...1809

Nor ...

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[Variant 3:]

1809
... valley ... The Prelude, 1850.

... valley ...

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[Variant 4:]

1836
... I homeward went1809

... I homeward went

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[Variant 5:]

1845
'Twas mine among the fields ...1809

'Twas mine among the fields ...

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[Variant 6:]

1809
... blazed through twilight gloom,The Prelude, 1850.

... blazed through twilight gloom,

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[Variant 7:]

1815
... to me 1809

... to me

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[Variant 8:]

1827
... car'd not for its home— ...1809
... cares not ... 1815

... car'd not for its home— ...

... cares not ...

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[Variant 9:]

1840
... loud bellowing ... 1809

... loud bellowing ...

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[Variant 10:]

1836
Meanwhile ...1809

Meanwhile ...

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[Variant 11:]

1845
... while the distant hills1809

... while the distant hills

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[Variant 12:]

1827
To cut across the image ... 1809
To cross the bright reflection ...1820

To cut across the image ...

To cross the bright reflection ...

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[Variant 13:]

1820
That gleam'd upon the ice; and oftentimes 1809 (This line occupied the place
of lines 51-52 of the final text.)
That fled, and, flying still before me, gleamed
Upon the glassy plain; and oftentimes,
The Prelude, 1850.

That gleam'd upon the ice; and oftentimes

That fled, and, flying still before me, gleamed
Upon the glassy plain; and oftentimes,

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[Variant 14:]

1809
... as a dreamless sleep.The Prelude, 1850.

... as a dreamless sleep.

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[Footnote A:]

The title of the fragment, as it appeared in The Friend, No. 19, (Dec. 28, 1809,) was Growth of Genius from the Influences of Natural Objects on the Imagination, in Boyhood and Early Youth. It first appeared in Wordsworth's Poems in the edition of 1815. It was afterwards included in the first book of The Prelude, l. 401.
The lake referred to with its "silent bays" and "shadowy banks" is that of Esthwaite; the village clock is that of Hawkshead (see the footnotes to The Prelude). The only physical accomplishment in which Wordsworth thought he excelled was skating, an accomplishment in which his brother poet and acquaintance, Klopstock, also excelled.—Ed.

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[1799 Contents]
[Main Contents]

The Simplon Pass[A]