At length the man perceives it die away
And fade into the light of coming day.
Had Wordsworth never written another line, that passage would have placed him among the greatest. He follows the glorious burst with these awful lines—
But for those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings;
Blank misgivings of a creature
Moving about in worlds not realized;
High instincts before which our mortal nature
Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised.