In lines, that seem to keep themselves alive

In the last dotage of a dying form.

At least so seems it to a man who stands

In such a lonely place.

These are followed by a few lines, some of which were afterwards used in The Prelude (see vol. iii. p. 269):—

Shall he who gives his days to low pursuits,

Amid the undistinguishable crowd

Of cities, ’mid the same eternal flow

Of the same objects, melted and reduced

To one identity, by differences