Delphi Poetry Anthology: The World's Greatest Poems (Delphi Poets Series Book 50) (175 page)

England and Switzerland

[1802]

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

TWO voices are there, one is of the Sea,
One of the Mountains, each a mighty voice:
In both from age to age thou didst rejoice,
They were thy chosen music, Liberty!

There came a tyrant, and with holy glee
  
5
Thou fought’st against him, — but hast vainly striven:
Thou from thy Alpine holds at length art driven
Where not a torrent murmurs heard by thee.

 
— Of one deep bliss thine ear hath been bereft;
Then cleave, O cleave to that which still is left —
10
For high-soul’d Maid, what sorrow would it be

That Mountain floods should thunder as before,
And Ocean bellow from his rocky shore,
And neither awful Voice be heard by Thee!

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

ONCE did She hold the gorgeous East in fee
And was the safeguard of the West; the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
Venice, the eldest child of liberty.

She was a maiden city, bright and free;
  
5
No guile seduced, no force could violate;
And when she took unto herself a mate,
She must espouse the everlasting Sea.

And what if she had seen those glories fade,
Those titles vanish, and that strength decay, —
10
Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid

When her long life hath reach’d its final day:
Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade
Of that which once was great has pass’d away.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

London, MDCCCII

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

O FRIEND! I know not which way I must look
For comfort, being, as I am, opprest
To think that now our life is only drest
For show; mean handi-work of craftsman, cook,

Or groom! — We must run glittering like a brook
  
5
In the open sunshine, or we are unblest;
The wealthiest man among us is the best:
No grandeur now in nature or in book

Delights us. Rapine, avarice, expense,
This is idolatry; and these we adore:
  
10
Plain living and high thinking are no more:

The homely beauty of the good old cause
Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence,
And pure religion breathing household laws.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

The Same

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

MILTON! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,

Have forfeited their ancient English dower
  
5
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men:
O! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea,
  
10
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free;

So didst thou travel on life’s common way
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

When I Have Borne

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

WHEN I have borne in memory what has tamed
Great nations; how ennobling thoughts depart
When men change swords for ledgers, and desert
The student’s bower for gold, — some fears unnamed

I had, my Country! — am I to be blamed?
  
5
Now, when I think of thee, and what thou art,
Verily, in the bottom of my heart
Of those unfilial fears I am ashamed.

For dearly must we prize thee; we who find
In thee a bulwark for the cause of men;
  
10
And I by my affection was beguiled:

What wonder if a Poet now and then,
Among the many movements of his mind,
Felt for thee as a lover or a child!

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

The World is Too Much With Us

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

THE WORLD is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
  
5
The winds that will be howling at all hours
And are up-gather’d now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for every thing, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. — Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn, —
10
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathéd horn.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Within King’s College Chapel, Cambridge

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

TAX not the royal Saint with vain expense,
With ill-match’d aims the Architect who plann’d
(Albeit labouring for a scanty band
Of white-robed Scholars only) this immense

And glorious work of fine intelligence!
  
5
 
— Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely-calculated less or more: —
So deem’d the man who fashion’d for the sense

These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof
Self-poised, and scoop’d into ten thousand cells
  
10
Where light and shade repose, where music dwells

Lingering and wandering on as loth to die —
Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof
That they were born for immortality.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Valedictory Sonnet to the River Duddon

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

I THOUGHT of Thee, my partner and my guide,
 
As being past away. — Vain sympathies!
 
For, backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,
I see what was, and is, and will abide;
Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;
  
5
 
The Form remains, the Function never dies;
 
While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,
We Men, who in our morn of youth defied
The elements, must vanish; — be it so!
 
Enough, if something from our hands have power
  
10
To live, and act, and serve the future hour;
And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,
 
Through love, through hope, and faith’s transcendent dower,
We feel that we are greater than we know.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Composed at Neidpath Castle, the Property of Lord Queensberry

[1803]

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

DEGENERATE Douglas! oh, the unworthy lord!
Whom mere despite of heart could so far please
And love of havoc, (for with such disease
Fame taxes him,) that he could send forth word

To level with the dust a noble horde,
  
5
A brotherhood of venerable trees,
Leaving an ancient dome, and towers like these,
Beggar’d and outraged! — Many hearts deplored

The fate of those old trees; and oft with pain
The traveller at this day will stop and gaze
  
10
On wrongs, which Nature scarcely seems to heed:

For shelter’d places, bosoms, nooks, and bays,
And the pure mountains, and the gentle Tweed,
And the green silent pastures, yet remain.

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order

Admonition to a Traveller

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

YES, there is holy pleasure in thine eye!
 
— The lovely cottage in the guardian nook
Hath stirr’d thee deeply; with its own dear brook,
Its own small pasture, almost its own sky!

But covet not the abode; O do not sigh
  
5
As many do, repining while they look;
Intruders who would tear from Nature’s book
This precious leaf with harsh impiety:

 
— Think what the home must be if it were thine,
Even thine, though few thy wants! — Roof, window, door,
  
10
The very flowers are sacred to the Poor,

The roses to the porch which they entwine:
Yea, all that now enchants thee, from the day
On which it should be touch’d would melt away!

List of Poems in Alphabetical Order

List of Poets in Alphabetical Order