The Enfolded Prelude: Book Fourteenth
1805 text is in green 1850 text is in purple
In one of these excursions, travelling thenthose excursions (may they ne'er
Through Wales on foot and Fade from remembrance!) through the Northern tracts
Of Cambria ranging with a youthful friend,
I left Bethkelet's Bethgelert's huts at couching-time,
And westward took my way way, to see the sun
Rise Rise, from the top of Snowdon. Having reachedTo the door
The Of a rude cottage at the mountain's foot, we therebase
Rouzed up We came, and roused the shepherd who by ancient rightattends
Of office is the The adventurous stranger's usual guide,steps, a trusty guide;
And after Then, cheered by short refreshment refreshment, sallied forth.
It was a summer's night, a close warm close, warm, breezeless summer night,
Wan, dull, and glaring, with a dripping mistfog
Low-hung and thick that covered all the sky,
Half threatening storm and rain; but on we went
Unchecked, being full of heart and having faithsky;
In our tried pilot. Little could But, undiscouraged, we see,began to climb
Hemmed round on every side with fog and damp,The mountain-side. The mist soon girt us round,
And, after ordinary travellers' chattalk
With our conductor, silently pensively we sunksank
Each into commerce with his private thoughts.thoughts:
Thus did we breast the ascent, and by myself
Was nothing either seen or heard the whilethat checked
Which took me from my musings, Those musings or diverted, save that once
The shepherd's cur did to his own great joylurcher, who, among the crags,
Unearth Had to his joy unearthed a hedgehog in the mountain-crags,hedgehog, teased
Round which he made a barking His coiled-up prey with barkings turbulent.
This small adventure adventure, for even such it seemed
In that wild place and at the dead of night—
Being over and forgotten, on we wound
In silence as before. night,
Being over and forgotten, on we wound
In silence as before. With forehead bent
Earthward, as if in opposition set
Against an enemy, I panted up
With eager pace, and no less eager thoughts,thoughts.
Thus might we wear perhaps an a midnight hour away,
Ascending at loose distance each from each,
And I, as chanced, the foremost of the band—
When at my feet the ground appeared to brighten,
And with a step or two seemed brighter still;
Nor had I time to ask the cause of this,
For instantly a light upon the turf
Fell like a flash. I looked about, and lo,band;
The moon stood naked in the heavens When at heightmy feet the ground appeared to brighten,
Immense above my head, and on And with a step or two seemed brighter still;
Nor was time given to ask or learn the shorecause,
For instantly a light upon the turf
Fell like a flash, and lo! as I found myself of looked up,
The Moon hung naked in a huge sea of mist,firmament
Which meek Of azure without cloud, and silent rested at my feet.feet
Rested a silent sea of hoary mist.
A hundred hills their dusky backs upheaved
All over this still ocean, ocean; and beyond,
Far, far beyond, the solid vapours shot themselvesstretched,
In headlands, tongues, and promontory shapes,
Into the sea, the real sea, main Atlantic, that seemedappeared
To dwindle dwindle, and give up its his majesty,
Usurped upon as far as the sight could reach.
Meanwhile, Not so the moon looked down upon this shewethereal vault; encroachment none
In single glory, and we stood, Was there, nor loss; only the mistinferior stars
Touching our very feet; and from the shoreHad disappeared, or shed a fainter light
At distance not In the third part clear presence of a milethe full-orbed Moon,
Was a blue chasm, a fracture in Who, from her sovereign elevation, gazed
Upon the vapour,billowy ocean, as it lay
A deep All meek and gloomy breathing-place, silent, save that through whicha rift—
Not distant from the shore whereon we stood,
A fixed, abysmal, gloomy, breathing-place—
Mounted the roar of waters, torrents, streams
Innumerable, roaring with one voice!
Heard over earth and sea, and, in that hour,
For so it seemed, felt by the starry heavens.
Mounted the roar When into air had partially dissolved
That vision, given to spirits of waters, torrents, steamsthe night
Innumerable, roaring with one voice.And three chance human wanderers, in calm thought
The universal spectacle throughoutReflected, it appeared to me the type
Was shaped for admiration Of a majestic intellect, its acts
And its possessions, what it has and delight,craves,
Grand What in itself alone, but in that breachit is, and would become.
Through which There I beheld the homeless voice emblem of waters rose,a mind
That dark deep thoroughfare, had Nature lodged
The soul, the imagination of the whole.
A meditation rose in me feeds upon infinity, that nightbroods
Upon the lonely mountain when Over the scene
Had passed away, and it appeared dark abyss, intent to mehear
The perfect image of a mighty mind,Its voices issuing forth to silent light
Of In one that feeds upon infinity,continuous stream; a mind sustained
That is exalted by an under-presence,By recognitions of transcendent power,
The In sense of God, or whatsoe'er is dimconducting to ideal form,
Or vast in its own being above all,In soul of more than mortal privilege.
One function function, above all, of such mind had Nature therea mind
Exhibited Had Nature shadowed there, by putting forth, and thatforth,
With circumstance most 'Mid circumstances awful and sublime:sublime,
That mutual domination which she oftentimesloves
Exerts To exert upon the outward face of outward things,
So moulds them, and endues, abstracts, combines,
Or by abrupt and unhabitual influence
Doth make one object moulded, joined, abstracted, so impress itselfendowed
Upon all others, and pervades them so,With interchangeable supremacy,
That even the grossest minds must see and hear,men, least sensitive, see, hear, perceive,
And cannot chuse choose but feel. The power power, which theseall
Acknowledge when thus moved, which Nature thus
Thrusts forth upon the senses, To bodily sense exhibits, is the express
Resemblance in the fullness of its strength
Made visible a genuine counterpart
And brother of the that glorious faculty
Which That higher minds bear with them as their own.
This is the very spirit in which they deal
With all the objects whole compass of the universe:
They from their native selves can send abroad
Like transformation, Kindred mutations; for themselves create
A like existence, existence; and, when'er whene'er it isdawns
Created for them, catch it it, or are caught
By its inevitable mastery,
Like angels stopped upon the wing by an instinct.sound
Of harmony from Heaven's remotest spheres.
Them the enduring and the transient both
Serve to exalt. They exalt; they build up greatest things
From least suggestions, suggestions; ever on the watch,
Willing to work and to be wrought upon.upon,
They need not extraordinary calls
To rouze them rouse them; in a world of life they live,
By sensible impressions not enthralled,
But quickened, rouzed, and by their quickening impulse made thereby more fitprompt
To hold communion fit converse with the invisible world.spiritual world,
And with the generations of mankind
Spread over time, past, present, and to come,
Age after age, till Time shall be no more.
Such minds are truly from the Deity,
For they are powers; Powers; and hence the highest bliss
That flesh can be known know is theirs the consciousness
Of whom Whom they are, habitually infused
Through every image, image and through every thought,
And all impressions; hence religion, faith,affections by communion raised
And From earth to heaven, from human to divine;
Hence endless occupation for the soul,Soul,
Whether discursive or intuitive;
Hence sovereignty within and peace at will,cheerfulness for acts of daily life,
Emotion Emotions which best foresight need not fear,
Most worthy then of trust when most intense;intense.
Hence chearfulness in every act Hence, amid ills that vex and wrongs that crush
Our hearts if here the words of life;Holy Writ
Hence truth in May with fit reverence be applied that peace
Which passeth understanding, that repose
In moral judgements; and delightjudgments which from this pure source
That fails not, Must come, or will by man be sought in the external universe.vain.
Oh, Oh! who is he that hath his whole life long
Preserved, enlarged, this freedom in himself?—
For this alone is genuine liberty,
Witness, ye solitudes, where I received
My earliest visitations (careless then
Of what was given me), and where now I roam,
A meditative, oft a suffering man,
And yet I trust with undiminished powers;
Witness whatever falls my better mind,
Revolving with the accidents of life,
May have sustained that, howsoe'er misled,
I never in the quest of right and wrong
Did tamper with myself from private aims;
Nor was in any of my hopes the dupe
Of selfish passions; nor did wilfully
Yield ever to mean cares and low pursuits;
But rather did with jealousy shrink back
From every combination that might aid
The tendency, too potent in itself,
Of habit to enslave the mind I mean
Oppress it by the laws of vulgar sense,
And substitute a universe of death,
The falsest of all worlds, in place of that
Which is divine and true.
For this alone is genuine liberty:
Where is the favoured being who hath held
That course unchecked, unerring, and untired,
In one perpetual progress smooth and bright?—
A humbler destiny have we retraced,
And told of lapse and hesitating choice,
And backward wanderings along thorny ways:
Yet compassed round by mountain solitudes,
Within whose solemn temple I received
My earliest visitations, careless then
Of what was given me; and which now I range,
A meditative, oft a suffering, man—
Do I declare in accents which, from truth
Deriving cheerful confidence, shall blend
Their modulation with these vocal streams—
That, whatsoever falls my better mind,
Revolving with the accidents of life,
May have sustained, that, howsoe'er misled,
Never did I, in quest of right and wrong,
Tamper with conscience from a private aim;
Nor was in any public hope the dupe
Of selfish passions; nor did ever yield
Wilfully to mean cares or low pursuits,
But shrunk with apprehensive jealousy
From every combination which might aid
The tendency, too potent in itself,
Of use and custom to bow down the soul
Under a growing weight of vulgar sense,
And substitute a universe of death
For that which moves with light and life informed,
Actual, divine, and true. To fear and lovelove,
(To To love as first prime and chief, for there fear ends)ends,
Be this ascribed, ascribed; to early intercourseintercourse,
In presence of sublime and lovely formsor beautiful forms,
With the adverse principles of pain and joy—
Evil as one is rashly named by those
Who know not what they say. From love, for here
Do we begin and end, all grandeur comes,joy.—
Evil as one is rashly named by men
Who know not what they speak. By love subsists
All truth and beauty from lasting grandeur, by pervading lovelove;
That gone, we are as dust. Behold the fields
In balmy springtime, spring-time full of rising flowers
And happy joyous creatures; see that pair, the lamb
And the lamb's mother, and their tender ways
Shall touch thee to the heart; in thou callest this love,
And not inaptly so, for love it is,
Far as it carries thee. In some green bower
Rest, and be not alone, but have thou there
The one One who is thy choice of all the worldworld:
There linger, lulled, and lost, and rapt away—
Be happy to thy fill; thou call'st this love,
And so it is, but there is higher love
Than this, a love that comes into the heart
With awe and a diffusive sentiment.listening, gazing, with delight
Thy love is human merely: Impassioned, but delight how pitiable!
Unless this proceedslove by a still higher love
More Be hallowed, love that breathes not without awe;
Love that adores, but on the knees of prayer,
By heaven inspired; that frees from chains the brooding soul, and is divine.soul,
Lifted, in union with the purest, best,
Of earth-born passions, on the wings of praise
Bearing a tribute to the Almighty's Throne.
This love more intellectual cannot bespiritual Love acts not nor can exist
Without imagination, which Imagination, which, in truthtruth,
Is but another name for absolute strengthpower
And clearest insight, amplitude of mind,
And reason Reason in her most exalted mood.
This faculty hath been the moving soulfeeding source
Of our long labour: we have traced the stream
From darkness, and the very place of birth
In its blind cavern, cavern whence is faintly heard
The sound of waters; Its natal murmur; followed it to light
And open day, day; accompanied its course
Among the ways of Nature, afterwardsfor a time
Lost sight of it bewildered and engulphed,engulphed;
Then given it greeting as it rose once more
With In strength, reflecting in from its solemn placid breast
The works of man, man and face of human life;
And lastly, from its progress have we drawn
The feeling of Faith in life endless, the one sustaining thought
By which we live, infinity Of human Being, Eternity, and God.
Imagination having been our theme,
So also hath that intellectual love,Love,
For they are each in each, and cannot stand
Dividually. Here must thou be, O man,Man!
Strength Power to thyself thyself; no helper Helper hast thou herehere;
Here keepest thou in singleness thy individual state:
No other can divide with thee this work,work:
No secondary hand can intervene
To fashion this ability. 'T is ability; 'tis thine,
The prime and vital principle is thine
In the recesses of thy nature, far
From any reach of outward fellowship,
Else 'tis is not thine at all. But joy to him,
O, Oh, joy to him who here hath sown sown, hath laid
Here Here, the foundations foundation of his future years—
For all that friendship, all that love can do,
All that a darling countenance can look
Or dear voice utter, to complete the man,
Perfect him, made imperfect in himself,
All shall be his. And years!
For all that friendship, all that love can do,
All that a darling countenance can look
Or dear voice utter, to complete the man,
Perfect him, made imperfect in himself,
All shall be his: and he whose soul hath risen
Up to the height of feeling intellect
Shall want no humbler tenderness, tenderness; his heart
Be tender as a nursing mother's heart;
Of female softness shall his life be full,
Of little loves humble cares and delicate desires,
Mild interests and gentlest sympathies.
Child of my parents, sister parents! Sister of my soul,soul!
Elsewhere Thanks in sincerest verse have strains of gratitude been breathedelsewhere
To thee Poured out for all the early tenderness
Which I from thee imbibed. And true it isimbibed: and 'tis most true
That later seasons owned owed to thee no less;
For, spite of thy sweet influence and the touch
Of other kindred hands that opened outout the springs
The springs of tender Of genial thought in infancy,childhood, and in spite
And spite of Of all which singly that unassisted I had watched
Of elegance, and each minuter charmmarked
In Nature life or in life, still nature of those charms minute
That win their way into the heart by stealth
(Still to the last—
Even to the very going-out of youth,
The period which our story now hath reached—
I too exclusively esteemed that love,
And sought that beauty, which as Milton sings
Hath terror in it. very going-out of youth)
I too exclusively esteemed 'that' love,
And sought 'that' beauty, which, as Milton sings,
Hath terror in it. Thou didst soften down
This over-sternness; but for thee, sweet friend,dear Friend!
My soul, too reckless of mild grace, had beenstood
Far longer what by Nature In her original self too confident,
Retained too long a countenance severe;
A rock with torrents roaring, with the clouds
Familiar, and a favourite of the stars:
But thou didst plant its crevices with flowers,
Hang it was framed—
Longer retained its countenance severe
A rock with torrents roaring, with the clouds
Familiar, and a favorite of the stars;
But thou didst plant its crevices with flowers,
Hang it with shrubs that twinkle in the breeze,
And teach the little birds to build their nests
And warble in its chambers. with shrubs that twinkle in the breeze,
And teach the little birds to build their nests
And warble in its chambers. At a time
When Nature, destined to remain so long
Foremost in my affections, had fallen back
Into a second place, well pleased to bebecome
A handmaid to a nobler than herself—
When every day brought with it some new sense
Of exquisite regard for common things,
And all the earth was budding with these gifts
Of more refined humanity—thy breath,
Dear sister, was a kind of gentler spring
That went before my steps.herself,
ColeridgeWhen every day brought with it some new sense
Of exquisite regard for common things,
And all the earth was budding with these gifts
Of more refined humanity, thy breath,
Dear Sister! was a kind of gentler spring
That went before my steps. Thereafter came
One whom with thee friendship had early paired;
She came, no more a phantom to adorn
A moment, but an inmate of the heart,
And yet a spirit, there for me enshrined
To penetrate the lofty and the low;
Even as one essence of pervading light
Shines, in the brightest of ten thousand stars
And the meek worm that feeds her lonely lamp
Couched in the dewy grass.
With such a themetheme,
Coleridge! with this my argument argument, of thee
Shall I be silent? O most loving soul,capacious Soul!
Placed on this earth to love and understand,
And from thy presence shed the light of love,
Shall I be mute mute, ere thou be spoken of?
Thy gentle spirit kindred influence to my heart of hearts
Did also find its way; and way. Thus fear relaxed
Her overweening grasp; thus thoughts and things
In the lifeself-haunting spirit learned to take
Of all things More rational proportions; mystery,
The incumbent mystery of sense and the mighty unitysoul,
In all which we behold, Of life and feel, death, time and are,eternity,
Admitted more habitually a mild
Interposition, closelier gathering thoughtsInterposition a serene delight
Of man and his concerns, In closelier gathering cares, such as become
A human creature, be he who he may,howsoe'er endowed,
Poet, or destined to an for a humbler name;
And so the deep enthusiastic joy,
The rapture of the hallelujah sent
From all that breathes and is, was chastened, stemmed,stemmed
And balanced, balanced by a reason which indeedpathetic truth, by trust
Is In hopeful reason, duty, leaning on the stay
Of Providence; and pathetic truth—
And God and man divided, as they ought,
Between them the great system of the world,
Where man is sphered, and which God animates.in reverence for duty,
Here, if need be, struggling with storms, and there
Strewing in peace life's humblest ground with herbs,
At every season green, sweet at all hours.
And now, O friend, Friend! this history is brought
To its appointed close: the discipline
And consummation of the poet's minda Poet's mind,
In every thing everything that stood most prominentprominent,
Have faithfully been pictured. We pictured; we have reached
The time, which was our time (our guiding object from the first,first)
When we may (not may, not presumptuously, I hope)hope,
Suppose my powers so far confirmed, and such
My knowledge, as to make me capable
Of building up a work Work that should shall endure.
Yet much hath been omitted, as need was—
Of books how much! and even of the other wealth
Which is collected among woods and fields,
Far more. For Nature's secondary grace,was;
Of books how much! and even of the other wealth
That outward illustration which is hers,collected among woods and fields,
Far more: for Nature's secondary grace
Hath hitherto been barely touched upon:upon,
The charm more superficial, and yet sweet,
Which from her works finds way, contemplatedsuperficial that attends
As Her works, as they hold forth a genuine counterpartpresent to Fancy's choice
And softening mirror Apt illustrations of the moral world.
Yes, having tracked the main essential power—
Imagination up her way sublime,
In turn might fancy also be pursued
Through all her transmigrations, till she too
Was purified, had learned to ply her craft
By judgement steadied. Then might we return,
And in the rivers and the groves behold
Another face, might hear them from all sides
Calling upon the more instructed mindworld,
To link their images Caught at a glance, or traced with subtle skillcurious pains.
Sometimes, Finally, and by elaborate research—
With forms and definite appearances
Of human life, presenting them sometimes
To the involuntary sympathy
Of our internal being, satisfied
And soothed with a conception of delight
Where meditation cannot come, which thought
Could never heighten. Above above all, how muchO Friend! (I speak
Still nearer to ourselves With due regret) how much is overlooked
In human nature and that marvellous worldher subtle ways,
As studied first in my our own heart, hearts, and then
In life, life among the passions of mankindmankind,
And qualities commixed Varying their composition and modifiedtheir hue,
By Where'er we move, under the infinite varieties and shadesdiverse shapes
Of That individual character. Hereincharacter presents
It was for me (this justice bids me say)To an attentive eye. For progress meet,
No useless preparation to have beenAlong this intricate and difficult path,
The pupil Whate'er was wanting, something had I gained,
As one of a public school, and forcedmany schoolfellows compelled,
In hardy independence independence, to stand up
Among Amid conflicting passions interests, and the shock
Of various tempers, tempers; to endure and note
What was not understood, though known to be—
Among the mysteries of love and hate,
Honour and shame, looking to right and left,
Unchecked by innocence too delicate,
And moral notions too intolerant,
Sympathies too contracted. be;
Among the mysteries of love and hate,
Honour and shame, looking to right and left,
Unchecked by innocence too delicate,
And moral notions too intolerant,
Sympathies too contracted. Hence, when called
To take a station among men, the step
Was easier, the transition more secure,
More profitable also; for for, the mind
Learns from such timely exercise to keep
In wholesome separation the two natures.—
The one that feels, the other that observes.natures,
Let The one that feels, the other that observes.
Yet one word more of personal circumstance
Not needless, as it seems be added here.concern;.
Since I withdrew unwillingly from France,
The story hath demanded less regard
To time and place; and where I lived and how,
Hath been no longer scrupulously marked.
Three years, until a permanent abode
Received me with that sister of my heart
Who ought by rights the dearest to have been
Conspicuous through this biographic verse—
Star seldom utterly concealed from view—
I led an undomestic wanderer's life.led an undomestic wanderer's life,
In London chiefly was my home, and thence
Excursively, as personal friendships, chance
Or inclination led, or slender means
Gave leave, harboured, whence I roamed about from place to place,roamed,
Tarrying at will in many a pleasant nooks, wherever found,spot
Through England or through Wales. Of rural England's cultivated vales
Or Cambrian solitudes. A youthyouth (he bore
The name of Calvert; Calvert it shall live, if words
Of mine can give it life without respect
To prejudice or custom, having hopelife,) in firm belief
That I had some endowments by which goodendowments not from me withheld
Might Good might be promoted, furthered in his last decay
From his own family withdrawing part
Of no redundant patrimony, did
By a bequest sufficient for my needs
Enable Enabled me to pause for choice, and walk
he bore
At large and unrestrained, nor damped too soon
By mortal cares. Himself no poet, Poet, yet
Far less a common spirit follower of the world,
He deemed that my pursuits and labors labours lay