William Wordsworth
Wisdom married to immortal verse.Collection: Wisdom
A few strong instincts and a few plain rules.Collection: Strong
A famous man is Robin Hood, The English ballad-singer's joy.Collection: Men
Oft in my way have I stood still, though but a casual passenger, so much I felt the awfulness of life.Collection: Life
Write to me frequently & the longest letters possible; never mind whether you have facts or no to communicate; fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.Collection: Writing
In truth the prison, unto which we doom Ourselves, no prison is.Collection: Prison
And now I see with eye serene, The very pulse of the machine. A being breathing thoughtful breaths, A traveler between life and death.Collection: Eye
I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused, whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, and the round ocean, and the living air, and the blue sky, and in the mind of man.Collection: Life
Chains tie us down by land and sea; And wishes, vain as mine, may be All that is left to comfort thee.Collection: Sea
Prompt to move but firm to wait - knowing things rashly sought are rarely found.Collection: Moving
But hearing oftentimes The still, sad music of humanity.Collection: Music
She was a phantom of delight When first she gleamed upon my sight, A lovely apparition, sent To be a moment's ornament; Her eyes as stars of twilight fair, Like twilights too her dusky hair, But all things else about her drawn From May-time and the cheerful dawn.Collection: Time
Oh there is blessing in this gentle breeze, A visitant that while it fans my cheek Doth seem half-conscious of the joy it brings From the green fields, and from yon azure sky. Whate'er its mission, the soft breeze can come To none more grateful than to me; escaped From the vast city, where I long had pined A discontented sojourner: now free, Free as a bird to settle where I will.Collection: Grateful
May books and nature be their early joy!Collection: Nature
Before us lay a painful road, And guidance have I sought in duteous love From Wisdom's heavenly Father. Hence hath flowed Patience, with trust that, whatsoe'er the way Each takes in this high matter, all may move Cheered with the prospect of a brighter day.Collection: Patience
Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room; And hermits are contented with their cells.Collection: Cells
The oldest man he seemed that ever wore grey hairs.Collection: Men
Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind--But how could I forget thee?Collection: Remembrance
One solace yet remains for us who came Into this world in days when story lacked Severe research, that in our hearts we know How, for exciting youth's heroic flame, Assent is power, belief the soul of fact.Collection: Heart
Heaven lies about us in our infancy! Shades of the prison-house begin to close upon the growing boy.Collection: Time
There is a luxury in self-dispraise; And inward self-disparagement affords To meditative spleen a grateful feast.Collection: Grateful
Give unto me, made lowly wise, The spirit of self-sacrifice; The confidence of reason give, And in the light of truth thy bondman let me live!Collection: Wise
Rapt into still communion that transcends The imperfect offices of prayer and praise, His mind was a thanksgiving to the power That made him; it was blessedness and love!Collection: Prayer
"What is good for a bootless bene?" With these dark words begins my tale; And their meaning is, Whence can comfort spring When prayer is of no avail?Collection: Prayer
Stay, little cheerful Robin! stay, And at my casement sing, Though it should prove a farewell lay And this our parting spring. * * * * * Then, little Bird, this boon confer, Come, and my requiem sing, Nor fail to be the harbinger Of everlasting spring.Collection: Spring
On a fair prospect some have looked, And felt, as I have heard them say, As if the moving time had been A thing as steadfast as the scene On which they gazed themselves away.Collection: Time
Either still I find Some imperfection in the chosen theme, Or see of absolute accomplishment Much wanting, so much wanting, in myself, That I recoil and droop, and seek repose In listlessness from vain perplexity, Unprofitably travelling towards the grave.Collection: Accomplishment
That kill the bloom before its time, And blanch, without the owner's crime, The most resplendent hair.Collection: Time
Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters.Collection: Water
It is the 1st mild day of March. Each minute sweeter than before... there is a blessing in the air.Collection: Blessing
Hearing often-times the still, sad music of humanity, nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power to chasten and subdue.Collection: Humanity
Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know, Are a substantial world, both pure and good: Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood, Our pastime and our happiness will grow.Collection: Happiness
Oh for a single hour of that Dundee Who on that day the word of onset gave!Collection: Hours
The eye— it cannot choose but see; we cannot bid the ear be still; our bodies feel, where'er they be, against or with our will.Collection: Eye
The clouds that gather round the setting sun, Do take a sober colouring from an eye, That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality.Collection: Death
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird, Or but a wandering voice?Collection: Voice
Monastic brotherhood, upon rock Aerial.Collection: Brother
Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, Nor thought of tender happiness betray.Collection: Happiness
Huge and mighty forms that do not live like living men, moved slowly through the mind by day and were trouble to my dreams.Collection: Dream
With little here to do or see Of things that in the great world be, Sweet Daisy! oft I talk to thee For thou art worthy, Thou unassuming commonplace Of Nature, with that homely face, And yet with something of a grace Which love makes for thee!Collection: Sweet
The vision and the faculty divine; Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse.Collection: Accomplishment