"The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction."

Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 9.

"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."

Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 9.

"Truths that wake, To perish never."

Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 9.

"Though inland far we be, Our souls have sight of that immortal sea Which brought us hither."

Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 9.

"Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower."

Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 10.

"In years that bring the philosophic mind."

Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 10.

"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."

Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 11.

"To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."

Ode. Intimations of Immortality. Stanza 11.

"Two voices are there: one is of the sea, One of the mountains,--each a mighty voice."

Thought of a Briton on the Subjugation of Switzerland.

"Earth helped him with the cry of blood."

Song at the Feast of Broughton Castle.

"The silence that is in the starry sky."

Song at the Feast of Broughton Castle.

"The monumental pomp of age Was with this goodly personage; A stature undepressed in size, Unbent, which rather seemed to rise In open victory o'er the weight Of seventy years, to loftier height."

The White Doe of Rylstone. Canto iii.

""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?"

Force of Prayer.

"A few strong instincts, and a few plain rules."

Alas! what boots the long laborious Quest?

"Of blessed consolations in distress."

Preface to the Excursion. (Edition, 1814.)

"The vision and the faculty divine; Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse."

The Excursion. Book i.

"The imperfect offices of prayer and praise."

The Excursion. Book i.

"That mighty orb of song, The divine Milton."

The Excursion. Book i.

"The good die first, And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust Burn to the socket."

The Excursion. Book i.

"This dull product of a scoffer's pen."

The Excursion. Book ii.

"With battlements that on their restless fronts Bore stars."

The Excursion. Book ii.

"Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop Than when we soar."

The Excursion. Book iii.

"Wrongs unredressed, or insults unavenged."

The Excursion. Book iii.

"Monastic brotherhood, upon rock Aerial."

The Excursion. Book iii.

"The intellectual power, through words and things, Went sounding on a dim and perilous way!"

The Excursion. Book iii.

"Society became my glittering bride, And airy hopes my children."

The Excursion. Book iii.

"And the most difficult of tasks to keep Heights which the soul is competent to gain."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"There is a luxury in self-dispraise; And inward self-disparagement affords To meditative spleen a grateful feast."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"Recognizes ever and anon The breeze of Nature stirring in his soul."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"Pan himself, The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god!"

The Excursion. Book iv.

"I have seen A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract Of inland ground, applying to his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell, To which, in silence hushed, his very soul Listened intensely; and his countenance soon Brightened with joy, for from within were heard Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed Mysterious union with his native sea."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"So build we up the being that we are."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"One in whom persuasion and belief Had ripened into faith, and faith become A passionate intuition."

The Excursion. Book iv.

"Spires whose "silent finger points to heaven.""

The Excursion. Book vi.

"Ah, what a warning for a thoughtless man, Could field or grove, could any spot of earth, Show to his eye an image of the pangs Which it hath witnessed,--render back an echo Of the sad steps by which it hath been trod!"

The Excursion. Book vi.

"And when the stream Which overflowed the soul was passed away, A consciousness remained that it had left Deposited upon the silent shore Of memory images and precious thoughts That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed."

The Excursion. Book vii.

"Wisdom married to immortal verse."

The Excursion. Book vii.

"A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays And confident to-morrows."

The Excursion. Book vii.

"The primal duties shine aloft, like stars; The charities that soothe and heal and bless Are scattered at the feet of man like flowers."

The Excursion. Book ix.

"By happy chance we saw A twofold image: on a grassy bank A snow-white ram, and in the crystal flood Another and the same!"

The Excursion. Book ix.

"The gods approve The depth, and not the tumult, of the soul."

Laodamia.

"Mightier far Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway Of magic potent over sun and star, Is Love, though oft to agony distrest, And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast."

Laodamia.

"Elysian beauty, melancholy grace, Brought from a pensive though a happy place."

Laodamia.

"He spake of love, such love as spirits feel In worlds whose course is equable and pure; No fears to beat away, no strife to heal,-- The past unsighed for, and the future sure."

Laodamia.

"Of all that is most beauteous, imaged there In happier beauty; more pellucid streams, An ampler ether, a diviner air, And fields invested with purpureal gleams."

Laodamia.

"Yet tears to human suffering are due; And mortal hopes defeated and o'erthrown Are mourned by man, and not by man alone."

Laodamia.

"But shapes that come not at an earthly call Will not depart when mortal voices bid."

Dion.

"But thou that didst appear so fair To fond imagination, Dost rival in the light of day Her delicate creation."

Yarrow Visited.

"'T is hers to pluck the amaranthine flower Of faith, and round the sufferer's temples bind Wreaths that endure affliction's heaviest shower, And do not shrink from sorrow's keenest wind."

Weak is the Will of Man.

"We bow our heads before Thee, and we laud And magnify thy name Almighty God! But man is thy most awful instrument In working out a pure intent."

Ode. Imagination before Content.