"The child is father of the man."

My Heart Leaps Up

"I wandered lonely as a cloud."

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

"The world is too much with us; late and soon."

The World Is Too Much with Us

"Oh, be wiser thou! Instructed that true knowledge leads to love."

Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree.

"And homeless near a thousand homes I stood, And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food."

Guilt and Sorrow. Stanza 41.

"Action is transitory,--a step, a blow; The motion of a muscle, this way or that."

The Borderers. Act iii.

"Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on, Through words and things, a dim and perilous way."

The Borderers. Act iv. Sc. 2.

"A simple child That lightly draws its breath, And feels its life in every limb, What should it know of death?"

We are Seven.

"O Reader! Had you in your mind Such stores as silent thought can bring, O gentle Reader! you would find A tale in everything."

Simon Lee.

"I 've heard of hearts unkind, kind deeds With coldness still returning; Alas! the gratitude of men Hath oftener left me mourning."

Simon Lee.

"In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts Bring sad thoughts to the mind."

Lines written in Early Spring.

"And 't is my faith, that every flower Enjoys the air it breathes."

Lines written in Early Spring.

"Nor less I deem that there are Powers Which of themselves our minds impress; That we can feed this mind of ours In a wise passiveness."

Expostulation and Reply.

"Up! up! my friend, and quit your books, Or surely you 'll grow double! Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks! Why all this toil and trouble?"

The Tables Turned.

"Come forth into the light of things, Let Nature be your teacher."

The Tables Turned.

"One impulse from a vernal wood May teach you more of man, Of moral evil and of good, Than all the sages can."

The Tables Turned.

"The bane of all that dread the Devil."

The Idiot Boy.

"Sensations sweet, Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart."

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

"That best portion of a good man's life,-- His little, nameless, unremembered acts Of kindness and of love."

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

"That blessed mood, In which the burden of the mystery, In which the heavy and the weary weight Of all this unintelligible world, Is lightened."

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

"The fretful stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world Have hung upon the beatings of my heart."

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

"The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion; the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colours and their forms, were then to me An appetite,--a feeling and a love, That had no need of a remoter charm By thoughts supplied, nor any interest Unborrowed from the eye."

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

"But hearing oftentimes The still, sad music of humanity."

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

"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,-- A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things."

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

"Knowing that Nature never did betray The heart that loved her."

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

"Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all The dreary intercourse of daily life."

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey.

"Men who can hear the Decalogue, and feel No self-reproach."

The Old Cumberland Beggar.

"As in the eye of Nature he has lived, So in the eye of Nature let him die!"

The Old Cumberland Beggar.

"There 's something in a flying horse, There 's something in a huge balloon."

Peter Bell. Prologue. Stanza 1.

"The common growth of Mother Earth Suffices me,--her tears, her mirth, Her humblest mirth and tears."

Peter Bell. Prologue. Stanza 27.

"Full twenty times was Peter feared, For once that Peter was respected."

Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 3.

"A primrose by a river's brim A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more."

Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 12.

"The soft blue sky did never melt Into his heart; he never felt The witchery of the soft blue sky!"

Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 15.

"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."

Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 16.

"As if the man had fixed his face, In many a solitary place, Against the wind and open sky!"

Peter Bell. Part i. Stanza 26.

"One of those heavenly days that cannot die."

Nutting.

"She dwelt among the untrodden ways Beside the springs of Dove,-- A maid whom there were none to praise And very few to love."

She dwelt among the untrodden ways.

"A violet by a mossy stone Half hidden from the eye; Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky."

She dwelt among the untrodden ways.

"She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and oh The difference to me!"

She dwelt among the untrodden ways.

"The stars of midnight shall be dear To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound Shall pass into her face."

Three years she grew in Sun and Shower.

"May no rude hand deface it, And its forlorn hic jacet!"

Ellen Irwin.

"She gave me eyes, she gave me ears; And humble cares, and delicate fears; A heart, the fountain of sweet tears; And love and thought and joy."

The Sparrow's Nest.

"The cattle are grazing, Their heads never raising; There are forty feeding like one!"

The Cock is crowing.

"Sweet childish days, that were as long As twenty days are now."

To a Butterfly. I 've watched you now a full half-hour.

"Often have I sighed to measure By myself a lonely pleasure,-- Sighed to think I read a book, Only read, perhaps, by me."

To the Small Celandine.

"As high as we have mounted in delight, In our dejection do we sink as low."

Resolution and Independence. Stanza 4.

"But how can he expect that others should Build for him, sow for him, and at his call Love him, who for himself will take no heed at all?"

Resolution and Independence. Stanza 6.

"I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy, The sleepless soul that perished in his pride; Of him who walked in glory and in joy, Following his plough, along the mountain-side. By our own spirits we are deified; We Poets in our youth begin in gladness, But thereof come in the end despondency and madness."

Resolution and Independence. Stanza 7.

"That heareth not the loud winds when they call, And moveth all together, if it moves at all."

Resolution and Independence. Stanza 11.

"Choice word and measured phrase above the reach Of ordinary men."

Resolution and Independence. Stanza 14.