A virgin scene-A little while I stood,
Breathing with such suppression of the heart
As joy delights in; and, with wise restraint
Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed

The banquet;-or beneath the trees I sate
Among the flowers, and with the flowers I played;

A temper known to those, who, after long

And weary expectation, have been blest
With sudden happiness beyond all hope.
Perhaps it was a bower beneath whose leaves
The violets of five seasons re-appear
And fade, unseen by any human eye;
Where fairy water-breaks do murmur on
For ever; and I saw the sparkling foam,
And-with my cheek on one of those green stones
That, fleeced with moss, under the shady trees,
Lay round me, scattered like a flock of sheep-
I heard the murmur and the murmuring sound,
In that sweet mood when pleasure loves to pay
Tribute to ease; and, of its joy secure,
The heart luxuriates with indifferent things,
Wasting its kindliness on stocks and stones,
And on the vacant air. Then up I rose,

And dragged to earth both branch and bough, with crash

And merciless ravage: and the shady nook

Of hazels, and the green and mossy bower,
Deformed and sullied, patiently gave up
Their quiet being: and, unless I now
Confound my present feelings with the past;
Ere from the mutilated bower I turned 1
Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings,
I felt a sense of pain when I beheld

1 1836.

Even then, when from the bower I turned away,

1800.

The silent trees, and saw the intruding sky.-
Then, dearest Maiden, move along these shades
In gentleness of heart; with gentle hand
Touch-for there is a spirit in the woods.

The woods round Esthwaite Lake have doubtless undergone considerable change since Wordsworth's school days at Hawkshead; but hazel coppice is still abundant, and the place to which the Fenwick note refers can easily be identified.-Ed.

STRANGE FITS OF PASSION HAVE I KNOWN.

Comp. 1799.

Pub. 1800.

[Written in Germany, 1799.]

STRANGE fits of passion have I known:

And I will dare to tell,

But in the Lover's ear alone,

What once to me befel.

When she I loved looked every day

Fresh as a rose in June,1

I to her cottage bent my way,

Beneath an evening moon.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,

All over the wide lea;

With quickening pace my horse drew nigh2

Those paths so dear to me.

And now we reached the orchard-plot ;

And, as we climbed the hill,

The sinking moon to Lucy's cot

Came near, and nearer still.1

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,
Kind Nature's gentlest boon!

And all the while my eyes I kept
On the descending moon.

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and never stopped:
When down behind the cottage-roof,

At once, the bright moon dropped.2

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a Lover's head!

"O mercy!" to myself I cried,

"If Lucy should be dead!"

SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS.

SHE dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove,

A Maid whom there were none to praise

And very few to love:

Towards the roof of Lucy's cot
The moon descended still.

At once the planet dropped.

1800.

1800.

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

-Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;
But she is in her grave, and, oh,

The difference to me!

I TRAVELLED AMONG UNKNOWN MEN.

Among thy mountains did I feel

The joy of my desire;

And she I cherished turned her wheel

Beside an English fire.

Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed
The bowers where Lucy played;
And thine too is the last green field

That Lucy's eyes surveyed.1

And thine is, too, the last green field
Which Lucy's eyes surveyed.

And thine is too the last green field
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

1807.

1815.

THREE YEARS SHE GREW IN SUN AND SHOWER.

Comp. 1799.

Pub. 1800.

[1799. Composed in the Hartz Forest.]

THREE years she grew in sun and shower,

Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower

On earth was never sown;

This Child I to myself will take,

She shall be mine, and I will make
A Lady of my own.

Myself will to my darling be

Both law and impulse: and with me

The Girl, in rock and plain,

In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,
Shall feel an overseeing power

To kindle or restrain.

She shall be sportive as the fawn
That wild with glee across the lawn

Or up the mountain springs;

And hers shall be the breathing balm,

And hers the silence and the calm

Of mute insensate things.

The floating clouds their state shall lend

To her; for her the willow bend;

Nor shall she fail to see

Even in the motions of the Storm

Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form1

By silent sympathy.

1 1802

A beauty that shall mould her form

1800.