William Wordsworth Quotes

Great God! I'd rather be A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn; So might I, standing on this pleasant lea, Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

The world is too much with us; late and soon, Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers: Little we see in Nature that is ours; We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

In truth the prison, unto which we doom Ourselves, no prison is.

Like—but oh, how different!

She hath smiles to earth unknown— Smiles that with motion of their own Do spread, and sink, and rise.

But an old age serene and bright, And lovely as a Lapland night, Shall lead thee to thy grave.

Thou, while thy babes around thee cling, Shalt show us how divine a thing A Woman may be made.

Dear Child of Nature, let them rail!

The light that never was, on sea or land, The consecration, and the poet's dream.

Oft on the dappled turf at ease I sit, and play with similes, Loose types of things through all degrees.

Thou unassuming Common-place Of Nature, with that homely face, And yet with something of a grace, Which Love makes for thee!

No bird, but an invisible thing, A voice, a mystery.

O Blithe newcomer! I have heard, I hear thee and rejoice. O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird, Or but a wandering Voice?

Bright flower! whose home is everywhere Bold in maternal nature's care And all the long year through the heir Of joy or sorrow, Methinks that there abides in thee Some concord with humanity, Given to no other flower I see The forest through.

Of vast circumference and gloom profound, This solitary Tree! A living thing Produced too slowly ever to decay; Of form and aspect too magnificent To be destroyed.