From vain temptations dost set free; They fail, thy saving arms, dread Power! around them cast. Serene will be our days and bright, And happy will our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And they a blissful course may hold, Live in the spirit of this creed; Yet seek thy firm support, according to their need. 8. Frail, morally weak. Lat. fra- | prove that they have been wrong in gilis, easily broken, through Fr. frêle. 9. There are [some] who . . Some are so amiable and unselfish by nature, that they instinctively do what is right. 10-12. 'Who, naturally loving and sincere, and therefore not troubled by doubts as to their conduct, obey those spontaneous and generous impulses ("genial sense") which mark the season of youth.' Rely 11. Where in which. upon, trust to, as guides of conduct. Lat. re-, back; A. S. licgan, to lie. 12. Genial sense-innate perception or intuition of what is right. Lat. genius, 'inborn faculty.' 13. Arrange: 'Who, glad hearts, without reproach or blot, do thy work.' - Reproach, self-reproach; without blot, stainless, sincere. 14. And know it not, without knowing it, unconsciously. It, that trusting to their natural instincts.' 19, 20. So long as the love to which we trust is a faithful guide, and the pleasure which accompanies our actions is not mingled with misgivings or regret.' Cf. 'unreproved pleasures' in Milton's L'Allegro, line 40. 19. Unerring, and own in the next line, are emphatic. 20. Security, lit. 'freedom from care or anxiety.' 21. 'They may go on prosperously, without swerving from the right course.' A ship 'holds its course' when it sails exactly in the direction intended by the steersman. 22. Even now, even in this life.Who'if they.'-Not unwisely bold, without placing too much reliance on their own emotional instincts. 23. Creed, conviction; lit. 'what is believed.' The creed (lines 19, 20) is, is, 'that they are doing it.' that joy and love are competent and 15. If... 'If, at any time, it should trustworthy guides of conduct. The 25 I, loving freedom, and untried; Too blindly have reposed my trust: And oft, when in my heart was heard 30 The task, in smoother walks to stray; But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may. meaning is: 'Who, though they act generally in accordance with this conviction, are yet, on occasions of doubt or misgiving ("according to their need") ready to appeal to the divine standard of duty.' 25. Loving freedom. . . guideenlargement of subject 'I.'- -Untried, untested, unexperienced. 26. 'Though not liable to be swayed by every "chance-desire"' (line 38), that is, though possessed of a certain amount of rational self-control. Random, chance, hazard. O. Fr. randon, the force and swiftness of a great stream. -Gust, sudden blast. Icel. gusa, to gush. 27. Blindly, implicitly, without reasoning or consideration. -My trust, confidence in my natural impulses. 30, 31. I put off the unpleasant task assigned me by duty, and preferred the easier and more agreeable course suggested by my own inclination.'- -Stray, wander. O. Fr. estraier, to rove about the streets; Lat. strata, a street. 32. If I may, if it be still possible for me. 33-36. 'Not from any violent agitation of soul, not from any feeling of uneasiness caused by a reproving conscience, but after calm and serious deliberation, I ask thy guidance.' 36. Thought, deliberate considera. tion, as opposed to passion ('disturbance') and regret ('compunction'). 37. 'I am weary of the unauthorised freedom in which I have hitherto lived.'-Unchartered; Lat. charta, a paper. A charter is a document conferring a right or privilege. Duty, and not our natural instincts, is the authoritative guide of conduct. 38. In another poem Wordsworth speaks of souls 'who have felt the weight of too much liberty.' 41-48. Moral law and physical law are manifestations of the same divine power: both are 'daughters of the Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds And fragrance in thy footing treads; Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong ; 45 And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and · strong. To humbler functions, awful Power! Unto thy guidance from this hour; The confidence of reason give; And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live! voice of God.' And they are equally stern: they demand perfect obedience, and will not be satisfied with anything short of that. But this sternness is but benevolence-the loving regard of the Creator for the work of His hand; for obedience is peace and order; disobedience, anarchy and confusion. No human joy can be compared to that which springs from the smile of dutythe testimony of a good conscience; and it is because the laws of nature are obeyed, that the universe presents a scene of harmony and beauty-the fragrant flowers blossoming in their season, the planets revolving in their appointed orbits, the starry heavens, as 'fresh and strong' as when they were called into being. 50 55 'right,' from Lat. rectus, drawn in a straight line. 48. Most ancient, very ancient. The superlative is used in an absolute sense. 49. Humbler, that is, than that of sustaining the universe. The humbler task is 'to guide me.' 53. Made lowly wise, made humble and wise. own 54. The spirit of self-sacrifice, a disposition to disregard one's desires and inclinations, and submit unreservedly to the guidance of duty. 55. Confidence of opposed to 'confidence misplaced' in reason, as his own nature. 56. 'We are born subjects,' says Seneca, 'and to obey is perfect liberty.' 41. [Thou art a] stern lawgiver, The slaves of duty are the only true yet. 47. Wrong, wandering, error. A.S. wringan, to twist or turn. Cf. freemen.In the light of truth, guided by the truth. in apposition to 'me.' Bondman is 17 ODE. INTIMATIONS OF IMMORTALITY FROM RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY CHILDHOOD. 'The Child is father of the Man; Bound each to each by natural piety.' [This poem was written by Wordsworth during his residence at Grasmere, the first four stanzas in 1803, and the remainder at least two years afterwards. Its key-note is suggested in the motto prefixed, which is taken from one of Wordsworth's own earlier and shorter poems. The ode is a poetical rendering of the famous doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul, a belief common in the East, but in European thought associated especially with the name of Plato. The doctrine implies that human souls were in existence, possibly in a higher and better state, before they became united with the bodies to which they are in this life attached. Hence the child has a sense of nearness to the spiritual world, which recedes and grows dim as he advances to manhood; and hence, too, much of the best knowledge that a man attains to is but 'recollection' of truths known by the soul in its pre-existent state, or, in the Christian form of the doctrine, of the spiritual light of that heavenly home which at birth we forsook, and to which at death we shall return. ] I. THERE was a time when meadow, grove, and stream, To me did seem Apparelled in celestial light, The glory and the freshness of a dream. By night or day, The things which I have seen I. To the poet, in his childhood, all nature seemed invested with dreamlike vividness and splendour; now, in his manhood, this glory has faded. 1. 'Meadow,' 'grove,' 'stream,' 'earth,' 'sight' form a collective subject to 'did seem.' 4. Apparelled, arrayed, invested. O. Fr. a, to; parailler, to put like C 5 I now can see no more. 5. Glory (splendour), freshness, (= vividness, liveliness)—in apposition to 'light.' 6. Of yore, formerly. A.S. geára, 'of years'-gen. pl. of gear, a year. 7. [Though I turn wheresoe'er I may [turn]. II. The Rainbow comes and goes, And lovely is the Rose; The Moon doth with delight Look round her when the heavens are bare; Waters on a starry night Are beautiful and fair; The sunshine is a glorious birth : But yet I know, where'er I go, 10 15 That there hath passed away a glory from the earth. III. Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song, And while the young lambs bound As to the tabor's sound, To me alone there came a thought of grief: And I again am strong: The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep: Land and sea Give themselves up to jollity, II. The objects of nature, though they have lost this charm, are still beautiful. 10. Comes and goes, appears and disappears. 20 25 30 21. As [if they bounded] to . . . -Tabor, a small drum. Fr. tambour, probably of imitative origin and allied to 'tap.' 25. Cataract, cascade, waterfall. 13. The heavens are bare, the sky Gr. kata, down, rhegnumi, I break. is clear and cloudless. 16. Birth, something born, thing. 18. Connect 'from the earth' with 'hath passed.' III. While all around him is joy, this feeling of loss-of 'something gone'-brings a thought of sadness to the poet; but the expression of his experience has given him relief, and he resolves to banish gloom. 20. Bound, gambol, frisk. Fr. bondir, to leap. He refers to the roar of the waters dashing over the precipices ('steep'). 26. Melancholy thoughts are out of harmony with the general joy of Spring. 28. Fields of sleep, sleeping fields; it is early morning, and the fields have not yet awakened, as it were, from their slumber. 31. Jollity, mirth, festivity. Fr. joli, gay, fine. Icel. jól, a great feast in the heathen time; cognate with A.S. geóla, yule. |