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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse  »  64. From ‘The Excursion’

Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

64. From ‘The Excursion’

I

SUCH was the Boy—but for the growing Youth

What soul was his, when, from the naked top

Of some bold headland, he beheld the sun

Rise up, and bathe the world in light! He looked—

Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth

And ocean’s liquid mass, in gladness lay

Beneath him:—Far and wide the clouds were touched,

And in their silent faces could he read

Unutterable love. Sound needed none,

Nor any voice of joy; his spirit drank

The spectacle: sensation, soul, and form,

All melted into him; they swallowed up

His animal being; in them did he live,

And by them did he live; they were his life.

In such access of mind, in such high hour

Of visitation from the living God,

Thought was not; in enjoyment it expired.

No thanks he breathed, he proffered no request;

Rapt into still communion that transcends

The imperfect offices of prayer and praise,

His mind was a thanksgiving to the power

That made him; it was blessedness and love!

II

Thou, who didst wrap the cloud

Of infancy around us, that thyself,

Therein, with our simplicity awhile

Might’st hold, on earth, communion undisturbed;

Who from the anarchy of dreaming sleep,

Or from its death-like void, with punctual care,

And touch as gentle as the morning light,

Restor’st us, daily, to the powers of sense

And reason’s steadfast rule—thou, thou alone

Art everlasting, and the blessed Spirits,

Which thou includest, as the sea her waves:

For adoration thou endur’st; endure

For consciousness the motions of thy will;

For apprehension those transcendent truths

Of the pure intellect, that stand as laws

(Submission constituting strength and power)

Even to thy Being’s infinite majesty!

This universe shall pass away—a work

Glorious! because the shadow of thy might,

A step, or link, for intercourse with thee.

Ah! if the time must come, in which my feet

No more shall stray where meditation leads,

By flowing stream, through wood, or craggy wild,

Loved haunts like these; the unimprisoned Mind

May yet have scope to range among her own,

Her thoughts, her images, her high desires.

If the dear faculty of sight should fail,

Still, it may be allowed me to remember

What visionary powers of eye and soul

In youth were mine; when, stationed on the top

Of some huge hill, expectant, I beheld

The sun rise up, from distant climes returned

Darkness to chase, and sleep; and bring the day

His bounteous gift! or saw him toward the deep

Sink, with a retinue of flaming clouds

Attended; then, my spirit was entranced

With joy exalted to beatitude;

The measure of my soul was filled with bliss,

And holiest love; as earth, sea, air, with light,

With pomp, with glory, with magnificence!

III

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 its native sea.

Even such a shell the universe itself

Is to the ear of Faith; and there are times,

I doubt not, when to you it doth impart

Authentic tidings of invisible things;

Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power;

And central peace, subsisting at the heart

Of endless agitation.

IV

To every Form of being is assigned

An active Principle:—howe’er removed

From sense and observation, it subsists

In all things, in all natures; in the stars

Of azure heaven, the unenduring clouds,

In flower and tree, in every pebbly stone

That paves the brooks, the stationary rocks,

The moving waters, and the invisible air.

Whate’er exists hath properties that spread

Beyond itself, communicating good,

A simple blessing, or with evil mixed;

Spirit that knows no insulated spot,

No chasm, no solitude; from link to link

It circulates, the Soul of all the worlds.

This is the freedom of the universe;

Unfolded still the more, more visible,

The more we know; and yet is reverenced least,

And least respected in the human Mind,

Its most apparent home.