| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | Personal Talk, I | | By William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | | I AM not One who much or oft delight | |
| To season my fireside with personal talk.— | |
| Of friends, who live within an easy walk, | |
| Or neighbours, daily, weekly, in my sight: | |
| And, for my chance-acquaintance, ladies bright, | 5 |
| Sons, mothers, maidens, withering on the stalk, | |
| These all wear out of me, like form with chalk | |
| Painted on rich men’s floors for one feast-night. | |
| Better than such discourse doth silence long, | |
| Long, barren silence, square with my desire; | 10 |
| To sit without emotion, hope, or aim, | |
| In the loved presence of my cottage-fire, | |
| And listen to the flapping of the flame, | |
| Or kettle whispering its faint undersong. | | | | |
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