Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE PASS OF KIRKSTONE, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Within the mind strong fancies work Last Line: "thy lot, o man, is good, thy portion, fair!" Variant Title(s): Ode. The Pass Of Kirkstone | ||||||||
I WITHIN the mind strong fancies work. A deep delight the bosom thrills Oft as I pass along the fork Of these fraternal hills: Where, save the rugged road, we find No appanage of human kind, Nor hint of man; if stone or rock Seem not his handywork to mock By something cognizably shaped; Mockery -- or model roughly hewn, And left as if by earthquake strewn, Or from the Flood escaped: Altars for Druid service fit; (But where no fire was ever lit, Unless the glow-worm to the skies Thence offer nightly sacrifice) Wrinkled Egyptian monument; Green moss-grown tower; or hoary tent; Tents of a camp that never shall be razed -- On which four thousand years have gazed! II Ye plough-shares sparkling on the slopes! Ye snow-white lambs that trip Imprisoned 'mid the formal props Of restless ownership! Ye trees, that may to-morrow fall To feed the insatiate Prodigal! Lawns, houses, chattels, groves, and fields, All that the fertile valley shields; Wages of folly -- baits of crime, Of life's uneasy game the stake, Playthings that keep the eyes awake Of drowsy, dotard Time; -- O care! O guilt! -- O vales and plains, Here, 'mid his own unvexed domains, A Genius dwells, that can subdue At once all memory of You, -- Most potent when mists veil the sky, Mists that distort and magnify; While the coarse rushes, to the sweeping breeze, Sigh forth their ancient melodies! III List to those shriller notes! -- 'that' march Perchance was on the blast, When, through this Height's inverted arch, Rome's earliest legion passed! -- They saw, adventurously impelled, And older eyes than theirs beheld, This block -- and yon, whose church-like frame Gives to this savage Pass its name. Aspiring Road! that lov'st to hide Thy daring in a vapoury bourn, Not seldom may the hour return When thou shalt be my guide: And I (as all men may find cause, When life is at a weary pause, And they have panted up the hill Of duty with reluctant will) Be thankful, even though tired and faint, For the rich bounties of constraint; Whence oft invigorating transports flow That choice lacked courage to bestow! IV My Soul was grateful for delight That wore a threatening brow; A veil is lifted -- can she slight The scene that opens now? Though habitation none appear, The greenness tells, man must be there; The shelter -- that the perspective Is of the clime in which we live; Where Toil pursues his daily round; Where Pity sheds sweet tears -- and Love, In woodbine bower or birchen grove, Inflicts his tender wound. -- Who comes not hither ne'er shall know How beautiful the world below; Nor can he guess how lightly leaps The brook adown the rocky steeps. Farewell, thou desolate Domain! Hope, pointing to the cultured plain, Carols like a shepherd-boy; And who is she? -- Can that be Joy! Who, with a sunbeam for her guide, Smoothly skims the meadows wide; While Faith, from yonder opening cloud, To hill and vale proclaims aloud, "Whate'er the weak may dread, the wicked dare, Thy lot, O Man, is good, thy portion, fair!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A JEWISH FAMILY; IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ADMONITION [TO A TRAVELLER] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AN APRIL MORNING by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH ANIMAL TRANQUILITY AND DECAY; A SKETCH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AT FLORENCE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AT THE GRAVE OF BURNS; SEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH BUONAPARTE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH COMPOSED AT NEIDPATH CASTLE, 1803 by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH COMPOSED BY THE SEA-SIDE NEAR CALAIS [AUGUST 1802] by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |
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