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Tintern Abbey

by William Wordsworth

Five years have past; five summers, with the length

Of five long winters! and again I hear

These waters, rolling from their mountain-springsWith a soft inland murmur.One again

o I "ehold these steep and lofty liffs,

That on a wild seluded sene impressThoughts of more deep selusion; and onnet

The landsape with the #uiet of the s$y.

The day is ome when I again repose

%ere, under this dar$ syamore, and viewThese plots of ottage-ground, these orhard-tufts,

Whih at this season, with their unripe fruits,

&re lad in one green hue, and lose themselves

'(id groves and opses. One again I seeThese hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines

Of sportive wood run wild) these pastoral farms,*reen to the very door; and wreaths of smo$e

+ent up, in silene, from among the trees!

With some unertain notie, as might seemOf vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,

Or of some %ermit's ave, where "y his fire

The %ermit sits alone.

These "eauteous forms,

Through a long a"sene, have not "een to me&s is a landsape to a "lind man's eye)ut oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din

Of towns and ities, I have owed to them

In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,Felt in the "lood, and felt along the heart;

&nd passing even into my purer mind,

With tran#uil restoration)feelings too

Of unremem"ered pleasure) suh, perhaps,&s have no slight or trivial influene

On that "est portion of a good man's life,

%is little, nameless, unremem"ered, atsOf $indness and of love. or less, I trust,

To them I may have owed another gift,

Of aspet more su"lime; that "lessed mood,In whih the "urthen of the mystery,

In whih the heavy and the weary weight

Of all this unintelligi"le world,

Is lightened)that serene and "lessed mood,

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In whih the affetions gently lead us on,

ntil, the "reath of this orporeal frame

&nd even the motion of our human "lood&lmost suspended, we are laid asleep

In "ody, and "eome a living soul)

While with an eye made #uiet "y the powerOf harmony, and the deep power of /oy,

We see into the life of things.

If this

e "ut a vain "elief, yet, oh! how oft

In dar$ness and amid the many shapesOf /oyless daylight; when the fretful stir

nprofita"le, and the fever of the world,

%ave hung upon the "eatings of my heart

%ow oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,

%ow often has my spirit turned to thee!&nd now, with gleams of half-e0tinguished thought,

With many reognitions dim and faint,

&nd somewhat of a sad perple0ity,The piture of the mind revives again)

While here I stand, not only with the sense

Of present pleasure, "ut with pleasing thoughts

That in this moment there is life and foodFor future years. &nd so I dare to hope,

Though hanged, no dou"t, from what I was when first

I ame among these hills; when li$e a roeI "ounded o'er the mountains, "y the sides

Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,

Wherever nature led) more li$e a manFlying from something that he dreads, than one

Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then

1The oarser pleasures of my "oyish days,

&nd their glad animal movements all gone "y2To me was all in all.I annot paint

What then I was. The sounding atarat

%aunted me li$e a passion) the tall ro$,The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,

Their olours and their forms, were then to me

&n appetite; a feeling and a love,That had no need of a remoter harm,

y thought supplied, nor any interest

n"orrowed from the eye.That time is past,

&nd all its ahing /oys are now no more,

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&nd all its di33y raptures. ot for this

Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur, other gifts

%ave followed; for suh loss, I would "elieve,&"undant reompene. For I have learned

To loo$ on nature, not as in the hour

Of thoughtless youth; "ut hearing oftentimesThe still, sad musi of humanity,

or harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To hasten and su"due. &nd I have felt& presene that distur"s me with the /oy

Of elevated thoughts; a sense su"lime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,&nd the round oean and the living air,

&nd the "lue s$y, and in the mind of man;

& motion and a spirit, that impels

&ll thin$ing things, all o"/ets of all thought,&nd rolls through all things. Therefore am I still

& lover of the meadows and the woods,&nd mountains; and of all that we "ehold

From this green earth; of all the mighty world

Of eye, and ear,"oth what they half reate,&nd what pereive; well pleased to reognise

In nature and the language of the sense,

The anhor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,

The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soulOf all my moral "eing.

or perhane,

If I were not thus taught, should I the more

+uffer my genial spirits to deay)For thou art with me here upon the "an$s

Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,

(y dear, dear Friend; and in thy voie I ath

The language of my former heart, and read(y former pleasures in the shooting lights

Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while

(ay I "ehold in thee what I was one,(y dear, dear +ister! and this prayer I ma$e,

4nowing that ature never did "etray

The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,Through all the years of this our life, to lead

From /oy to /oy) for she an so inform

The mind that is within us, so impress

With #uietness and "eauty, and so feed

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With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,

5ash /udgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,

or greetings where no $indness is, nor allThe dreary interourse of daily life,

+hall e'er prevail against us, or distur"

Our heerful faith, that all whih we "eholdIs full of "lessings. Therefore let the moon

+hine on thee in thy solitary wal$;

&nd let the misty mountain-winds "e freeTo "low against thee) and, in after years,

When these wild estasies shall "e matured

Into a so"er pleasure; when thy mind

+hall "e a mansion for all lovely forms,Thy memory "e as a dwelling-plae

For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then,

If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,

+hould "e thy portion, with what healing thoughtsOf tender /oy wilt thou remem"er me,

&nd these my e0hortations! or, perhaneIf I should "e where I no more an hear

Thy voie, nor ath from thy wild eyes these gleams

Of past e0istenewilt thou then forgetThat on the "an$s of this delightful stream

We stood together; and that I, so long

& worshipper of ature, hither ame

nwearied in that servie) rather sayWith warmer loveoh! with far deeper 3eal

Of holier love. or wilt thou then forget,

That after many wanderings, many yearsOf a"sene, these steep woods and lofty liffs,

&nd this green pastoral landsape, were to me

(ore dear, "oth for themselves and for thy sa$e!