Yarrow Revisited Author:William Wordsworth Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Of the world's flatteries if the brain be full, To have no seat for thought were better doom. Like this old helmet, or the eyeless skull Of him who gloried in it... more »s nodding plume. Heaven out of view, our wishes what are they Our fond regrets, insatiate in their grasp ? The sage's theory ? the poet's lay ? Mere Fibula without a robe to clasp ; Obsolete lamps, whose light no time recalls ; Urns without ashes, tearless lacrymals! APOLOGY'. No more : the end is sudden and abrupt, Abrupt—as without preconceived design Was the beginning, yet the several lays Have moved in order, to each other bound By a continuous and acknowledged tie Though unapparent, like those shapes distinct That yet survive ensculptured on the walls Of palace, or of temple, 'mid the wreck Of lamed Persepolis ; each following each, As might beseem a stately embassy, In set array ; these bearing in their hands Ensigns of civil power, weapon of war, Or gift, to be presented at the throne Of the Great King; and others, as they go In priestly vest, with holy offerings charged, Or leading victims drest for sacrifice. Nor will the muse condemn, or treat with scorn Our ministration, humble but sincere, That from a threshold loved by every muse Its impulse took—that sorrow-stricken door, Whence, as a current from its fountain-head, Our thoughts have issued, and our feelings flowed, Receiving, willingly or not, fresh strength From kindred sources ; while around us sighed (Life's three first seasons having passed away) Leaf-scattering winds, and hoar-frost sprinklings fell, Foretaste of winter, on the moorland heights ; And every day brought with it tidings new Of rash change, ominous for the public; weai. Hence, if dejection have too oft encroached Upon that ...« less