University of Virginia Library

Yet be it said, in justice to myself,
That in more genial times, when I was free
To explore the destiny of human kind
(Not as an intellectual game pursued
With curious subtilty, from wish to cheat
Irksome sensations; but by love of truth
Urged on, or haply by intense delight
In feeding thought, wherever thought could feed)
I did not rank with those (too dull or nice,
For to my judgment such they then appeared,
Or too aspiring, thankless at the best)
Who, in this frame of human life, perceive
An object whereunto their souls are tied
In discontented wedlock; nor did e'er,
From me, those dark impervious shades, that hang
Upon the region whither we are bound,
Exclude a power to enjoy the vital beams
Of present sunshine.—Deities that float
On wings, angelic Spirits! I could muse
O'er what from eldest time we have been told
Of your bright forms and glorious faculties,
And with the imagination rest content,
Not wishing more; repining not to tread
The little sinuous path of earthly care,
By flowers embellished, and by springs refreshed.
—‘Blow winds of autumn!—let your chilling breath
‘Take the live herbage from the mead, and strip
‘The shady forest of its green attire,—
‘And let the bursting clouds to fury rouse
‘The gentle brooks!—Your desolating sway,
‘Sheds,’ I exclaimed, ‘no sadness upon me,
‘And no disorder in your rage I find.
‘What dignity, what beauty, in this change
‘From mild to angry, and from sad to gay,
‘Alternate and revolving! How benign,
‘How rich in animation and delight,
‘How bountiful these elements—compared
‘With aught, as more desirable and fair,
‘Devised by fancy for the golden age;
‘Or the perpetual warbling that prevails
‘In Arcady, beneath unaltered skies,
‘Through the long year in constant quiet bound,
‘Night hushed as night, and day serene as day!’
—But why this tedious record?—Age, we know,
Is garrulous; and solitude is apt
To anticipate the privilege of Age.
From far ye come; and surely with a hope
Of better entertainment:—let us hence!”