The Prelude or Growth of a Poet's Mind: By William Wordsworth: Edited from the manuscripts with introduction, textual and critical notes by Ernest de Selincourt |
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 | The Prelude |  |
I pass the raptures of the Pair; such theme
Hath by a hundred Poets been set forth
In more delightful verse than skill of mine
Could fashion, chiefly by that darling Bard
Who told of Juliet and her Romeo,
And of the Lark's note heard before its time,
And of the streaks that lac'd the severing clouds
In the unrelenting East. 'Tis mine to tread
The humbler province of plain history,
And, without choice of circumstance, submissively
Relate what I have heard. The Lovers came
To this resolve, with which they parted, pleas'd
And confident, that Vaudracour should hie
Back to his Father's house, and there employ
Means aptest to obtain a sum of gold,
A final portion, even, if that might be,
Which done, together they could then take flight
To some remote and solitary place
Where they might live with no one to behold
Their happiness, or to disturb their love.
Immediately, and with this mission charg'd
Home to his Father's House the Youth return'd
And there remain'd a while without hint given
Of his design; but if a word were dropp'd
Touching the matter of his passion, still
In hearing of his Father, Vaudracour
Persisted openly that nothing less
Than death should make him yield up hope to be
A blessed Husband of the Maid he loved.
Hath by a hundred Poets been set forth
In more delightful verse than skill of mine
Could fashion, chiefly by that darling Bard
Who told of Juliet and her Romeo,
And of the Lark's note heard before its time,
And of the streaks that lac'd the severing clouds
In the unrelenting East. 'Tis mine to tread
The humbler province of plain history,
And, without choice of circumstance, submissively
Relate what I have heard. The Lovers came
To this resolve, with which they parted, pleas'd
And confident, that Vaudracour should hie
Back to his Father's house, and there employ
Means aptest to obtain a sum of gold,
A final portion, even, if that might be,
344
To some remote and solitary place
Where they might live with no one to behold
Their happiness, or to disturb their love.
Immediately, and with this mission charg'd
Home to his Father's House the Youth return'd
And there remain'd a while without hint given
Of his design; but if a word were dropp'd
Touching the matter of his passion, still
In hearing of his Father, Vaudracour
Persisted openly that nothing less
Than death should make him yield up hope to be
A blessed Husband of the Maid he loved.
| The Prelude | |