The liveliness of dreams. Nor did he fail, While yet a Child, with a Child's eagerness On all things which the moving seasons brought Or by predominance of thought oppress'd, Thus informed, He had small need of books; for many a Tale Traditionary, round the mountains hung, And many a Legend, peopling the dark woods, Nourished Imagination in her growth, And the Mind that apprehensive power gave By which she is made quick to recognize of things. The moral properties and scope But eagerly he read, and read again, Whate'er the Minister's old Shelf supplied; The life and death of Martyrs, who sustained, Of Persecution, and the Covenant-Times Strange and uncouth; dire faces, figures dire, Sharp-knee'd, sharp-elbowed, and lean-ankled too, With long and ghostly shanks-forms which once seen Could never be forgotten! In his heart Where Fear sate thus, a cherished visitant, Or flowing from the universal face Of earth and sky. But he had felt the power By his intense conceptions, to receive From early childhood, even, as hath been said, From his sixth year, he had been sent abroad In summer to tend herds: such was his task Thenceforward 'till the later day of youth. O then what soul was his, when, on the tops Of the high mountains, he beheld the sun Rise up, and bathe the world in light! He looked— Ocean and earth, the solid frame of earth And ocean's liquid mass, beneath him lay In gladness and deep joy. The clouds were touch'd, Unutterable love. Sound needed none, His animal being; in them did he live, In such access of mind, in such high hour Thought was not; in enjoyment it expired. A Herdsman on the lonely mountain tops, Such intercourse was his, and in this sort Was his existence oftentimes possessed. Oh then how beautiful, how bright appeared The written Promise! He had early learned To reverence the Volume which displays The mystery, the life which cannot die: But in the mountains did he feel his faith; There did he see the writing;-all things there Breathed immortality, revolving life And greatness still revolving; infinite; There littleness was not; the least of things Seemed infinite; and there his spirit shaped Sublime and comprehensive! Low desires, Low thoughts had there no place; yet was his heart Oft as he called those extacies to mind, And whence they flowed; and from them he acquired Wisdom, which works through patience; thence he learned In many a calmer hour of sober thought To look on Nature with a humble heart, So passed the time; yet to a neighbouring town He duly went with what small overplus His earnings might supply, and brought away His Step-father supplied; books that explain |