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date: 08 February 2025

William Wordsworth 1770–1850
English poet 

  1. Suffering is permanent, obscure and dark,
    And shares the nature of infinity.
     
    The Borderers (1842)
  2. Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he
    Whom every man in arms should wish to be?
     
    ‘Character of the Happy Warrior’ (1807); see Read
  3. Earth has not anything to show more fair:
    Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
    A sight so touching in its majesty:
    This City now doth like a garment wear
    The beauty of the morning.
     
    ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ (1807)
  4. Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
    And all that mighty heart is lying still!
     
    ‘Composed upon Westminster Bridge’ (1807)
  5. The light that never was, on sea or land,
    The consecration, and the Poet's dream.
     
    on a picture of Peele Castle in a storm
    ‘Elegiac Stanzas’ (1807)
  6. The good die first,
    And they whose hearts are dry as summer dust
    Burn to the socket.
     
    The Excursion (1814) bk. 1, l. 500
  7. Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
    But to be young was very heaven!
     
    ‘The French Revolution, as it Appeared to Enthusiasts’ (1809); also The Prelude (1850) bk. 9, l. 108
  8. Not choice
    But habit rules the unreflecting herd.
     
    ‘Grant that by this unsparing hurricane’ (1822)
  9. It is a beauteous evening, calm and free;
    The holy time is quiet as a nun
    Breathless with adoration.
     
    ‘It is a beauteous evening, calm and free’ (1807)
  10. We must be free or die, who speak the tongue
    That Shakespeare spake; the faith and morals hold
    Which Milton held.
     
    ‘It is not to be thought of that the Flood’ (1807)
  11. I travelled among unknown men,
    In lands beyond the sea;
    Nor England! did I know till then
    What love I bore to thee.
     
    ‘I travelled among unknown men’ (1807)
  12. I wandered lonely as a cloud
    That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
    When all at once I saw a crowd,
    A host, of golden daffodils;
    Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
    Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
     
    ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ (1815 ed.); see Wordsworth
  13. For oft, when on my couch I lie
    In vacant or in pensive mood,
    They flash upon that inward eye
    Which is the bliss of solitude;
    And then my heart with pleasure fills,
    And dances with the daffodils.
     
    ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud’ (1815 ed.)
  14. On that best portion of a good man's life,
    His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
    Of kindness and of love.
     
    ‘Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey’ (1798) l. 33
  15. That blessed mood
    In which the burthen of the mystery,
    In which the heavy and the weary weight
    Of all this unintelligible world,
    Is lightened.
     
    ‘Lines composed…above Tintern Abbey’ (1798) l. 37
  16. I have learned
    To look on nature, not as in the hour
    Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes
    The still, sad music of humanity.
     
    ‘Lines composed…above Tintern Abbey’ (1798) l. 88
  17. A sense sublime
    Of something far more deeply interfused,
    Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
    And the round ocean and the living air,
    And the blue sky, and in the mind of man.
     
    ‘Lines composed…above Tintern Abbey’ (1798) l. 95
  18. All the mighty world
    Of eye and ear, both what they half-create,
    And what perceive.
     
    ‘Lines composed…above Tintern Abbey’ (1798) l. 106
  19. And much it grieved my heart to think
    What man has made of man.
     
    ‘Lines Written in Early Spring’ (1798)
  20. Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour:
    England hath need of thee: she is a fen
    Of stagnant waters.
     
    ‘Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour’ (1807)
  21. My heart leaps up when I behold
    A rainbow in the sky.
     
    ‘My heart leaps up when I behold’ (1807)
  22. The Child is father of the Man;
    And I could wish my days to be
    Bound each to each by natural piety.
     
    ‘My heart leaps up when I behold’ (1807); see Milton
  23. There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
    The earth, and every common sight,
    To me did seem
    Apparelled in celestial light,
    The glory and the freshness of a dream.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 1
  24. The rainbow comes and goes,
    And lovely is the rose.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 2
  25. There hath passed away a glory from the earth.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 2
  26. A timely utterance gave that thought relief.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 3
  27. Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
    Where is it now, the glory and the dream?
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 4
  28. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…
    Not in entire forgetfulness,
    And not in utter nakedness,
    But trailing clouds of glory do we come.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 5
  29. Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
    Shades of the prison-house begin to close
    Upon the growing boy.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 5
  30. And by the vision splendid
    Is on his way attended;
    At length the man perceives it die away,
    And fade into the light of common day.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 5
  31. Fallings from us, vanishings;
    Blank misgivings of a creature
    Moving about in worlds not realised,
    High instincts before which our mortal nature
    Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 9
  32. Hence, in a season of calm weather,
    Though inland far we be,
    Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
    Which brought us hither,
    Can in a moment travel thither,
    And see the children sport upon the shore,
    And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 9
  33. Though nothing can bring back the hour
    Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 10
  34. In the faith that looks through death,
    In years that bring the philosophic mind.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 10
  35. To me the meanest flower that blows can give
    Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
     
    ‘Ode. Intimations of Immortality’ (1807) st. 11
  36. Stern daughter of the voice of God!
    O Duty!
     
    ‘Ode to Duty’ (1807)
  37. Plain living and high thinking are no more:
    The homely beauty of the good old cause
    Is gone.
     
    ‘O friend! I know not which way I must look’ (1807); see Milton
  38. Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee,
    And was the safeguard of the West.
     
    ‘On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic’ (1807)
  39. The harvest of a quiet eye
    That broods and sleeps on his own heart.
     
    ‘A Poet's Epitaph’ (1800)
  40. The statue stood
    Of Newton, with his prism, and silent face:
    The marble index of a mind for ever
    Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.
     
    The Prelude (1850) bk. 3, l. 60
  41. A day
    Spent in a round of strenuous idleness.
     
    The Prelude (1850) bk. 4, l. 377
  42. I thought of Chatterton, the marvellous boy,
    The sleepless soul that perished in its pride.
     
    ‘Resolution and Independence’ (1807) st. 7
  43. We poets in our youth begin in gladness;
    But thereof comes in the end despondency and madness.
     
    ‘Resolution and Independence’ (1807) st. 7
  44. Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;
    The Form remains, the Function never dies.
     
    ‘The River Duddon’ (1820) no. 34 ‘After-Thought’
  45. We feel that we are greater than we know.
     
    ‘The River Duddon’ (1820) no. 34 ‘After-Thought’
  46. The good old rule
    Sufficeth them, the simple plan,
    That they should take who have the power,
    And they should keep who can.
     
    ‘Rob Roy's Grave’ (1807) l. 37
  47. Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned,
    Mindless of its just honours; with this key
    Shakespeare unlocked his heart.
     
    ‘Scorn not the Sonnet’ (1827); see Browning
  48. She dwelt among the untrodden ways
    Beside the springs of Dove,
    A maid whom there were none to praise
    And very few to love.
     
    ‘She dwelt among the untrodden ways’ (1800)
  49. A violet by a mossy stone
    Half hidden from the eye!
     
    ‘She dwelt among the untrodden ways’ (1800)
  50. She lived unknown, and few could know
    When Lucy ceased to be;
    But she is in her grave, and, oh,
    The difference to me!
     
    ‘She dwelt among the untrodden ways’ (1800)
  51. She was a phantom of delight.
    title of poem (1807)
  52. And now I see with eye serene
    The very pulse of the machine;
    A being breathing thoughtful breath.
     
    ‘She was a phantom of delight’ (1807)
  53. A perfect woman; nobly planned,
    To warn, to comfort, and command.
     
    ‘She was a phantom of delight’ (1807)
  54. She seemed a thing that could not feel
    The touch of earthly years.
     
    ‘A slumber did my spirit seal’ (1800)
  55. O Man! that from thy fair and shining youth
    Age might but take the things Youth needed not!
     
    ‘The Small Celandine’ (1807)
  56. Behold her, single in the field,
    Yon solitary Highland lass!
     
    ‘The Solitary Reaper’ (1807)
  57. For old, unhappy, far-off things,
    And battles long ago.
     
    ‘The Solitary Reaper’ (1807)
  58. What, you are stepping westward?
     
    ‘Stepping Westward’ (1807)
  59. Surprised by joy—impatient as the wind.
     
    ‘Surprised by joy—impatient as the wind’ (1815)
  60. But how could I forget thee? Through what power,
    Even for the least division of an hour,
    Have I been so beguiled as to be blind
    To my most grievous loss?
     
    ‘Surprised by joy—impatient as the wind’ (1815)
  61. One impulse from a vernal wood
    May teach you more of man,
    Of moral evil and of good,
    Than all the sages can.
     
    ‘The Tables Turned’ (1798); see Bernard
  62. Our meddling intellect
    Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
    We murder to dissect.
     
    ‘The Tables Turned’ (1798)
  63. O blithe new-comer! I have heard,
    I hear thee and rejoice:
    O Cuckoo! Shall I call thee bird,
    Or but a wandering voice?
     
    ‘To the Cuckoo’ (1807)
  64. Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
    And love, and man's unconquerable mind.
     
    ‘To Toussaint L'Ouverture’ (1807)
  65. A simple child, dear brother Jim,
    That lightly draws its breath,
    And feels its life in every limb,
    What should it know of death?
     
    ‘We are Seven’ (1798)
  66. The world is too much with us; late and soon,
    Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.
     
    ‘The world is too much with us’ (1807)
  67. Great God! I'd rather be
    A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
    So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
    Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
    Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
    Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
     
    ‘The world is too much with us’ (1807)
  68. It may be safely affirmed, that there neither is, nor can be, any essential difference between the language of prose and metrical composition.
    Lyrical Ballads (1800) preface
  69. Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.
    Lyrical Ballads (2nd ed., 1802) preface
  70. Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science.
    Lyrical Ballads (2nd ed., 1802) preface
  71. Never forget what I believe was observed to you by Coleridge, that every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished.
    letter to Lady Beaumont, 21 May 1807
  72. I never see a flower that pleases me, but I wish for you.
    letter to his wife Mary, 1810