Lines composed a few miles above

Tintern Abbey

For I have learned To look upon nature, not as in the hour Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes

The still, sad music of humanity, Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power

To chasten and subdue. And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy

Of elevated thoughts; 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:

A motion and a spirit that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought,

And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still A lover of the meadows and the woods,

And mountains; and of all that we behold From this green earth;

of all the mighty world Of eye, and ear, -both what they half create, And what perceive;

well pleased to recognize In nature and the language of the sense

The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,

The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul Of all my moral being.

 William Wordsworth July 13, 1798

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