I
Latest, earliest of the year,
Primroses that still were here,
Snugly nestling round the boles
...
I found, and plucked, an autumn-blooming rose,
And shut my eyes, and scented all its savour:
When lo! as in the month the blackthorn blows,
...
In the Beginning when, out of darkness,
The Earth, the Heaven,
The stars, the seasons,
The mighty mainland,
...
The Spring-time, O the Spring-time!
Who does not know it well?
When the little birds begin to build,
...
The hills slope down to the valley, the streams run down to the sea,
And my heart, my heart, O far one! sets and strains towards thee.
...
O beautiful bright world! for ever young,
And now with Wisdom grafted on thy Spring,
Why do they slander thee with wailing tongue,
...
Now Winter hath drifted
To bygone years,
And the sod is uplifted
By crocus spears;
...
Here are sad flowers, with wintry weeping wet,
Dews of the dark that drench the violet.
Thus over Her, whom death yet more endears,
...
Wise Wordsworth, to avert your ken,
From half of human fate.
What is there in the ways of men,
...