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1 " Duty were our games. "
― William Wordsworth , The Prelude
2 " Go to the poets, they will speak to theeMore perfectly of purer creatures-- "
3 " Here must thou be, O man,Strength to thyself — no helper hast thou here —Here keepest thou thy individual state:No other can divide with thee this work,No secondary hand can interveneTo fashion this ability. 'Tis thine,The prime and vital principle is thineIn the recesses of thy nature, farFrom any reach of outward fellowship,Else 'tis not thine at all. "
4 " Bliss it was in that dawn to be aliveBut to be young was very heaven. "
5 " I had melancholy thoughts...a strangeness in my mind,A feeling that I was not for that hour,Nor for that place. "
6 " The earth was all before me. With a heartJoyous, nor scared at its own liberty,I look about; and should the chosen guideBe nothing better than a wandering cloud,I cannot miss my way. "
7 " And I was taught to feel, perhaps too much,The self-sufficing power of solitude. "
8 " Feeling comes in aid Of feeling, and diversity of strength Attends us, if but once we have been strong. "
9 " Mighty is the charmOf these abstractions to a mind besetWith images, and haunted by herselfAnd specially delightful unto meWas that clear synthesis built up aloftSo gracefully. "
10 " But that nightWhen on my bed I lay, I was most mov'dAnd felt most deeply in what world I was;With unextinguish'd taper I kept watch,Reading at intervals "