William Wordsworth Quotes

411 Sourced Quotes

Yet sometimes, when the secret cup
Of still and serious thought went round,
It seemed as if he drank it up,
He felt with spirit so profound.

William Wordsworth
To be a Prodigal's favourite,—then, worse truth,
A Miser's pensioner,—behold our lot!

William Wordsworth
Departing summer hath assumed
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy shade
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,
A timely carolling.

William Wordsworth
Since thy return, through days and weeks
Of hope that grew by stealth,
How many wan and faded cheeks
Have kindled into health!
The Old, by thee revived, have said,
'Another year is ours;'
And wayworn Wanderers, poorly fed,
Have smiled upon thy flowers.

William Wordsworth
Enough, if something from our hands have power
To live, and act, and serve the future hour.

William Wordsworth
He sang of love, with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;
Of serious faith, and inward glee;
That was the song,—the song for me!

William Wordsworth
The thought of death sits easy on the man Who has been born and dies among the mountains.

William Wordsworth
As if the man had fixed his face,
In many a solitary place,
Against the wind and open sky!

William Wordsworth
Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?

William Wordsworth
The gentle Lady married to the Moor,
And heavenly Una with her milk-white lamb.

William Wordsworth
Prompt to move but firm to wait - knowing things rashly sought are rarely found.

William Wordsworth
Some happy tone
Of meditation, slipping in between
The beauty coming and the beauty gone.

William Wordsworth
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.

William Wordsworth
And oft I thought (my fancy was-so strong)
That I, at last, a resting-place had found:
'Here: will I dwell,' said I,' my whole life long,
Roaming the illimitable waters round;
Here will I live, of all but heaven disowned.
And end my days upon the peaceful flood—
To break my dream the vessel reached its bound;
And homeless near a thousand homes I stood,
And near a thousand tables pined and wanted food.

William Wordsworth
I've watched you now a full half-hour; Self-poised upon that yellow flower And, little Butterfly! Indeed I know not if you sleep or feed. How motionless! - not frozen seas More motionless! and then What joy awaits you, when the breeze Hath found you out among the trees, And calls you forth again!

William Wordsworth
Meek Nature's evening comment on the shows
That for oblivion take their daily birth
From all the fuming vanities of earth.

William Wordsworth
Though fallen thyself, never to rise again,
Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind
Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies;
There's not a breathing of the common wind
That will forget thee; thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.

William Wordsworth
I listened, motionless and still;
And, as I mounted up the hill,
The music in my heart I bore,
Long after it was heard no more.

William Wordsworth
And often, glad no more,
We wear a face of joy because
We have been glad of yore.

William Wordsworth
Leaving the tumultuous throng,
To cut across the reflex of a star;
Image, that, flying still before me, gleamed
Upon the glassy plain.

William Wordsworth
If thou art beautiful, and youth and thought endue thee with all truth-be strong;--be worthy of the grace of God.

William Wordsworth
Fair seedtime had my soul, and I grew up
Fostered alike by beauty and by fear.

William Wordsworth
We have no knowledge, that is, no general principles drawn from the contemplation of particular facts, but what has been built up by pleasure, and exists in us by pleasure alone. The Man of science, the Chemist and Mathematician, whatever difficulties and disgusts they may have had to struggle with, know and feel this.

William Wordsworth
Often have I sighed to measure
By myself a lonely pleasure,—
Sighed to think I read a book,
Only read, perhaps, by me.

William Wordsworth
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

William Wordsworth