In describing nature as connected with, and embodied in, human thoughts and sentiments, Wordsworth’s descriptive power rises with the complexity of the theme. Thus, in the poem of Ruth, we have an example of the perversion of her energizing power: The wind, the tempest roaring high, The tumult of a tropic sky, Might well be dangerous food For him, a youth to whom was given So much of earth—so much of heaven, And such impetuous blood. Whatever in those climes he found Irregular in sight or sound, Did to his mind impart A kindred impulse, seemed allied To his own powers, and justified The workings of his heart. Nor less, to feed voluptuous thought, The beauteous forms of nature wrought, Fair trees and gorgeous flowers; The breezes their own languor lent; _The stars had feelings_, which they sent Into those favored bowers. In another poem, we have an opposite and purer representation of nature’s vital work, in an ideal impersonation which has nothing like it in the language: Three years she grew in sun and shower, Then Nature said, a lovelier flower On earth was never sown; This child I to myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make A lady of my own. Myself will to my darling be Both law and impulse; and with me The girl in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, Shall feel an overseeing power _To kindle or restrain._ She shall be sportive as the fawn, That wild with glee across the lawn, Or up the mountain springs; _And hers shall be the breathing balm,_ _And hers the silence and the calm_ _Of mute insensate things._ The floating clouds their state shall lend To her; for her the willow bend; Nor shall she fail to see Even in the motions of the Storm, Grace that shall mould the maiden’s form By silent sympathy. The stars of midnight shall be dear To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, _And beauty born of murmuring sound_ _Shall pass into her face._