To be a Prodigal's Favorite--then, worse truth, A Miser's Pensioner--behold our lot! O Man! that from thy fair and shining youth Age might but take the things Youth needed not! 7. I wandered lonely as a Cloud That floats on high o'er Vales and Hills, When all at once I saw a crowd A host of dancing Daffodills; Along the Lake, beneath the trees, Ten thousand dancing in the breeze. The waves beside them danced, but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee:-- A Poet could not but be gay In such a laughing company: 10 I gaz'd--and gaz'd--but little thought What wealth the shew to me had brought: For oft when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude, And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the Daffodils. 8. Who fancied what a pretty sight This Rock would be if edged around With living Snowdrops? circlet bright! How glorious to this Orchard ground! Who loved the little Rock, and set Upon its Head this Coronet? Was it the humour of a Child? Or rather of some love-sick Maid, Whose brows, the day that she was styled The Shepherd Queen, were thus arrayed? Of Man mature, or Matron sage? Or old Man toying with his age? I ask'd--'twas whisper'd, The device To each or all might well belong. It is the Spirit of Paradise That prompts such work, a Spirit strong, That gives to all the self-same bent Where life is wise and innocent. 9. _THE SPARROW'S NEST_. Look, five blue eggs are gleaming there! Few visions have I seen more fair, Nor many prospects of delight More pleasing than that simple sight! I started seeming to espy The home and shelter'd bed, The Sparrow's dwelling, which, hard by My Father's House, in wet or dry, My Sister Emmeline and I Together visited. 10 She look'd at it as if she fear'd it; Still wishing, dreading to be near it: Such heart was in her, being then A little Prattler among men. The Blessing of my later years Was with me when a Boy; She gave me eyes, she gave me ears; And humble cares, and delicate fears; A heart, the fountain of sweet tears; And love, and thought, and joy. 20 10. _GIPSIES_. Yet are they here?--the same unbroken knot Of human Beings, in the self-same spot! Men, Women, Children, yea the frame Of the whole Spectacle the same! Only their fire seems bolder, yielding light: Now deep and red, the colouring of night; That on their Gipsy-faces falls, Their bed of straw and blanket-walls. --Twelve hours, twelve bounteous hours, are gone while I Have been a Traveller under open sky, 10 Much witnessing of change and chear, Yet as I left I find them here!