THE gentlest Shade that walked Elysian plains <br />Might sometimes covet dissoluble chains; <br />Even for the tenants of the zone that lies <br />Beyond the stars, celestial Paradise, <br />Methinks 'twould heighten joy, to overleap <br />At will the crystal battlements, and peep <br />Into some other region, though less fair, <br />To see how things are made and managed there. <br />Change for the worse might please, incursion bold <br />Into the tracts of darkness and of cold; <br />O'er Limbo lake with aery flight to steer, <br />And on the verge of Chaos hang in fear. <br />Such animation often do I find, <br />Power in my breast, wings growing in my mind, <br />Then, when some rock or hill is overpast, <br />Perhance without one look behind me cast. <br />Some barrier with which Nature, from the birth <br />Of things, has fenced this fairest spot on earth. <br />O pleasant transit, Grasmere! to resign <br />Such happy fields, abodes so calm as thine; <br />Not like an outcast with himself at strife; <br />The slave of business, time, or care for life, <br />But moved by choice; or, if constrained in part, <br />Yet still with Nature's freedom at the heart;-- <br />To cull contentment upon wildest shores, <br />And luxuries extract from bleakest moors; <br />With prompt embrace all beauty to enfold, <br />And having rights in all that we behold. <br />--Then why these lingering steps?--A bright adieu, <br />For a brief absence, proves that love is true; <br />Ne'er can the way be irksome or forlorn <br />That winds into itself for sweet return.<br /><br />William Wordsworth<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/memorials-of-a-tour-in-scotland-1803-i-departure-from-the-vale-of-grasmere-august-1803/
