"Call we this / But a persuasion taken up by Thee / In friendship; yet the mind is to herself / Witness and judge, and I remember well / That in life's every-day appearances / I seem'd about this period to have sight / Of a new world, a world, too, that was fit / To be transmitted and made visible / To other eyes, as having for its base / That whence our dignity originates, / That which both gives it being and maintains / A balance, an ennobling interchange / Of action from within and from without, / The excellence, pure spirit, and best power / Both of the object seen, and eye that sees."
— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)
Work Title
Date
w. 1805
Metaphor
"Call we this / But a persuasion taken up by Thee / In friendship; yet the mind is to herself / Witness and judge, and I remember well / That in life's every-day appearances / I seem'd about this period to have sight / Of a new world, a world, too, that was fit / To be transmitted and made visible / To other eyes, as having for its base / That whence our dignity originates, / That which both gives it being and maintains / A balance, an ennobling interchange / Of action from within and from without, / The excellence, pure spirit, and best power / Both of the object seen, and eye that sees."
Metaphor in Context
This for the past, and things that may be view'd
Or fancied, in the obscurities of time.
Nor is it, Friend, unknown to thee, at least
Thyself delighted, who for my delight
Hast said, perusing some imperfect verse
Which in that lonesome journey was composed,
That also then I must have exercised
Upon the vulgar forms of present things
And actual world of our familiar days,
A higher power, have caught from them a tone,
An image, and a character, by books
Not hitherto reflected. Call we this
But a persuasion taken up by Thee
In friendship; yet the mind is to herself
Witness and judge, and I remember well
That in life's every-day appearances
I seem'd about this period to have sight
Of a new world, a world, too, that was fit
To be transmitted and made visible
To other eyes, as having for its base
That whence our dignity originates,
That which both gives it being and maintains
A balance, an ennobling interchange
Of action from within and from without,
The excellence, pure spirit, and best power
Both of the object seen, and eye that sees. (XII, ll. 350-378)
Or fancied, in the obscurities of time.
Nor is it, Friend, unknown to thee, at least
Thyself delighted, who for my delight
Hast said, perusing some imperfect verse
Which in that lonesome journey was composed,
That also then I must have exercised
Upon the vulgar forms of present things
And actual world of our familiar days,
A higher power, have caught from them a tone,
An image, and a character, by books
Not hitherto reflected. Call we this
But a persuasion taken up by Thee
In friendship; yet the mind is to herself
Witness and judge, and I remember well
That in life's every-day appearances
I seem'd about this period to have sight
Of a new world, a world, too, that was fit
To be transmitted and made visible
To other eyes, as having for its base
That whence our dignity originates,
That which both gives it being and maintains
A balance, an ennobling interchange
Of action from within and from without,
The excellence, pure spirit, and best power
Both of the object seen, and eye that sees. (XII, ll. 350-378)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Text from The Prelude: or Growth of a Poet's Mind, ed. by Ernest de Selincourt (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1926).
Date of Entry
02/04/2010
