Date: 1807

"For oft when on my couch I lie / In vacant or in pensive mood, / They [the daffodils] flash upon that inward eye / which is the bliss of solitude."

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)

Date: 1807

"Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart."

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)

Date: 1810

"If words be not (recurring to a metaphor before used) an incarnation of the thought but only a clothing for it, then surely will they prove an ill gift; such a one as those poisoned vestments, read of in the stories of superstitious times, which had power to consume and to alienate from his righ...

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)

Date: w. 1798-1800, 1814

"To these emotions, whencesoe'er they come, / Whether from breath of outward circumstance, / Or from the Soul--an impulse to herself-- / I would give utterance in numerous verse."

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)

Date: w. 1798-1800, 1814

"Of the individual Mind that keeps her own / Inviolate retirement, subject there / To Conscience only, and the law supreme / Of that Intelligence which governs all."

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)

Date: w. 1798-1800, 1814

"Not Chaos, not / The darkest pit of lowest Erebus, / Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out / By help of dreams--can breed such fear and awe / As fall upon us often when we look / Into our Minds, into the Mind of Man-- / My haunt, and the main region of my song."

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)

Date: w. 1798-1800, 1814

"How exquisitely the individual Mind / (And the progressive powers perhaps no less / Of the whole species) to the external World / Is fitted:--and how exquisitely, too-- / Theme this but little heard of among men-- / The external World is fitted to the Mind."

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)

Date: w. 1795-1796, first published 1842

"In these my lonely wanderings I perceived / What mighty objects do impress their forms / To elevate our intellectual being."

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)

Date: 1850

Imagination is "reason in her most exalted mood"

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)

Date: 1850

"This faculty [Imagination/Reason] hath been the feeding source / Of our long labour: we have traced the stream / From the blind cavern whence is faintly heard /Its natal murmur; followed it to light / And open day"

— Wordsworth, William (1770-1850)