The Prelude, 1805. From Book Sixth: Cambridge and the Alps
The Crossing of the Alps; supplements Broadview extract (282-283)
From The Prelude 1799, 1805, 1850, ed. Wordsworth, Abrams, and Gill (Norton, 1979). Line numbers to the right correspond to 1850 version; line numbers to the left refer to the 1805 version reproduced here. Page numbers given in brackets refer to the Norton edition.
{P 212}
'Tis not my present purpose to retrace
That variegated journey step by step; [490]
A march it was of military speed,
And earth did change her images and forms
{L 430} Before us fast as clouds are changed in heaven.
Day after day, up early and down late,
From vale to vale, from hill to hill we went, [495]
From province on to province did we pass,
Keen hunters in a chace of fourteen weeks --
{L 435} Eager as birds of prey, or as a ship
Upon the stretch when winds are blowing fair.
Sweet coverts did we cross of pastoral life, [500]
Enticing vallies -- greeted them, and left
Too soon, while yet the very flash and gleam
{L 440} Of salutation were not passed away.
Oh, sorrow for the youth who could have seen
Unchastened, unsubdued, unawed, unraised [505]
To patriarchal dignity of mind
And pure simplicity of wish and will,
{L 445} Those sanctified abodes of peaceful man. [508]
My heart leaped up when first I did look down
On that which was first seen of those deep haunts,
A green recess, an aboriginal vale,
Quiet, and lorded over and possessed [510]
{L 450} By naked huts, wood-built, and sown like tents
Or Indian cabins over the fresh lawns
And by the river-side.
That day we first
Beheld the summit of Mount Blanc, and grieved [515]
To have a soulless image on the eye
{L 455} Which had usurped upon a living thought
That never more could be. The wondrous Vale
Of Chamouny did, on the following dawn,
With its dumb cataracts and streams of ice -- [530]
A motionless array of mighty waves,
{L 460} Five rivers broad and vast -- make rich amends,
And reconciled us to realities.
{P 214}
There small birds warble from the leafy trees,
The eagle soareth in the element, [535]
There doth the reaper bind the yellow sheaf,
{L 465} The maiden spread the haycock in the sun,
While Winter like a tamed lion walks,
Descending from the mountain to make sport
Among the cottages by beds of flowers. [540]
Whate'er in this wide circuit we beheld
{L 470} Or heard was fitted to our unripe state
Of intellect and heart. By simple strains
Of feeling, the pure breath of real life,
We were not left untouched. With such a book
Before our eyes we could not chuse but read
{L 475} A frequent lesson of sound tenderness, [545]
The universal reason of mankind,
The truth of young and old. Nor, side by side
Pacing, two brother pilgrims, or alone
{L 480} Each with his humour, could we fail to abound --
Craft this which hath been hinted at before
In dreams and fictions pensively composed: [550]
Dejection taken up for pleasure's sake,
And gilded sympathies, the willow wreath,
Even among those solitudes sublime,
{L 485} And sober posies of funereal flowers,
Culled from the gardens of the Lady Sorrow, [555]
Did sweeten many a meditative hour.
Yet still in me, mingling with these delights,
Was something of stern mood, an under-thirst
{L 490} Of vigour, never utterly asleep. [559]
Far different dejection once was mine --
A deep and genuine sadness then I felt --
The circumstances I will here relate
Even as they were. Upturning with a band
{L 495} Of travellers, from the Valais we had clomb
Along the road that leads to Italy;
A length of hours, making of these our guides,
Did we advance, and, having reached an inn
Among the mountains, we together ate [565]
{L 500} Our noon's repast, from which the travellers rose
Leaving us at the board. Erelong we followed,
Descending by the beaten road that led
Right to a rivulet's edge, and there broke off;
The only track now visible was one [570]
{P 216}
{L 505} Upon the further side, right opposite,
And up a lofty mountain. This we took,
After a little scruple and short pause,
And climbed with eagerness -- though not, at length, [575]
Without surprize and some anxiety
{L 510} On finding that we did not overtake
Our comrades gone before. By fortunate chance,
While every moment now encreased our doubts,
A peasant met us, and from him we learned
That to the place which had perplexed us first [580]
{L 515} We must descend, and there should find the road
Which in the stony channel of the stream
Lay a few steps, and then along its banks --
And further, that thenceforward all our course
Was downwards with the current of that stream. [585]
{L 520} Hard of belief, we questioned him again,
And all the answers which the man returned
To our inquiries, in their sense and substance
Translated by the feelings which we had, [590]
Ended in this -- that we had crossed the Alps.
{L 525} Imagination! -- lifting up itself
Before the eye and progress of my song
Like an unfathered vapour, here that power, [595]
In all the might of its endowments, came
Athwart me. I was lost as in a cloud,
{L 530} Halted without a struggle to break through,
And now, recovering, to my soul I say
'I recognise thy glory'. In such strength
Of usurpation, in such visitings
Of awful promise, when the light of sense [600]
{L 535} Goes out in flashes that have shewn to us
The invisible world, doth greatness make abode,
There harbours whether we be young or old.
Our destiny, our nature, and our home,
Is with infinitude -- and only there; [605]
{L 540} With hope it is, hope that can never die,
Effort, and expectation, and desire,
And something evermore about to be.
The mind beneath such banners militant
Thinks not of spoils or trophies, nor of aught [610]
{L 545} That may attest its prowess, blest in thoughts
That are their own perfection and reward --
{P 218}
Strong in itself, and in the access of joy
Which hides it like the overflowing Nile.
The dull and heavy slackening which ensued [617]
{L 550} Upon those tidings by the peasant given
Was soon dislodged; downwards we hurried fast,
And entered with the road which we had missed [620]
Into a narrow chasm. The brook and road
Were fellow-travellers in this gloomy pass,
{L 555} And with them did we journey several hours
At a slow step. The immeasurable height
Of woods decaying, never to be decayed, [625]
The stationary blasts of waterfalls,
And everywhere along the hollow rent
{L 560} Winds thwarting winds, bewildered and forlorn,
The torrents shooting from the clear blue sky,
The rocks that muttered close upon our ears -- [630]
Black drizzling crags that spake by the wayside
As if a voice were in them -- the sick sight
{L 565} And giddy prospect of the raving stream,
The unfettered clouds and region of the heavens,
Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light, [635]
Were all like workings of one mind, the features
Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree,
{L 570} Characters of the great apocalypse,
The types and symbols of eternity,
Of first, and last, and midst, and without end. [640]
That night our lodging was an alpine house,
An inn, or hospital (as they are named),
{L 575} Standing in that same valley by itself,
And close upon the confluence of two streams --
A dreary mansion, large beyond all need, [645]
With high and spacious rooms, deafened and stunned
By noise of waters, making innocent sleep
{L 580} Lie melancholy among weary bones.
Document created September 2nd 2011