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PDF “Think you, ’mid all this
mighty sum 25
Of things for ever speaking,
That nothing of itself will come,
But we must still be seeking?
“—Then ask not wherefore, here, alone, Conversing as I may, 30 I sit upon this old grey stone, And dream my time away.”
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FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: In his “Advertisement” to the first edition of “Lyrical Ballads” (1798) Wordsworth writes,
“The lines entitled ‘Expostulation
and Reply’, and those which follow,
arose out of conversation with a friend
who was somewhat unreasonably
attached to modern books of Moral Philosophy.”
Was the friend Sir James Mackintosh? or was it—a much more probable supposition—his friend, S. T. Coleridge?—Ed.]
* * * * *
THE TABLES TURNED
AN EVENING SCENE ON THE SAME SUBJECT
Composed 1798.—Published 1798
Included among the “Poems of Sentiment and Reflection.”—Ed.
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THE POEM
Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you’ll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble? [1]
The sun, above the mountain’s head,
5
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has
spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.
Books! ’tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
10
How sweet his music! on my life,
There’s more of wisdom in it.
And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is [2] no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
15
Let Nature be your Teacher.
She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless—
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.
20
One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can. [A]
Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
25
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:—
We murder to dissect.
Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those [3] barren leaves;
30
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
