William Wordsworth cytaty

strona 4

„Najlepsza część życia ludzkiego to małe, bezimienne i zapomniane akty dobroci i miłości.”

„Sam wędrowałem, jak obłoczek
Często sam płynie przez przestworza,
Gdy nagle widok mnie zaskoczył
Złotych żonkili tłumu, morza;
Od wód jeziora aż po drzewa
Tańczyły – wiatr im w takt powiewał.”

„Poezja bierze początek ze wzruszenia rozpamiętywanego w spokoju.”

„Gdzie stał posąg Newtona, z pryzmatem, w milczeniu. Marmurowy pomnik umysłu, zawsze samotnie podróżującego przez dziwne morza myśli.”

„Nasze narodziny nie są niczym innym niż snem i zapomnieniem.”

„Każda dobra poezja jest spontanicznym wybuchem głębokich uczuć.”

„Podążaj naprzód, do światła rzeczy, pozwól naturze być twoim nauczycielem.”

“Mightier far
Than strength of nerve or sinew, or the sway
Of magic potent over sun and star,
Is Love, though oft to agony distrest,
And though his favorite seat be feeble woman's breast.”

“Thought and theory must precede all action that moves to salutary purposes. Yet action is nobler in itself than either thought or theory.”

“A morbid pleasure nourished, tracing here
An emblem of his own unfruitful life:
And, lifting up his head, he then would gaze
On the more distant scene,—how lovely 'tis
Thou seest,—and he would gaze till it became
Far lovelier, and his heart could not sustain
The beauty, still more beauteous! Nor, that time,
When nature had subdued him to herself,
Would he forget those Beings to whose minds,
Warm from the labours of benevolence,
The world and human life appeared a scene
Of kindred loveliness: then he would sigh,
Inly disturbed, to think that others felt
What he must never feel: and so, lost Man!
On visionary views would fancy feed,
Till his eye streamed with tears. In this deep vale
He died,—this seat his only monument.”

“O Blithe newcomer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?”

“The bane of all that dread the Devil.”

“The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
perfect woman, nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command.”

“The common growth of Mother Earth
Suffices me,—her tears, her mirth,
Her humblest mirth and tears.”

“Huge and mighty forms, that do not live
Like living men, moved slowly through the mind
By day, and were a trouble to my dreams.”

“The human mind is capable of excitement without the application of gross and violent stimulants; and he must have a very faint perception of its beauty and dignity who does not know this.”

“A famous man is Robin Hood,
The English ballad-singer's joy.”

“Babylon,
Learned and wise, hath perished utterly,
Nor leaves her speech one word to aid the sigh
That would lament her.”

“He sang of love, with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;
Of serious faith, and inward glee;
That was the song,—the song for me!”

“A reasoning, self-sufficing thing,
An intellectual All-in-all!”

“A Briton even in love should be
A subject, not a slave!”

“Action is transitory—a step, a blow—
The motion of a muscle—this way or that—
'Tis done; and in the after-vacancy
We wonder at ourselves like men betrayed.”

“The soft blue sky did never melt
Into his heart; he never felt
The witchery of the soft blue sky!”

“Oft on the dappled turf at ease
I sit, and play with similes,
Loose types of things through all degrees.”

“Myriads of daisies have shone forth in flower
Near the lark's nest, and in their natural hour
Have passed away; less happy than the one
That by the unwilling ploughshare died to prove
The tender charm of poetry and love.”

“Surprised by joy—impatient as the Wind.”

“Yon foaming flood seems motionless as ice;
Its dizzy turbulence eludes the eye,
Frozen by distance.”

“My eyes are dim with childish tears,
My heart is idly stirred,
For the same sound is in my ears
Which in those days I heard.

Thus fares it still in our decay:
And yet the wiser mind
Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.”

“Type of the wise who soar, but never roam;
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!”

“A jolly place," said he, "in times of old!
But something ails it now: the spot is cursed.”

“Since every mortal power of Coleridge
Was frozen at its marvellous source,
The rapt one, of the godlike forehead,
The heaven-eyed creature sleeps in earth:
And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle,
Has vanished from his lonely hearth.”

“A few strong instincts and a few plain rules,
Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have wrought
More for mankind at this unhappy day
Then all the pride of intellect and thought?”

“Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way.”

“I travelled among unknown men,
In lands beyond the sea;
Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.”

“Those old credulities, to Nature dear,
Shall they no longer bloom upon the stock
Of history?”

“Whom neither shape of danger can dismay,
Nor thought of tender happiness betray.”