William Wordsworth: Ode
William Wordsworth (1770 - 1859): Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. (1807)
Indledningen til en vemodig sang om den affortryllelse af verden, der ofte foregår, når man bliver voksen. Det er denne oprindelige tilstand af enhed med alt - jord og himmel - som romantikerne stræbte efter at genvinde.
I dette digt virker det som om fortælleren har resigneret.
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight
To me did seem
Clad in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it had been of yore -
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
The rainbow comes and goes,
And lovely is the rose;
The moon does with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there has past away a glory from the earth.
(...)