William Wordsworth: Ode

William Wordsworth (1770 - 1859): Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. (1807)

Indledningen til en vemodig sang om affortryllelsen af verden.

Digtere i den romantiske periode stræbte efter at genvinde denne oprindelige tilstand af enhed med naturen - og med det barnlige i mennesket.

 

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.

(...)