English poem
“The Unremitting Voice Of Nightly Streams”
Composed 1846.--Published 1850
One of the “Poems of Sentiment and Reflection.”--ED.
The unremitting voice of nightly streams That wastes so oft, we think, its tuneful powers, If neither soothing to the worm that gleams Through dewy grass, nor small birds hushed in bowers, Nor unto silent leaves and drowsy flowers,-- That voice of unpretending harmony (For who what is shall measure by what seems To be, or not to be, Or tax high Heaven with prodigality?) Wants not a healing influence that can creep Into the human breast, and mix with sleep To regulate the motion of our dreams For kindly issues--as through every clime Was felt near murmuring brooks in earliest time; As at this day, the rudest swains who dwell Where torrents roar, or hear the tinkling knell Of water-breaks, with grateful heart could tell.
Hamlet, act III. scene i. l. 56.--ED.
More by William Wordsworth
- “The Rains At Length Have Ceas’D, The Winds Are Still’D”
- “The Roman Consul Doomed His Sons To Die”
- “The Scottish Broom On Bird-Nest Brae”[392]
- “The Snow-Tracks Of My Friends I See”
- “These Vales Were Saddened With No Common Gloom”
- “They Call It Love Lies Bleeding! Rather Say”
- “Though The Bold Wings Of Poesy Affect”
- “Though To Give Timely Warning And Deter”