To a mind constituted like that of Mr. Wordsworth, the stream, the torrent, and the stirring leaf--seem not merely to suggest associations of deity, but to be a kind of speaking communication with it. He walks through every forest, as through some Dodona; and every bird that flits among the leaves, like that miraculous one[31] in Tasso, but in language more intelligent, reveals to him far higher lovelays. In his poetry nothing in Nature is dead. Motion is synonymous with life. "Beside yon spring," says the Wanderer, speaking of a deserted well, from which, in former times, a poor woman, who died heart-broken, had been used to dispense refreshment to the thirsty traveller,
----beside yon Spring I stood, And eyed its waters till we seem'd to feel One sadness, they and I. For them a bond Of brotherhood is broken: time has been When, every day, the touch of human hand Dislodged the natural sleep that binds them up In mortal stillness;--p. 27.
With partie coloured plumes and purple bill, A woondrous bird among the rest there flew, That in plaine speech sung love laies loud and shrill, Her leden was like humaine language trew, So much she talkt, and with such wit and skill, That strange it seemed how much good she knew. _Fairefax's Translation_ [Book 16, Stanza 13].
To such a mind, we say--call it strength or weakness--if weakness, assuredly a fortunate one--the visible and audible things of creation present, not dim symbols, or curious emblems, which they have done at all times to those who have been gifted with the poetical faculty; but revelations and quick insights into the life within us, the pledge of immortality:--
----the whispering Air Sends inspiration from the shadowy heights, And blind recesses of the caverned rocks; The little Rills, and Waters numberless, Inaudible by day-light,
"I have seen," the poet says, and the illustration is an happy one:
----I have seen A curious Child [who dwelt upon a tract Of inland ground], applying to his ear The convolutions of a smooth-lipp'd Shell; To which, in silence hushed, his very soul Listened intensely, and his countenance soon Brightened with joy; for murmurings from within Were heard,--sonorous cadences! whereby, To his belief, the Monitor expressed Mysterious union with its native Sea. Even such a Shell the Universe itself Is to the ear of Faith; and [there are times, I doubt not, when to you it] doth impart Authentic tidings of invisible things; Of ebb and flow, and ever during power; And central peace subsisting at the heart Of endless agitation.--p. 191.