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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  521. Evening on Calais Beach

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

William Wordsworth. 1770–1850

521. Evening on Calais Beach

IT is a beauteous evening, calm and free, 
  The holy time is quiet as a Nun 
  Breathless with adoration; the broad sun 
Is sinking down in its tranquillity; 
The gentleness of heaven broods o’er the sea:         5
  Listen! the mighty Being is awake, 
  And doth with his eternal motion make 
A sound like thunder—everlastingly. 
Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here, 
  If thou appear untouch’d by solemn thought,  10
  Thy nature is not therefore less divine: 
Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year; 
  And worshipp’st at the Temple’s inner shrine, 
  God being with thee when we know it not.