Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.
The SkepticWilliam Wordsworth (17701850)
(See full text.)
I
That which is veiled from waking thought; conjured
Eternity, as men constrain a ghost
To appear and answer. Then my soul
Turned inward, to examine of what stuff
Time’s fetters are composed; and life was put
To inquisition, long and profitless.
By pain of heart,—now checked, and now impelled,
The Intellectual Power, through words and things,
Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way!