William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.
Personal Talk, IWilliam Wordsworth (17701850)
I
To season my fireside with personal talk.—
Of friends, who live within an easy walk,
Or neighbours, daily, weekly, in my sight:
And, for my chance-acquaintance, ladies bright,
Sons, mothers, maidens, withering on the stalk,
These all wear out of me, like form with chalk
Painted on rich men’s floors for one feast-night.
Better than such discourse doth silence long,
Long, barren silence, square with my desire;
To sit without emotion, hope, or aim,
In the loved presence of my cottage-fire,
And listen to the flapping of the flame,
Or kettle whispering its faint undersong.