Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
William Wordsworth. 17701850521. 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. |