Classic Poem

O WOULD that in some wild and winding glen
Where human footstep ne'er did penetrate,
And from the haunts of base and selfish men
Remote, in dreamy loneness situate,
I had my dwelling: and within my ken
Nature desporting in fantastic form —
Asleep in green repose, and thundering in the storm!

Then mine should be a life of deep delight, —
Rare undulations of ecstatic musing;
Thoughts calm, yet ever-varying, stream bedight
With flowers immortal of quick Fancy's choosing —
And like unto the ray of tremulous light,
Blent by the pale moon with the entranced water,
I'd wed thee, Solitude, dear Nature's first-born daughter!