Wordsworth's dedication

“The Prelude” (1805 text), Book 4, lines 315-345

The episode described here took place during Wordsworth’s vacation from St John’s College, Cambridge, when he was staying at Hawkshead with Anne Tyson. As a child he had boarded with her while at Hawkshead school. The “dear Friend” to whom these lines are addressed was Coleridge.

The memory of one particular hour

Doth here rise up against me. In a throng,

A festal company of Maids and Youths,

Old Men and Matrons staid, promiscuous rout,

A medley of all tempers, I had pass’d

The night in dancing, gaiety and mirth;

With din of instruments, and shuffling feet,

And glancing forms, and tapers glittering,

And unaim’d prattle flying up and down,

Spirits upon the stretch, and here and there

Slight shocks of young love-liking interspersed,

That mounted up like joy into the head,

And tingled through the veins. Ere we retired,

The cock had crow’d, the sky was bright with day.

Two miles I had to walk along the fields

Before I reached my home. Magnificent

The morning was, a memorable pomp,

More glorious than I ever had beheld.

The Sea was laughing at a distance; all

The solid Mountains were as bright as clouds,

Grain-tinctured, drench’d in empyrean light;

And, in the meadows and the lower grounds,

Was all the sweetness of a common dawn,

Dews, vapours, and the melody of birds,

And Labourers going forth into the fields.

- Ah! Need I say, dear Friend, that to the brim

My heart was full; I made no vows, but vows

Were then made for me; bond unknown to me

Was given, that I should be, else sinning greatly,

A dedicated Spirit. On I walk’d

In blessedness, which even yet remains.