Intimations
of Immortality

The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
The Rainbow conies and goes,
And lovely is the Rose,
The Moon doth with delight
Look round her when the heavens are bare;
Waters on a starry night
Are beautiful and fair;
The sunshine is a glorious birth;
But yet I know, where'er I go,
That there hath past away a glory from the earth.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgettulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

Laugh and the world laughs with you * Where There's A Will * Reading And Writing * Death of Socrates * What is Good? * A Fool's Prayer * We Must Be Equal * There Is No Place Like Home * The Village Blacksmith * Intimations of Immortality *

Some would ask in a sneer upon coming here, "How much wisdom can one learn from a fool, or a blacksmith?" I would respond softly, speaking only from experience that: "I've learned more from a fool working on his knees than from a haughty professor's chilling breeze.

"I tell you, and it is true: There is no simple work, only those that will never recognize genius. You would laugh and think that ANYONE can dig a ditch, and yes, anyone can, but will it stand for centuries like those of the ohokum?

"I watched a simple soul for days and weeks before I understood it all and I treasure still that glorious skill that brought us precious water from spring until fall."

Lin Stone