THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH - VOL. 2 (Completed)

THE OAK AND THE BROOM

A PASTORAL

Composed 1800.--Published 1800

[Suggested upon the mountain pathway that leads from Upper Rydal to Grasmere. The ponderous block of stone, which is mentioned in the poem, remains, I believe, to this day, a good way up Nab-Scar. Broom grows under it, and in many places on the side of the precipice.--I.F.]

One of the "Poems of the Fancy."--Ed.

I

His simple truths did Andrew glean

Beside the babbling rills;

A careful student he had been

Among the woods and hills.

One winter's night, when through the trees

The wind was roaring, [1] on his knees

His youngest born did Andrew hold:

And while the rest, a ruddy quire,

Were seated round their blazing fire,

This Tale the Shepherd told.

II

"I saw a crag, a lofty stone

As ever tempest beat!

Out of its head an Oak had grown,

A Broom out of its feet.

The time was March, a cheerful noon-

The thaw wind, with the breath of June,

Breathed gently from the warm south-west:

When, in a voice sedate with age,

This Oak, a giant and a sage, [2]

His neighbour thus addressed:--

III