I am not one of those, &c

I am not One who much or oft delightTo season my fireside with personal talk,—Of Friends, who live within an easy walk,Or Neighbours, daily, weekly, in my sight:And, for my chance-acquaintance, Ladies bright,Sons, Mothers, Maidens withering on the stalk,These all wear out of me, like Forms, with chalkPainted on rich men's floors, for one feast-night.Better than such discourse doth silence long,Long, barren silence, square with my desire;To sit without emotion, hope, or aim,In the lov'd presence of my cottage-fire,And listen to the flapping of the flame,Or kettle, whispering its faint undersong.

"Yet life," you say, "is life; we have seen and see,And with a living pleasure we describe;And fits of sprightly malice do but bribeThe languid mind into activity.Sound sense, and love itself, and mirth and glee,Are fostered by the comment and the gibe."Even be it so: yet still among your tribe,Our daily world's true Worldlings, rank not me!Children are blest, and powerful; their world liesMore justly balanced; partly at their feet,And part far from them:—sweetest melodiesAre those that are by distance made more sweet;Whose mind is but the mind of his own eyesHe is a Slave; the meanest we can meet!

Wings have we,—and as far as we can goWe may find pleasure: wilderness and wood,Blank ocean and mere sky, support that moodWhich with the lofty sanctifies the low:Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,Are a substantial world, both pure and good:Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,Our pastime and our happiness will grow.There do I find a never-failing storeOf personal themes, and such as I love best;Matter wherein right voluble I am:Two will I mention, dearer than the rest;The gentle Lady, married to the Moor;And heavenly Una with her milk-white Lamb.

Nor can I not believe but that herebyGreat gains are mine: for thus I live remoteFrom evil-speaking; rancour, never sought,Comes to me not; malignant truth, or lie.Hence have I genial seasons, hence have ISmooth passions, smooth discourse, and joyous thought:And thus from day to day my little BoatRocks in its harbour, lodging peaceably.Blessings be with them—and eternal praise,Who gave us nobler loves, and nobler cares,The Poets, who on earth have made us HeirsOf truth and pure delight by heavenly lays!Oh! might my name be numbered among theirs,Then gladly would I end my mortal days.