I can’t help but close by sharing one of the poems we listened to at Rydal Mount. I hope that blog readers will take heed. Read it slowly. Read it aloud. I hope the words may move you as much as they do me, even now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"There was a Boy\"--William Wordsworth\n\nThere was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs\nAnd islands of Winander! many a time,\nAt evening, when the earliest stars began\nTo move along the edges of the hills,\nRising or setting, would he stand alone,\nBeneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake;\nAnd there, with fingers interwoven, both hands\nPressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth\nUplifted, he, as through an instrument,\nBlew mimic hootings to the silent owls\nThat they might answer him.\u2014And they would shout\nAcross the watery vale, and shout again,\nResponsive to his call,\u2014with quivering peals,\nAnd long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud\nRedoubled and redoubled; concourse wild\nOf jocund din! And, when there came a pause\nOf silence such as baffled his best skill:\nThen, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung\nListening, a gentle shock of mild surprise\nHas carried far into his heart the voice\nOf mountain-torrents; or the visible scene\nWould enter unawares into his mind\nWith all its solemn imagery, its rocks,\nIts woods, and that uncertain heaven received\nInto the bosom of the steady lake.\n\nThis boy was taken from his mates, and died\nIn childhood, ere he was full twelve years old.\nPre-eminent in beauty is the vale\nWhere he was born and bred: the churchyard hangs\nUpon a slope above the village-school;\nAnd through that churchyard when my way has led\nOn summer-evenings, I believe that there\nA long half-hour together I have stood\nMute\u2014looking at the grave in which he lies!<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I love William Wordsworth (1770-1850). I didn’t think I would be devoting an entire blog post to him. In my undergraduate days as an English major I encountered him only in passing, in a British Literature survey course that I have little memory of. In those days my attention was on 20th century American writers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[62,59,61],"class_list":["post-372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lake-district","tag-helm-crag","tag-lake-district","tag-william-wordsworth"],"yoast_head":"\n