The Prelude

• "One summer evening (led by her) I found

  A little boat tied to a willow tree"
• "Straight I unloosed her chain, and stepping in

  Pushed from the shore. It was an act of stealth"
• "Like one who rows, proud of his skill"
• "She was an elfin pinnace; lustily

  I dipped my oars into the silent lake"
• "... a huge peak, black and huge,

  As if with voluntary power instinct,

  Upreared its head ... "
• "With trembling oars I turned"
• "There in her mooring-place I left my bark"
• "... my brain

  Worked with a dim and undetermined sense

  Of unknown modes of being"
• "Huge and mighty forms, that do not live

  Like living men ..."
• "... No familiar shapes

  Remained, no pleasant images of trees,

  Of sea or sky, no colours of green fields;"