Nature
"Shall he who gives his days to low pursuits"
From Poetical Works, ed. Knight (1896), vol. VIII
Shall he who gives his days to low pursuits
Amid the undistinguishable crowd
Of cities, ’mid the same eternal flow
Of the same objects, melted and reduced
To one identity, by differences
That have no law, no meaning, and no end,
Shall he feel yearning to those lifeless forms,
And shall we think that Nature is less kind
To those, who all day long, through a busy life,
Have walked within her sight? It cannot be.
Codex Note
Composed 1802 (Knight). Fragment from Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, related to passages in The Prelude.
Cite this poem
MLA
Wordsworth, William. “"Shall he who gives his days to low pursuits".” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wordsworth/908/.
Chicago
Wordsworth, William. “"Shall he who gives his days to low pursuits".” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wordsworth/908/.
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