William Wordsworth: Gipsies

W i l l i a m   W o r d s w o r t h

(1770-1850)

 

G i p s i e s

 

Yet are they here?–the same unbroken knot

Of human Beings, in the self-same spot!

Men, Women, Children, yea the frame

Of the whole Spectacle the same!

Only their fire seems bolder, yielding light:

Now deep and red, the colouring of night;

That on their Gipsy-faces falls,

Their bed of straw and blanket-walls.

–Twelve hours, twelve bounteous hours, are gone while I

Have been a Traveller under open sky,

Much witnessing of change and chear,

Yet as I left I find them here!

 

The weary Sun betook himself to rest.

–Then issued Vesper from the fulgent West,

Outshining like a visible God

The glorious path in which he trod.

And now, ascending, after one dark hour,

And one night’s diminution of her power,

Behold the mighty Moon! this way

She looks as if at them–but they

Regard not her:–oh better wrong and strife,

Better vain deeds or evil than such life!

The silent Heavens have goings on;

The stars have tasks–but these have none.

William Wordsworth poetry

kempis poetry magazine

More in: Wordsworth, William