“Influence of Natural Objects”

by: William Wordsworth

Good short poem for reading aloud. Note especially the brief description phrases which intensify the vividness of a picture.

Consider this passage in which he is describing how he and a friend enjoyed ice-skating when he was a child.

Clear and loud

The village clock tolled six - I wheeled about,

Proud and exulting like an untired horse

That cares not for his home. All shod with steel

He hissed along the polished ice, in games

Confederate, imitative of the chase

And wetland pleasures, – the resounding horn,

The pack loud-chiming, and the hunted hare.

So through the darkness and the cold we flew,

And not a voice was idle: with the din

Smitten, the precipices rang loud;

The leafless trees, and every icy crag

Tinkled like iron; while far-distant hills

Into the tumult sent an alien sound

Of melancholy, not unnoticed, while the stars,

Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west

The orange sky of evening died away.

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