Читать книгу Graded Literature Readers: Fourth Book - Various - Страница 16

Table of Contents

By William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth (1770–1850): An English poet. He found poetry in the simplest scenes and incidents of everyday life, and helped others to see the beauty of nature, to reverence God, and to sympathize with even the lowliest of their fellowmen. "Intimations of Immortality," "Laodamia," "The Excursion," and "The Prelude" are among the best of his longer poems.

Sporting with the leaves that fall

That way look, my infant, lo!

What a pretty baby show!

See the kitten on the wall,

Sporting with the leaves that fall,

Withered leaves—one, two, and three—

From the lofty elder tree!

Through the calm and frosty air

Of this morning bright and fair,

Eddying round and round they sink

Softly, slowly: one might think,

From the motions that are made,

Every little leaf conveyed

Sylph or fairy hither tending,

To this lower world descending,

Each invisible and mute,

In his wavering parachute.

But the kitten, how she starts,

Crouches, stretches, paws, and darts!

First at one, and then its fellow,

Just as light and just as yellow;

There are many now—now one—

Now they stop and there are none:

What intenseness of desire

In her upward eye of fire!

With a tiger-leap, half-way

Now she meets the coming prey,

Lets it go as fast, and then

Has it in her power again:

Now she works with three or four,

Like an Indian conjurer;

Quick as he in feats of art,

Far beyond in joy of heart.

Ĕd´dy̆ ĭng: moving in a circle. Cŏn ve̱yed´: carried. Sylph: a fairy. Păr´ȧ çhṳte: a sort of umbrella by means of which descent is made from a balloon. Cȯn´jŭr ẽr: magician. Fēats: tricks.