The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

’Tis my delight, alone in summer shade,
To pipe a simple song for thinking hearts.
‘Hart-leap Well’ (1800) pt. 2, l.1
’Tis he whom you so long have lost,
He whom you love, your Idiot Boy.
‘The Idiot Boy’ (1798) l. 370
As her mind grew worse and worse,
Her body—it grew better.
‘The Idiot Boy’ (1798) l. 415
All shod with steel
We hissed along the polished ice, in games
Confederate.
‘Influence of Natural Objects’ (1809) and ‘The Prelude’ (1850) bk. 1, l. 414
Leaving the tumultuous throng
To cut across the reflex of a star;
Image, that flying still before me, gleamed
Upon the glassy plain.
‘Influence of Natural Objects’ (1809)
Yet still the solitary cliffs
Wheeled by me—even as if the earth had rolled
With visible motion her diurnal round!
‘Influence of Natural Objects’ (1809) and ‘The Prelude’ (1850) bk. 1, l. 458
It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a nun,
Breathless with adoration.
‘It is a beauteous evening’ (1807)
Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here
If thou appear untouched by solemn thought,
Thy nature is not therefore less divine.
Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year;
And worshipp’st at the temple’s inner shrine,
God being with thee when we know it not.
‘It is a beauteous evening’ (1807)
It is not to be thought of that the Flood
Of British freedom, which, to the open sea
Of the world’s praise, from dark antiquity
Hath flowed, ‘with pomp of waters, unwithstood’...
Should perish.
‘It is not to be thought of’ (1807)
In our halls is hung