No More Learning

"--Then ask not wherefore, here, alone,
Conversing as I may, 30
I sit upon this old grey stone,
And dream my time away. "


* * * * *

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: In his "Advertisement" to the first edition of "Lyrical
Ballads" (1798) Wordsworth writes,

"The lines entitled 'Expostulation and Reply', and those which follow,
arose out of conversation with a friend who was somewhat unreasonably
attached to modern books of Moral Philosophy. "

Was the friend Sir James Mackintosh? or was it--a much more probable
supposition--his friend, S. T. Coleridge? --Ed. ]





* * * * *





THE TABLES TURNED

AN EVENING SCENE ON THE SAME SUBJECT


Composed 1798. --Published 1798


Included among the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection. "--Ed.


* * * * *

THE POEM


Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?
[1]

The sun, above the mountain's head, 5
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet, 10
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is [2] no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things, 15
Let Nature be your Teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless--
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness. 20

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can. [A]

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; 25
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those [3] barren leaves; 30
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.


* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1820.

Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks,
Why all this toil and trouble?
Up!