Shades of the Prison-House

Sunday, November 10th, 2024

William Wordsworth

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: 

The soul that rises with us, our life’s star, 

Hath had elsewhere its setting, 

And Cometh from afar; 

Not in entire forgetfulness, 

And not in utter nakedness, 

But trailing clouds of glory do we come 

From God, who is our home: 

Heaven lies about us in out infancy! 

Shades of the prison-house begin to close 

upon the growing boy, 

But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,— 

He sees it in his joy: 

The youth, who daily farther from the east 

Must travel, still is Nature’s priest. 

And by the vision splendid 

Is on his way attended: 

At length the man perceives it die away, 

And fade into the light of common day.

—William Wordsworth, “Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” 

 

When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse 

Out of the corner of my eye 

I turned to look, but it was gone 

I cannot put my finger on it now 

The child is grown, the dream is gone

—Pink Floyd, “Comfortably Numb”

David Gilmour – Comfortably Numb – New York Session – YouTube

 

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