I called on Darkness—­but before the word
  Was uttered, midnight darkness seemed to take
  All objects from my sight; and lo! again
  The Desert visible by dismal flames; 330
  It is the sacrificial altar, fed
  With living men—­how deep the groans! the voice
  Of those that crowd the giant wicker thrills
  The monumental hillocks, and the pomp
  Is for both worlds, the living and the dead. 335
  At other moments (for through that wide waste
  Three summer days I roamed) where’er the Plain
  Was figured o’er with circles, lines, or mounds, [F]
  That yet survive, a work, as some divine,
  Shaped by the Druids, so to represent 340
  Their knowledge of the heavens, and image forth
  The constellations; gently was I charmed
  Into a waking dream, a reverie
  That, with believing eyes, where’er I turned,
  Beheld long-bearded teachers, with white wands 345
  Uplifted, pointing to the starry sky,
  Alternately, and plain below, while breath
  Of music swayed their motions, and the waste
  Rejoiced with them and me in those sweet sounds.

    This for the past, and things that may be viewed 350
  Or fancied in the obscurity of years
  From monumental hints:  and thou, O Friend! 
  Pleased with some unpremeditated strains
  That served those wanderings to beguile, [G] hast said
  That then and there my mind had exercised 355
  Upon the vulgar forms of present things,
  The actual world of our familiar days,
  Yet higher power; had caught from them a tone,
  An image, and a character, by books
  Not hitherto reflected. [H] Call we this 360
  A partial judgment—­and yet why? for then
  We were as strangers; and I may not speak
  Thus wrongfully of verse, however rude,
  Which on thy young imagination, trained
  In the great City, broke like light from far. 365
  Moreover, each man’s Mind is to herself
  Witness and judge; and I remember well
  That in life’s every-day appearances
  I seemed about this time to gain clear sight
  Of a new world—­a world, too, that was fit 370
  To be transmitted, and to other eyes
  Made visible; as ruled by those fixed laws
  Whence spiritual dignity originates,
  Which do both give it being and maintain
  A balance, an ennobling interchange 375
  Of action from without and from within;
  The excellence, pure function, and best power
  Both of the object seen, and eye that sees.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  Compare ‘Expostulation and Reply’, vol. i. p. 273: