| Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song! | |
| And let the young lambs bound | |
| As to the tabor's sound! | |
| We in thought will join your throng, | |
| Ye that pipe and ye that play, | |
| Ye that through your hearts to-day | |
| Feel the gladness of the May! | |
| What though the radiance which was once so bright | |
| Be now for ever taken from my sight, | |
| Though nothing can bring back the hour | |
| Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; | |
| We will grieve not, rather find | |
| Strength in what remains behind; | |
| In the primal sympathy | |
| Which having been must ever be; | |
| In the soothing thoughts that spring | |
| Out of human suffering; | |
| In the faith that looks through death, | |
| In years that bring the philosophic mind. |
William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood