English Interlude

Here are some lines from Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey," most of which I knew and could quote back during the Wanczytron era. They (the bolded) were sort of my early-college slogan (important to note that Holy Cross was extremely hilly). Now that I read them again in context, they seem even better.

"While here I stand, not only with the sense
Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts
That in this moment there is life and food
For future years. And so I dare to hope,
Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first
I came among these hills, when like a roe
I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides
Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,
Wherever nature led: more like a man
Flying from something that he dreads, than one
Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then
(The coarser pleasures of my boyish days,
And their glad animal movements all gone by)
To me was all in all--I cannot paint
What then I was.
_____

I mean, I can kinda paint what then I was, but I take W's point.