Angling on the Inny

( from Wordsworth's 'poems on the naming of places')



William Wordsworth

Close to the spot where with my rod and line

angling beside the margin of the lake,

Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance

a bed of water in the woods did wake.

The spot was made by nature for herself,

this glade of water and this one green field,

And if a man should plant his cottage near

a cloistered place, of refuge, shade and shield.


In that perennial shade of unencumbered floor

a single beech tree grew and on the fork

a thrush's nest conspicuously built,

Sentry on a tranquil spot, a solitary stork.

From the remotest outskirts of the grove

a few sheep, stragglers from some mountain flock

sought protection from the nipping blast

in playgrounds of their youth, on footloose rock.

Full many an hour here did I lose,

Well worn the track, unwearied and alone,

Muttering the verses which I muttered first

on blooming heath, my couch and mine alone.