A Night Thought

by William Wordsworth

A Night Thought is a short, yet provocative lyric poem in which Wordsworth cloaks us in his night sky. Wordsworth, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge launched the Romantic Age in English literature with Lyrical Ballads (1798).


Lo! where the Moon along the sky
Sails with her happy destiny;
Oft is she hid from mortal eye
Or dimly seen,
But when the clouds asunder fly
How bright her mien!

Far different we--a froward race,
Thousands though rich in Fortune's grace
With cherished sullenness of pace
Their way pursue, 
Ingrates who wear a smileless face
The whole year through.

If kindred humours e'er would make
My spirit droop for drooping's sake,
From Fancy following in thy wake,
Bright ship of heaven!
A counter impulse let me take
And be forgiven.

This poem is featured in our selection of 100 Great Poems.

8.6

Add A Night Thought to your library.

Return to the William Wordsworth library , or . . . Read the next poem; Daffodils