The Tables Turned

William Wordsworth · 1798

Catalog grade guidance: 6–8 — Companion lyric; nature as teacher.

33 content lines · 201 words · Est. recitation about 2 min (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Project Gutenberg #9622.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

THE TABLES TURNED; AN EVENING SCENE, ON THE SAME SUBJECT.


    Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks,
    Why all this toil and trouble?
    Up! up! my friend, and quit your books,
    Or surely you’ll grow double.

    The sun above the mountain’s head,
    A freshening lustre mellow,
    Through all the long green fields has spread,
    His first sweet evening yellow.

    Books! ’tis a dull and endless strife,
    Come, hear the woodland linnet,
    How sweet his music; on my life
    There’s more of wisdom in it.

    And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
    And he is no mean preacher;
    Come forth into the light of things,
    Let Nature be your teacher.

    She has a world of ready wealth,
    Our minds and hearts to bless--
    Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
    Truth breathed by chearfulness.

    One impulse from a vernal wood
    May teach you more of man;
    Of moral evil and of good,
    Than all the sages can.

    Sweet is the lore which nature brings;
    Our meddling intellect
    Misshapes the beauteous forms of things;
    --We murder to dissect.

    Enough of science and of art;
    Close up these barren leaves;
    Come forth, and bring with you a heart
    That watches and receives.