"Sonnet IX" from Miscellaneous Sonnets

By William Wordsworth

William Wordsworth was an early romantic poet whose poetry sought to capture the basic feelings of the human heart in ordinary everyday language.

Not Love, not War nor the tumultous swell
Of civil conflict, nor the wrecks of change,
Nor Duty struggling with afflictions strange - 
Not these alone inspire the tuneful shell

But where untroubled peace and concord dwell,
There also the Muse is not loth to range, 
Watching the twilight smoke of cot or grange
Skyward ascending from a woody dell.

Meek aspirations please her, lone endeavor,
And sage content and placid melancholy;
She loves to gaze upon a crystal river - 
Diaphanous because it travels slowly;

Soft is the music that would charm forever
The flower of sweetest smell is shy and lowly.