...mansion for all lovely forms, Thy memory be as a dwelling-place For all sweet sounds and harmonies ; 0, then, If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, Should...more can hear Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes thesf gleams Of past existence, — wilt thou then forget That on the banks of this delightful stream...

...forms, Thy memory be as a dwelling-place For all sweet sounds and harmonies ; oh I then, If solitnde, or fear, or pain, or grief, Should be thy portion, with what healing thought* Of tender joy wilt thou remember me, And these my exhortations 1 Nor, perchance. If I should...

...mansion for all lovely forms, Thy memory be as n dwelling-place For all sweet sounds and harmonies ; oh ! then, If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief. Should...should be where I no more can hear Thy voice, nor catch Irom thy wild eyes these gleams Of past existence — wilt th»u then forget That on the banks of this...

..."exhortations," he expresses hope that she will remember this time and him if he should be absent or dead. Nor, perchance, If I should be where I no more can...these gleams Of past existence, wilt thou then forget . . . Memory is the saving grace of maturity: it can knowingly preserve and integrate "past experience,"...

...through their twinned gazes, her future weighted down with the burden of his most precious past: .... Nor, perchance, If I should be, where I no more can...banks of this delightful stream We stood together . . . (PW.2:263) The poem was to haunt her. Years later, bedridden, her sense of past mobility a painful...

...in the preceding paragraph had referred to his past visit, now refer to her conjectured future. "Oh! then, / If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, / Should be thy portion. . . ." But such sufferings, though expressed as conditional, are for all lives inescapable. And if...

...mansion for all lovely forms, Thy memory be as a dwelling-place For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then, If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, Should...these gleams Of past existence - wilt thou then forget 150 That on the banks of this delightful stream We stood together; and that I, so long A worshipper...

...discourse in a series of speculative inquiries concerning their future lives and coming dialogues: //"solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, Should be...remember me, And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance— . . . wilt thou then forget That on the banks of this delightful stream We stood together. (143-46,...

...for all lovely forms, 14n Thy memory be as a dwelling-place For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then, If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, Should...forget That on the banks of this delightful stream 150 We stood together; and that I. so long A worshipper of Nature, hither came Unwearied in that service:...

...he reads it to her now. He wants to make sure that she will not "forget" him (lines 150, 156): Oh! then, If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief, Should...wilt thou remember me, And these my exhortations! (Lines 143-47) But Wordsworth was not dying. He was not going anywhere without her. He was taking a...