The Prelude by William Wordsworth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I knew C. S. Lewis loved this poem, so I wanted to read it.

I enjoyed the first eight or nine books, which focus on Wordsworth's life and early intellectual growth. Specifically, I really enjoyed the passages where he recounts his youth in the Lake Country, his life at Oxford, a trip he took through Europe during the French Revolution, and a long vacation hiking in the Alps. He makes you feel as if you are there, and he has the same sorts of sehnsucht experiences that C. S. Lewis describes in Surprised by Joy. (In fact, the title "Surprised by Joy" comes directly from a Wordsworth poem.)

I read up to the point where the poem becomes almost totally philosophical, in the last three or four books. But in the portion that I read, there are passages that are beautiful and profound.

I am a man too much of my time, with too short an attention span, too little patience, and a mind affected too much by screens, to fully appreciate the poem. So three stars says more about me than it does about Wordsworth, who is one of the Greats.

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      . . . If in these times of fear,
      This melancholy waste of hopes o'erthrown,
      If, 'mid indifference and apathy,
      And wicked exultation when good men
      On every side fall off, we know not how,
      To selfishness, disguised in gentle names
      Of peace and quiet and domestic love
      Yet mingled not unwillingly with sneers
      On visionary minds; if, in this time
      Of dereliction and dismay, I yet
      Despair not of our nature, but retain
      A more than Roman confidence, a faith
      That fails not, in all sorrow my support,
      The blessing of my life--the gift is yours,
      Ye winds and sounding cataracts! 'tis yours,
      Ye mountains! thine, O Nature! Thou hast fed
      My lofty speculations; and in thee,
      For this uneasy heart of ours, I find
      A never-failing principle of joy
      And purest passion.

         --William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book 2

Unlike Wordsworth, I don't see nature as the source of such stability, but I certainly believe that time spent in nature has a healing influence during hard times, and I certainly empathize with him in these lines, especially after the recent election.

     When from our better selves we have too long
     Been parted by the hurrying world, and droop,
     Sick of its business, of its pleasures tired,
     How gracious, how benign, is Solitude.

William Wordsworth, The Prelude