Poems, in Two Volumes (Wordsworth, 1807)/Volume 2/Gipsies
For other versions of this work, see Gipsies.
10.
GIPSIES.
Yet are they here?—the same unbroken knotOf human Beings, in the self-same spot!Men, Women, Children, yea the frameOf the whole Spectacle the same!Only their fire seems bolder, yielding light:Now deep and red, the colouring of night;That on their Gipsy-faces falls,Their bed of straw and blanket-walls.—Twelve hours, twelve bounteous hours, are gone while IHave been a Traveller under open sky,Much witnessing of change and chear,Yet as I left I find them here! The weary Sun betook himself to rest.—Then issued Vesper from the fulgent West,Outshining like a visible GodThe glorious path in which he trod.And now, ascending, after one dark hour,And one night's diminution of her power,Behold the mighty Moon! this wayShe looks as if at them—but theyRegard not her:—oh better wrong and strifeBetter vain deeds or evil than such life!The silent Heavens have goings on;The stars have tasks—but these have none.