Excerpted from Prelude book 11
William Wordsworth
The days gone by,
Come back upon me from the dawn almost
Of life; the hiding-places of my power
Seem open, I approach and then they close
I see by glimpses now, when age comes on
May scarcely see at all; and I would give
While yet we may, as far as words can give,
A substance and a life to what I feel:
I would enshrine the spirit of the past
For future restoration.