Poems, in Two Volumes (Wordsworth, 1807)/Volume 1/Prefatory Sonnet ('Nuns fret not at their Convent's narrow room')
For other versions of this work, see Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room.
SONNETS.
PREFATORY SONNET.
Nuns fret not at their Convent's narrow room;And Hermits are contented with their Cells;And Students with their pensive Citadels:Maids at the Wheel, the Weaver at his Loom,Sit blithe and happy; Bees that soar for bloom,High as the highest Peak of Furness Fells,Will murmur by the hour in Foxglove bells:In truth, the prison, unto which we doomOurselves, no prison is: and hence to me,In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be boundWithin the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground:Pleas'd if some Souls (for such there needs must be)Who have felt the weight of too much liberty,Should find short solace there, as I have found.