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There is a Thorn,—it looks so old,
In truth, you'd find it hard to say
How it could ever have been young,
It looks so old and gray.
Not higher than a two years child
It stands erect, this aged Thorn;
No leaves it has, no prickly points;
It is a mass of knotted joints,
A wretched thing forlorn.
It stands erect, and like a stone
With lichens is it overgrown.

— William Wordsworth The Thorn; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922)

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More quotes by William Wordsworth

Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade
Of that which once was great, is passed away.

The light that never was, on sea or land,
The consecration, and the poet's dream.

Minds that have nothing to confer
Find little to perceive.

Three sleepless nights I passed in sounding on,
Through words and things, a dim and perilous way.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed (1919)

All men feel something of an honorable bigotry for the objects which have long continued to please them.

Lyrical Ballads (1798)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Wordsworth (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.