on my heels,
Stopped short, yet still the solitary cliffs
Wheeled by me--even as if the earth had rolled
With visible motion her diurnal round! 60
Behind me did they stretch in solemn train,
Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watched
Till all was tranquil as a summer sea.

1-14. In what other poems does Wordsworth describe "the education of
nature?"

8. Nature's teaching is never sordid nor mercenary, but always purifying
and ennobling.

10. PURIFYING, also SANCTIFYING (l. 12), refer to "Soul" (l. 2).

12-14. Human cares are lightened in proportion to our power of
sympathising with nature. The very beatings of our heart acquire a
certain grandeur from the fact that they are a process of nature and
linked thus to the general life of things. It is possible that "beatings
of the heart" may figuratively represent the mere play of the emotions,
and thus have a bearing upon the words "pain and fear" in line 13.

15. FELLOWSHIP. Communion with nature in her varying aspects as
described in the following lines.

31. VILLAGE CLOCK. The village was Hawkshead.

35. CONFEDERATE. Qualifies "we," or "games." Point out the different
shades of meaning for each agreement.

42. TINKLED LIKE IRON. "When very many are skating together, the sounds
and the noises give an impulse to the icy trees, and the woods all round
the lake _tinkle_." S. T. Coleridge in _The Friend_, ii, 325 (1818).

42-44. The keenness of Wordsworth's sense perceptions was very
remarkable. His susceptibility to impressions of sound is well
illustrated in this passage, which closes (l. 43-46) with a color picture
of striking beauty and appropriateness.

50. REFLEX=_reflection_. _Cf_.:

Like the _reflex_ of the moon
Seen in a wave under green leaves.
Shelley, _Prometheus Unbound_, iii, 4.

In later editions Wordsworth altered these lines as follows:

To cut across the image. 1809. To cross the bright reflection. 1820.

54-60. The effect of rapid motion is admirably described. The spinning
effect which Wordsworth evidently has in mind we have all noticed in the
fields which seem to revolve when viewed from a swiftly moving: train.
However, a skater from the low level of a stream would see only the
fringe of trees sweep past him. The darkness and the height of the banks
would not permit him to see the relatively motionless objects in the
distance in either hand.

57-58.