In this installment John Casteen reads "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth. Casteen's poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The Paris Review, Lo-Ball, and other magazines; his first book, Free Union, appeared from the University of Georgia Press in 2009. He teaches at Sweet Briar College, and serves on the editorial staff of The Virginia Quarterly Review. The poems here are from his forthcoming collection, For the Mountain Laurel.

William Wordsworth, "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey"

FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! and again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur.--Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect
The landscape with the quiet of the sky.
The day is come when I again repose
Here, under this dark sycamore, and view

These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,
Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,