Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

Woman on a horse at night

Today’s bit of horse in poetry was composed by William Wordsworth in 1798. While it isn’t about horses, they do play a part in the tale he weaves.

Strange Fits of Passion Have I Known

Strange fits of passion have I known:
And I will dare to tell,
But in the lover’s ear alone,
What once to me befell.

When she I loved looked every day
Fresh as a rose in June,
I to her cottage bent my way,
Beneath an evening-moon.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,
All over the wide lea;
With quickening pace my horse drew nigh
Those paths so dear to me.

And now we reached the orchard-plot;
And, as we climbed the hill,
The sinking moon to Lucy’s cot
Came near, and nearer still.

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,
Kind Nature’s gentlest boon!
And all the while my eye I kept
On the descending moon.

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and never stopped:
When down behind the cottage roof,
At once, the bright moon dropped.

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide
Into a Lover’s head!
“O mercy!” to myself I cried,
“If Lucy hould be dead!”

Rhyming Horses

It’s not just about rhyming, poetry doesn’t have to be sing-songy to be good. If you like something a little more uplifting, try an Arabian Horse Proverb.

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