The Show

I WANDERED lonely as a cow
Along the Wyre's paths and rills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A Tractor Pull with all its thrills
Beside the track, beneath the trees,
Shouting and cheering in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars
that shine and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of the day:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The earth beneath them danced; but they
Out-did the trembling earth in glee:
A cow could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
what wealth The Show to me had brought:

For oft, when in my field I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with those engine trills.