William Wordsworth

Inside of King's College Chapel, Cambridge

Inside of King's College Chapel, Cambridge - meaning Summary

Praise of Sacred Architecture

Wordsworth admires the design and spiritual purpose of King’s College Chapel, arguing that its beauty and grand workmanship transcend narrow calculations of cost or utility. He asks readers to value the chapel as a product of inspired intelligence, where architecture, light, and music combine to evoke lasting, soulful impressions. The closing lines compare these impressions to immortal thoughts whose sweetness proves they were made for eternity.

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Tax not the royal Saint with vain expense, With ill-matched aims the Architect who planned-- Albeit labouring for a scanty band Of white-robed Scholars only--this immense And glorious Work of fine intelligence! Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore Of nicely-calculated less or more; So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells, Where light and shade repose, where music dwells Lingering--and wandering on as loth to die; Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof That they were born for immortality.

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