Lines from Wordsworth's Immortality Ode

"The Clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye
That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears."
(extract taken from ‘Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood )

I consider these lines penned by Wordsworth as one of the most precious literary jewels. How beautifully he has summed up the whole thing! It seems as if he has described a lifetime, and at the same time the whole generation of mankind – he refers to the Sun as “that hath kept watch o'er man's mortality”.