Wordsworth Makes It Into May: French Revolution

"Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!"  (From "The Friend")

This was Wordsworth's attitude at the beginning of the French Revolution. He was enthusiastic about it.  I am currently reading Book X of "The Prelude," and his attitude changed quite a bit:

Domestic carnage now filled the whole year
          With feast-days; old men from the chimney-nook,
          The maiden from the bosom of her love,
          The mother from the cradle of her babe,
          The warrior from the field--all perished, all--            360
          Friends, enemies, of all parties, ages, ranks,
          Head after head, and never heads enough
          For those that bade them fall. They found their joy,
          They made it proudly, eager as a child,
          (If like desires of innocent little ones
          May with such heinous appetites be compared),

Some people like "The Prelude" only in the first few books where he lauds

the sublime of Nature in his childhood years, but I find this much more

compelling. 
An Englishman observes the depravity of man when his idealistic

romanticism 
would want to believe in an inherent goodness.

I was moved as I sat in front of the fire as the rain pounded down on my cozy

home. 

Here is an interesting essay on the French Revolution where I found the 

above quotes by Wordsworth:

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION