Nature never did betray the heart that loved her.

The lines come near the end of “Tintern Abbey”, where Wordsworth turns to his sister Dorothy, who stands beside him on the banks of the Wye: “thou, my dearest Friend, My dear, dear Friend”, in whose voice he catches “The language of my former heart”. He has just described how nature became “The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, The guide, the guardian of my heart”. His prayer for her rests on this knowledge: nature never did betray the heart that loved her, and it is her privilege “to lead From joy to joy”, so that neither evil tongues nor “the sneers of selfish men” shall ever prevail against their cheerful faith.

Wordsworth composed the poem in July 1798, walking with Dorothy after revisiting the valley he had first seen five years before, and by his own account wrote nothing down until he reached Bristol. It closes Lyrical Ballads, the volume he published with Coleridge that year.

The line sums up the creed of the poem, and is often quoted as the whole of Wordsworth.

Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, 1798

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