THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
EDITED BY
WILLIAM KNIGHT
VOL. III
1896
CONTENTS
1804
"She was a Phantom of delight"
"I wandered lonely as a cloud"
The Affliction of Margaret--
The Forsaken
Repentance
Address to my Infant Daughter, Dora
The Kitten and Falling Leaves
The Small Celandine
At Applethwaite, near Keswick
Vaudracour and Julia
1805
French Revolution
Ode to Duty
To a Sky-Lark
Fidelity
Incident characteristic of a Favourite Dog
Tribute to the Memory of the same Dog
To the Daisy (#4)
Elegiac Stanzas
Elegiac Verses
"When, to the attractions of the busy world"
The Cottager to her Infant
The Waggoner
The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind
From the Italian of Michael Angelo
From the Same
From the Same. To the Supreme Being
APPENDICES
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS
1804
The poems written in 1804 were not numerous; and, with the exception of
'The Small Celandine', the stanzas beginning "I wandered lonely as a
cloud," and "She was a Phantom of delight," they were less remarkable
than those of the two preceding, and the three following years.
Wordsworth's poetical activity in 1804 is not recorded, however, in
Lyrical Ballads or Sonnets, but in 'The Prelude', much of which was
thought out, and afterwards dictated to Dorothy or Mary Wordsworth, on
the terrace walk of Lancrigg during that year; while the 'Ode,
Intimations of Immortality' was altered and added to, although it did
not receive its final form till 1806. In the sixth book of 'The
Prelude', p. 222, the lines occur:
'Four years and thirty, told this very week,
Have I been now a sojourner on earth.'
That part of the great autobiographical poem must therefore
have been composed in April, 1804.--Ed.
* * * * *
"SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT"
Composed 1804.--Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. The germ of this poem was four lines
composed as a part of the verses on the 'Highland Girl'. Though
beginning in this way, it was written from my heart, as is sufficiently
obvious.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--Ed.
She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight; [A]
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; 5
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; [1]
A dancing Shape, an Image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and way-lay. 10
I saw her upon nearer view,
A Spirit, yet a Woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin-liberty;
A countenance in which did meet 15
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A Creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 20
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller between [2] life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will, 25
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, [3] nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light. [4] 30
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1807.
From May-time's brightest, liveliest dawn; 1836
The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807.]
[Variant 2:
1832.
... betwixt ... 1807.]
[Variant 3:
1815.
A perfect Woman; ... 1807.]
[Variant 4:
1845.
... of an angel light. 1807.
... angel-light. 1836.]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: Compare two references to Mary Wordsworth in 'The Prelude':
'Another maid there was, who also shed
A gladness o'er that season, then to me,
By her exulting outside look of youth
And placid under-countenance, first endeared;'
(Book vi. l. 224).
'She came, no more a phantom to adorn
A moment, but an inmate of the heart,
And yet a spirit, there for me enshrined
To penetrate the lofty and the low;'
(Book xiv, l. 268).--Ed.]
It is not easy to say what were the "four lines composed as a part of
the verses on the 'Highland Girl'" which the Fenwick note tells us was
"the germ of this poem." They may be lines now incorporated in those 'To
a Highland Girl', vol. ii. p. 389, or they may be lines in the present
poem, which Wordsworth wrote at first for the 'Highland Girl', but
afterwards transferred to this one. They _may_ have been the first four
lines of the later poem. The two should be read consecutively, and
compared.
After Wordsworth's death, a writer in the 'Daily News', January
1859--then understood to be Miss Harriet Martineau--wrote thus:
"In the 'Memoirs', by the nephew of the poet, it is said that these
verses refer to Mrs. Wordsworth; but for half of Wordsworth's life it
was always understood that they referred to some other phantom which
'gleamed upon his sight' before Mary Hutchinson."
This statement is much more than improbable; it is, I think, disproved
by the Fenwick note. They cannot refer to the "Lucy" of the Goslar
poems; and Wordsworth indicates, as plainly as he chose, to whom they
actually do refer. Compare the Hon. Justice Coleridge's account of a
conversation with Wordsworth ('Memoirs', vol. ii. p. 306), in which the
poet expressly said that the lines were written on his wife. The
question was, however, set at rest in a conversation of Wordsworth with
Henry Crabb Robinson, who wrote in his 'Diary' on
"May 12 (1842).--Wordsworth said that the poems 'Our walk was far
among the ancient trees' [vol. ii. p. 167], then 'She was a Phantom of
delight,' [B] and finally the two sonnets 'To a Painter', should be
read in succession as exhibiting the different phases of his affection
to his wife."
('Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson',
vol. iii. p. 197.)
The use of the word "machine," in the third stanza of the poem, has been
much criticised, but for a similar use of the term, see the sequel to
'The Waggoner' (p. 107):
'Forgive me, then; for I had been
On friendly terms with this Machine.'
See also 'Hamlet' (act II. scene ii. l. 124):
'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him.'
The progress of mechanical industry in Britain since the beginning of
the present century has given a more limited, and purely technical,
meaning to the word, than it bore when Wordsworth used it in these two
instances.--Ed.
[Footnote B: The poet expressly told me that these verses were on his
wife.--H. C. R.]
* * * * *
"I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD"
Composed 1804.--Published 1807
[Town-end, 1804. The two best lines in it are by Mary. The daffodils
grew, and still grow, on the margin of Ullswater, and probably may be
seen to this day as beautiful in the month of March, nodding their
golden heads beside the dancing and foaming waves.--I. F.]
This was No. VII. in the series of Poems, entitled, in the edition of
1807, "Moods of my own Mind." In 1815, and afterwards, it was classed by
Wordsworth among his "Poems of the Imagination."--Ed.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden [1] daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 5
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. [2]
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay: 10
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. [3]
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay, [4] 15
In such a jocund [5] company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1815.
... dancing ... 1807.]
[Variant 2:
1815.
Along the Lake, beneath the trees,
Ten thousand dancing in the breeze. 1807]
[Variant 3: This stanza was added in the edition of 1815.]
[Variant 4:
1807
... be but gay, 1836.
The 1840 edition returns to the text of 1807.]
[Variant 5:
1815.
... laughing ... 1807.]
The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, under date,
Thursday, April 15, 1802:
"When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few
daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the sea had floated
the seeds ashore, and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as
we went along there were more, and yet more; and, at last, under the
boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along
the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw
daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones, about and
above them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow
for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed
as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the
lake. They looked so gay, ever glancing, ever changing. This wind blew
directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little
knot, and a few stragglers higher up; but they were so few as not to
disturb the simplicity, unity, and life of that one busy highway. We
rested again and again. The bays were stormy, and we heard the waves
at different distances, and in the middle of the water, like the
sea...."
In the edition of 1815 there is a footnote to the lines
'They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude'
to the following effect:
"The subject of these Stanzas is rather an elementary feeling and
simple impression (approaching to the nature of an ocular spectrum)
upon the imaginative faculty, than an exertion of it. The one which
follows [A] is strictly a Reverie; and neither that, nor the next
after it in succession, 'Power of Music', would have been placed here
except for the reason given in the foregoing note."
The being "placed here" refers to its being included among the "Poems of
the Imagination." The "foregoing note" is the note appended to 'The Horn
of Egremont Castle'; and the "reason given" in it is "to avoid a
needless multiplication of the Classes" into which Wordsworth divided
his poems. This note of 181? [B], is reprinted mainly to show the
difficulties to which Wordsworth was reduced by the artificial method of
arrangement referred to. The following letter to Mr. Wrangham is a more
appropriate illustration of the poem of "The Daffodils." It was written,
the late Bishop of Lincoln says, "sometime afterwards." (See 'Memoirs of
Wordsworth', vol. i. pp. 183, 184); and, for the whole of the letter,
see a subsequent volume of this edition.
"GRASMERE, Nov. 4.
"MY DEAR WRANGHAM,--I am indeed much pleased that Mrs. Wrangham and
yourself have been gratified by these breathings of simple nature. You
mention Butler, Montagu's friend; not Tom Butler, but the conveyancer:
when I was in town in spring, he happened to see the volumes lying on
Montagu's mantelpiece, and to glance his eye upon the very poem of
'The Daffodils.' 'Aye,' says he, 'a fine morsel this for the
Reviewers.' When this was told me (for I was not present) I observed
that there were 'two lines' in that little poem which, if thoroughly
felt, would annihilate nine-tenths of the reviews of the kingdom, as
they would find no readers. The lines I alluded to were these:
'They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude.'"
These two lines were composed by Mrs. Wordsworth. In 1877 the daffodils
were still growing in abundance on the shore of Ullswater, below
Gowbarrow Park.
Compare the last four lines of James Montgomery's poem, 'The Little
Cloud':
'Bliss in possession will not last:
Remembered joys are never past:
At once the fountain, stream, and sea,
They were--they are--they yet shall be.'
Ed.
[Footnote A: It was 'The Reverie of Poor Susan'.--Ed.]
[Footnote B: This is an error in the original printed text. Evidently a
year before the above-mentioned publication in 1815: one of 1810-1815.
text Ed.]
* * * * *
THE AFFLICTION OF MARGARET--[A]
Composed 1804.--Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. This was taken from the case of a poor
widow who lived in the town of Penrith. Her sorrow was well known to
Mrs. Wordsworth, to my sister, and, I believe, to the whole town. She
kept a shop, and when she saw a stranger passing by, she was in the
habit of going out into the street to enquire of him after her
son.--I. F.]
Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems founded on the Affections."--Ed.
I Where art thou, my beloved Son,
Where art thou, worse to me than dead?
Oh find me, prosperous or undone!
Or, if the grave be now thy bed,
Why am I ignorant of the same 5
That I may rest; and neither blame
Nor sorrow may attend thy name?
II Seven years, alas! to have received
No tidings of an only child;
To have despaired, have hoped, believed, 10
And been for evermore beguiled; [1]
Sometimes with thoughts of very bliss!
I catch at them, and then I miss;
Was ever darkness like to this?
III He was among the prime in worth, 15
An object beauteous to behold;
Well born, well bred; I sent him forth
Ingenuous, innocent, and bold:
If things ensued that wanted grace,
As hath been said, they were not base; 20
And never blush was on my face.
IV Ah! little doth the young-one dream,
When full of play and childish cares,
What power is in [2] his wildest scream,
Heard by his mother unawares! 25
He knows it not, he cannot guess:
Years to a mother bring distress;
But do not make her love the less.
V Neglect me! no, I suffered long
From that ill thought; and, being blind, 30
Said, "Pride shall help me in my wrong:
Kind mother have I been, as kind
As ever breathed:" and that is true;
I've wet my path with tears like dew,
Weeping for him when no one knew. 35
VI My Son, if thou be humbled, poor,
Hopeless of honour and of gain,
Oh! do not dread thy mother's door;
Think not of me with grief and pain:
I now can see with better eyes; 40
And worldly grandeur I despise,
And fortune with her gifts and lies.
VII Alas! the fowls of heaven have wings,
And blasts of heaven will aid their flight;
They mount--how short a voyage brings 45
The wanderers back to their delight!
Chains tie us down by land and sea;
And wishes, vain as mine, may be
All that is left to comfort thee.
VIII Perhaps some dungeon hears thee groan, 50
Maimed, mangled by inhuman men;
Or thou upon a desert thrown
Inheritest the lion's den;
Or hast been summoned to the deep,
Thou, thou and all thy mates, to keep 55
An incommunicable sleep.
IX I look for ghosts; but none will force
Their way to me: 'tis falsely said
That there was ever intercourse
Between [3] the living and the dead; 60
For, surely, then I should have sight
Of him I wait for day and night,
With love and longings infinite.
X My apprehensions come in crowds;
I dread the rustling of the grass; 65
The very shadows of the clouds
Have power to shake me as they pass:
I question things and do not find
One that will answer to my mind;
And all the world appears unkind. 70
XI Beyond participation lie
My troubles, and beyond relief:
If any chance to heave a sigh,
They pity me, and not my grief.
Then come to me, my Son, or send 75
Some tidings that my woes may end;
I have no other earthly friend!
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1836.
To have despair'd, and have believ'd,
And be for evermore beguil'd; 1807.]
[Variant 2:
1832.
What power hath even ... 1807.]
[Variant 3:
1832.
Betwixt ... 1807.]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: In the edition of 1807, the title was 'The Affliction of
Margaret--of--'; in 1820, it was 'The Affliction of Margaret'; and in
1845, it was as above. In an early MS. it was 'The Affliction of
Mary--of--'. For an as yet unpublished Preface to it, see volume viii.
of this edition.--Ed.]
* * * * *
THE FORSAKEN
Composed 1804.--Published 1842
[This was an overflow from 'The Affliction of Margaret', and was
excluded as superfluous there, but preserved in the faint hope that it
may turn to account by restoring a shy lover to some forsaken damsel. My
poetry has been complained of as deficient in interests of this sort,--a
charge which the piece beginning, "Lyre! though such power do in thy
magic live," will scarcely tend to obviate. The natural imagery of these
verses was supplied by frequent, I might say intense, observation of the
Rydal torrent. What an animating contrast is the ever-changing aspect of
that, and indeed of every one of our mountain brooks, to the monotonous
tone and unmitigated fury of such streams among the Alps as are fed all
the summer long by glaciers and melting snows. A traveller observing the
exquisite purity of the great rivers, such as the Rhone at Geneva, and
the Reuss at Lucerne, when they issue out of their respective lakes,
might fancy for a moment that some power in nature produced this
beautiful change, with a view to make amends for those Alpine sullyings
which the waters exhibit near their fountain heads; but, alas! how soon
does that purity depart before the influx of tributary waters that have
flowed through cultivated plains and the crowded abodes of men.--I. F.]
Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems founded on the Affections."--Ed.
The peace which others seek they find;
The heaviest storms not longest last;
Heaven grants even to the guiltiest mind
An amnesty for what is past;
When will my sentence be reversed? 5
I only pray to know the worst;
And wish as if my heart would burst.
O weary struggle! silent years
Tell seemingly no doubtful tale;
And yet they leave it short, and fears 10
And hopes are strong and will prevail.
My calmest faith escapes not pain;
And, feeling that the hope is vain,
I think that he will come again.
* * * * *
REPENTANCE
A PASTORAL BALLAD
Composed 1804.--Published 1820
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. Suggested by the conversation of our
next neighbour, Margaret Ashburner.--I. F.]
This "next neighbour" is constantly referred to in Dorothy Wordsworth's
Grasmere Journal.
Included in 1820 among the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection"; in 1827,
and afterwards, it was classed with those "founded on the
Affections."--Ed.
The fields which with covetous spirit we sold,
Those beautiful fields, the delight of the day,
Would have brought us more good than a burthen of gold, [1]
Could we but have been as contented as they.
When the troublesome Tempter beset us, said I, 5
"Let him come, with his purse proudly grasped in his hand;
But, Allan, be true to me, Allan,--we'll die [2]
Before he shall go with an inch of the land!"
There dwelt we, as happy as birds in their bowers;
Unfettered as bees that in gardens abide; 10
We could do what we liked [3] with the land, it was ours;
And for us the brook murmured that ran by its side.
But now we are strangers, go early or late;
And often, like one overburthened with sin,
With my hand on the latch of the half-opened gate, [4] 15
I look at the fields, but [5] I cannot go in!
When I walk by the hedge on a bright summer's day,
Or sit in the shade of my grandfather's tree,
A stern face it puts on, as if ready to say,
"What ails you, that you must come creeping to me!" 20
With our pastures about us, we could not be sad;
Our comfort was near if we ever were crost;
But the comfort, the blessings, and wealth that we had,
We slighted them all,--and our birth-right was lost. [6]
Oh, ill-judging sire of an innocent son 25
Who must now be a wanderer! but peace to that strain!
Think of evening's repose when our labour was done,
The sabbath's return; and its leisure's soft chain!
And in sickness, if night had been sparing of sleep,
How cheerful, at sunrise, the hill where I stood, [7] 30
Looking down on the kine, and our treasure of sheep
That besprinkled the field; 'twas like youth in my blood!
Now I cleave to the house, and am dull as a snail;
And, oftentimes, hear the church-bell with a sigh,
That follows the thought--We've no land in the vale, 35
Save six feet of earth where our forefathers lie!
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1820.
the delight of our day, MS.
O fools that we were--we had land which we sold MS.
O fools that we were without virtue to hold MS.
The fields that together contentedly lay
Would have done us more good than another man's gold MS.]
[Variant 2:
1820.
When the bribe of the Tempter beset us, said I,
Let him come with his bags proudly grasped in his hand.
But, Thomas, be true to me, Thomas, we'll die MS.]
[Variant 3:
1836.
... chose ... 1820 and MS.]
[Variant 4:
1820.
When my hand has half-lifted the latch of the gate, MS.]
[Variant 5:
1820.
... and ... MS.]
[Variant 6:
1827.
But the blessings, and comfort, and wealth that we had,
We slighted them all,--and our birth-right was lost.
1820 and MS.
But we traitorously gave the best friend that we had
For spiritless pelf--as we felt to our cost! MS.]
[Variant 7:
1820.
When my sick crazy body had lain without sleep,
How cheering the sunshiny vale where I stood, MS.]
* * * * *
ADDRESS TO MY INFANT DAUGHTER, DORA, [A]
ON BEING REMINDED THAT SHE WAS A MONTH OLD THAT DAY, SEPTEMBER 16
Composed September 16, 1804.--Published 1815
Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems of the Fancy."--Ed.
--Hast thou then survived--
Mild Offspring of infirm humanity,
Meek Infant! among all forlornest things
The most forlorn--one life of that bright star,
The second glory of the Heavens?--Thou hast; 5
Already hast survived that great decay,
That transformation through the wide earth felt,
And by all nations. In that Being's sight
From whom the Race of human kind proceed,
A thousand years are but as yesterday; 10
And one day's narrow circuit is to Him
Not less capacious than a thousand years.
But what is time? What outward glory? neither
A measure is of Thee, whose claims extend
Through "heaven's eternal year." [B]--Yet hail to Thee, 15
Frail, feeble, Monthling!--by that name, methinks,
Thy scanty breathing-time is portioned out
Not idly.--Hadst thou been of Indian birth,
Couched on a casual bed of moss and leaves,
And rudely canopied by leafy boughs, 20
Or to the churlish elements exposed
On the blank plains,--the coldness of the night,
Or the night's darkness, or its cheerful face
Of beauty, by the changing moon adorned,
Would, with imperious admonition, then 25
Have scored thine age, and punctually timed
Thine infant history, on the minds of those
Who might have wandered with thee.--Mother's love,
Nor less than mother's love in other breasts,
Will, among us warm-clad and warmly housed, 30
Do for thee what the finger of the heavens
Doth all too often harshly execute
For thy unblest coevals, amid wilds
Where fancy hath small liberty to grace
The affections, to exalt them or refine; 35
And the maternal sympathy itself,
Though strong, is, in the main, a joyless tie
Of naked instinct, wound about the heart.
Happier, far happier is thy lot and ours!
Even now--to solemnise thy helpless state, 40
And to enliven in the mind's regard
Thy passive beauty--parallels have risen,
Resemblances, or contrasts, that connect,
Within the region of a father's thoughts,
Thee and thy mate and sister of the sky. 45
And first;--thy sinless progress, through a world
By sorrow darkened and by care disturbed,
Apt likeness bears to hers, through gathered clouds,
Moving untouched in silver purity,
And cheering oft-times their reluctant gloom. 50
Fair are ye both, and both are free from stain:
But thou, how leisurely thou fill'st thy horn
With brightness! leaving her to post along,
And range about, disquieted in change,
And still impatient of the shape she wears. 55
Once up, once down the hill, one journey, Babe
That will suffice thee; and it seems that now
Thou hast fore-knowledge that such task is thine;
Thou travellest so contentedly, and sleep'st
In such a heedless peace. Alas! full soon 60
Hath this conception, grateful to behold,
Changed countenance, like an object sullied o'er
By breathing mist; and thine appears to be
A mournful labour, while to her is given
Hope, and a renovation without end. 65
--That smile forbids the thought; for on thy face
Smiles are beginning, like the beams of dawn,
To shoot and circulate; smiles have there been seen;
Tranquil assurances that Heaven supports
The feeble motions of thy life, and cheers 70
Thy loneliness: or shall those smiles be called
Feelers of love, put forth as if to explore
This untried world, and to prepare thy way
Through a strait passage intricate and dim?
Such are they; and the same are tokens, signs, 75
Which, when the appointed season hath arrived,
Joy, as her holiest language, shall adopt;
And Reason's godlike Power be proud to own.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: The title from 1815 to 1845 was 'Address to my Infant
Daughter, on being reminded that she was a Month old, on that Day'.
After her death in 1847, her name was added to the title.--Ed.]
[Footnote B: See Dryden's poem, 'To the pious memory of the accomplished
young lady, Mrs. Anne Killigrew', I. l. 15.--Ed.]
The text of this poem was never altered.--Ed.
* * * * *
THE KITTEN AND FALLING LEAVES [A]
Composed 1804.--Published 1807
[Seen at Town-end, Grasmere. The elder-bush has long since disappeared;
it hung over the wall near the cottage: and the kitten continued to leap
up, catching the leaves as here described. The Infant was Dora.--J. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Fancy." In Henry Crabb Robinson's 'Diary,
etc.', under date Sept. 10, 1816, we find,
"He" (Wordsworth) "quoted from 'The Kitten and the Falling Leaves' to
show he had connected even the kitten with the great, awful, and
mysterious powers of Nature."
Ed.
That way look, my Infant, [1] lo!
What a pretty baby-show!
See the Kitten on the wall,
Sporting with the leaves that fall,
Withered leaves--one--two--and three--5
From the lofty elder-tree!
Through the calm and frosty [2] air
Of this morning bright and fair,
Eddying round and round they sink
Softly, slowly: one might think, 10
From the motions that are made,
Every little leaf conveyed
Sylph or Faery hither tending,--
To this lower world descending,
Each invisible and mute, 15
In his wavering parachute.
----But the Kitten, how she starts,
Crouches, stretches, paws, and darts! [3]
First at one, and then its fellow
Just as light and just as yellow; 20
There are many now--now one--
Now they stop and there are none:
What intenseness of desire
In her upward eye of fire!
With a tiger-leap half-way 25
Now she meets the coming prey,
Lets it go as fast, and then
Has it in her power again:
Now she works with three or four,
Like an Indian conjurer; 30
Quick as he in feats of art,
Far beyond in joy of heart.
Were her antics played in the eye
Of a thousand standers-by,
Clapping hands with shout and stare, 35
What would little Tabby care
For the plaudits of the crowd?
Over happy to be proud,
Over wealthy in the treasure
Of her own exceeding pleasure! 40
'Tis a pretty baby-treat;
Nor, I deem, for me unmeet; [4]
Here, for neither Babe nor [5] me,
Other play-mate can I see.
Of the countless living things, 45
That with stir of feet and wings
(In the sun or under shade,
Upon bough or grassy blade)
And with busy revellings,
Chirp and song, and murmurings, 50
Made this orchard's narrow space,
And this vale so blithe a place;
Multitudes are swept away
Never more to breathe the day:
Some are sleeping; some in bands 55
Travelled into distant lands;
Others slunk to moor and wood,
Far from human neighbourhood;
And, among the Kinds that keep
With us closer fellowship, 60
With us openly abide,
All have laid their mirth aside.
Where is he that giddy [6] Sprite,
Blue-cap, with his colours bright,
Who was blest as bird could be, 65
Feeding in the apple-tree;
Made such wanton spoil and rout,
Turning blossoms inside out;
Hung--head pointing towards the ground--[7]
Fluttered, perched, into a round 70
Bound himself, and then unbound;
Lithest, gaudiest Harlequin!
Prettiest tumbler ever seen!
Light of heart and light of limb;
What is now become of Him? 75
Lambs, that through the mountains went
Frisking, bleating merriment,
When the year was in its prime,
They are sobered by this time.
If you look to vale or [8] hill, 80
If you listen, all is still,
Save a little neighbouring rill,
That from out the rocky ground
Strikes a solitary sound.
Vainly glitter [9] hill and plain, 85
And the air is calm in vain;
Vainly Morning spreads the lure
Of a sky serene and pure;
Creature none can she decoy
Into open sign of joy: 90
Is it that they have a fear
Of the dreary season near?
Or that other pleasures be
Sweeter even than gaiety?
Yet, whate'er enjoyments dwell 95
In the impenetrable cell
Of the silent heart which Nature
Furnishes to every creature;
Whatsoe'er we feel and know
Too sedate for outward show, 100
Such a light of gladness breaks,
Pretty Kitten! from thy freaks,--
Spreads with such a living grace
O'er my little Dora's [10] face;
Yes, the sight so stirs and charms 105
Thee, Baby, laughing in my arms,
That almost I could repine
That your transports are not mine,
That I do not wholly fare
Even as ye do, thoughtless pair! [11] 110
And I will have my careless season
Spite of melancholy reason, [12]
Will walk through life in such a way
That, when time brings on decay,
Now and then I may possess 115
Hours of perfect gladsomeness. [13]
--Pleased by any random toy;
By a kitten's busy joy,
Or an infant's laughing eye
Sharing in the ecstasy; 120
I would fare like that or this,
Find my wisdom in my bliss;
Keep the sprightly soul awake,
And have faculties to take,
Even from things [14] by sorrow wrought, 125
Matter for a jocund thought,
Spite of care, and spite of grief,
To gambol with Life's falling Leaf.
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
... Darling, ... MS.]
[Variant 2:
... silent ... MS.]
[Variant 3:
Knows not what she would be at,
Now on this side, now on that. MS.]
[Variant 4:
One for me, too, as is meet. MS.]
[Variant 5:
1815.
... or ... 1807.]
[Variant 6:
... busy ... MS.]
[Variant 7:
1836,
Hung with head towards the ground, 1807.]
[Variant 8:
... and ... MS.]
[Variant 9:
1836.
... glitters ... 1807.]
[Variant 10:
1849.
Laura's [a] 1807]
[Variant 11: Additional lines:
But I'll take a hint from you,
And to pleasure will be true, MS.]
[Variant 12:
Be it songs of endless Spring
Which the frolic Muses sing,
Jest, and Mirth's unruly brood
Dancing to the Phrygian mood;
Be it love, or be it wine,
Myrtle wreath, or ivy twine,
Or a garland made of both;
Whether then Philosophy
That would fill us full of glee
Seeing that our breath we draw
Under an unbending law,
That our years are halting never;
Quickly gone, and gone for ever,
And would teach us thence to brave
The conclusion in the grave;
Whether it be these that give
Strength and spirit so to live,
Or the conquest best be made,
By a sober course and staid,
I would walk in such a way, MS.]
[Variant 13:
... joyousness. MS.]
[Variant 14:
From the things by ... MS.]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: In the editions of 1807-1832 the title was 'The Kitten and
the Falling Leaves'.--Ed.]
* * * * *
SUB-FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Sub-Footnote a: Dora Wordsworth died in July 1847. Probably the change
of text in 1849--one of the latest which the poet made--was due to the
wish to connect this poem with memories of his dead daughter's
childhood, and her "laughing eye."--Ed.]
* * * * *
THE SMALL CELANDINE [A]
Composed 1804.--Published 1807
[Grasmere, Town-end. It is remarkable that this flower coming out so
early in the spring as it does, and so bright and beautiful, and in such
profusion, should not have been noticed earlier in English verse. What
adds much to the interest that attends it, is its habit of shutting
itself up and opening out according to the degree of light and
temperature of the air.--I. F.]
In pencil on opposite page "Has not Chaucer noticed it?"--W. W.
This was classed by Wordsworth among his "Poems referring to the Period
of Old Age."-Ed.
There is a Flower, the lesser Celandine,
That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;
And, the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun himself, [1] 'tis out again!
When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm, 5
Or blasts the green field and the trees distrest,
Oft have I seen it muffled up from harm,
In close self-shelter, like a Thing at rest.
But lately, one rough day, this Flower I passed
And recognised it, though an altered form, 10
Now standing forth an offering to the blast,
And buffeted at will by rain and storm.
I stopped, and said with inly-muttered voice,
"It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold:
This neither is its courage nor its choice, 15
But its necessity in being old.
"The sunshine may not cheer [2] it, nor the dew;
It cannot help itself in its decay;
Stiff in its members, withered, changed of hue."
And, in my spleen, I smiled that it was grey. 20
To be a Prodigal's Favourite--then, worse truth,
A Miser's Pensioner--behold our lot!
O Man, that from thy fair and shining youth
Age might but take the things Youth needed not!
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1837.
... itself, ... 1807.]
[Variant 2:
1827
... bless ... 1807.]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: Common Pilewort.--W. W. 1807.]
With the last stanza compare one from 'The Fountain', vol. ii. p. 93:
'Thus fares it still in our decay:
And yet the wiser mind
Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.'
Compare also the other two poems on the Celandine, vol. ii. pp. 300,
303, written in a previous year.--Ed.
* * * * *
AT APPLETHWAITE, NEAR KESWICK
1804
Composed 1804.--Published 1842
[This was presented to me by Sir George Beaumont, with a view to the
erection of a house upon it, for the sake of being near to Coleridge,
then living, and likely to remain, at Greta Hall, near Keswick. The
severe necessities that prevented this arose from his domestic
situation. This little property, with a considerable addition that still
leaves it very small, lies beautifully upon the banks of a rill that
gurgles down the side of Skiddaw; and the orchard and other parts of the
grounds command a magnificent prospect of Derwent Water, the mountains
of Borrowdale and Newlands. Not many years ago I gave the place to my
daughter.--I. F.]
In pencil on the opposite page in Dora Wordsworth's (Mrs. Quillinan's)
handwriting--"Many years ago, Sir; for it was given when she was a frail
feeble monthling."
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--Ed.
BEAUMONT! it was thy wish that I should rear
A seemly Cottage in this sunny Dell,
On favoured ground, thy gift, where I might dwell
In neighbourhood with One to me most dear,
That undivided we from year to year 5
Might work in our high Calling--a bright hope
To which our fancies, mingling, gave free scope
Till checked by some necessities severe.
And should these slacken, honoured BEAUMONT! still
Even then we may perhaps in vain implore 10
Leave of our fate thy wishes [1] to fulfil.
Whether this boon be granted us or not,
Old Skiddaw will look down upon the Spot
With pride, the Muses love it evermore. [2] [A]
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
... pleasure ... MS.]
[Variant 2:
... will be proud, and that same spot
Be dear unto the Muses evermore. MS.]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: In the edition of 1842 the following footnote is given by
Wordsworth,
"This biographical Sonnet, if so it may be called, together with the
Epistle that follows, have been long suppressed from feelings of
personal delicacy."
The "Epistle" was that addressed to Sir George Beaumont in 1811.--Ed.]
This little property at Applethwaite now belongs to Mr. Gordon
Wordsworth, the grandson of the poet. It is a "sunny dell" only in its
upper reaches, above the spot where the cottage--which still bears
Wordsworth's name--is built. This sonnet, and Sir George Beaumont's wish
that Wordsworth and Coleridge should live so near each other, as to be
able to carry on joint literary labour, recall the somewhat similar wish
and proposal on the part of W. Calvert, unfolded in a letter from
Coleridge to Sir Humphry Davy.--Ed.
* * * * *
VAUDRACOUR AND JULIA
Composed 1804.--Published 1820
The following Tale was written as an Episode, in a work from which its
length may perhaps exclude it. [A] The facts are true; no invention as
to these has been exercised, as none was needed.--W. W. 1820.
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. Faithfully narrated, though with the
omission of many pathetic circumstances, from the mouth of a French
lady, [B] who had been an eye-and-ear witness of all that was done and
said. Many long years after, I was told that Dupligne was then a monk in
the Convent of La Trappe.--I. F.]
This was included among the "Poems founded on the Affections."--Ed.
O happy time of youthful lovers (thus
My story may begin) O balmy time,
In which a love-knot on a lady's brow
Is fairer than the fairest star in heaven!
To such inheritance of blessed fancy 5
(Fancy that sports more desperately with minds
Than ever fortune hath been known to do)
The high-born Vaudracour was brought, by years
Whose progress had a little overstepped
His stripling prime. A town of small repute, 10
Among the vine-clad mountains of Auvergne,
Was the Youth's birth-place. There he wooed a Maid
Who heard the heart-felt music of his suit
With answering vows. Plebeian was the stock,
Plebeian, though ingenuous, the stock, 15
From which her graces and her honours sprung:
And hence the father of the enamoured Youth,
With haughty indignation, spurned the thought
Of such alliance.--From their cradles up,
With but a step between their several homes, 20
Twins had they been in pleasure; after strife
And petty quarrels, had grown fond again;
Each other's advocate, each other's stay;
And, in their happiest moments, not content,
If more divided than a sportive pair [1] 25
Of sea-fowl, conscious both that they are hovering
Within the eddy of a common blast,
Or hidden only by the concave depth
Of neighbouring billows from each other's sight.
Thus, not without concurrence of an age 30
Unknown to memory, was an earnest given
By ready nature for a life of love,
For endless constancy, and placid truth;
But whatsoe'er of such rare treasure lay
Reserved, had fate permitted, for support 35
Of their maturer years, his present mind
Was under fascination;--he beheld
A vision, and adored the thing he saw.
Arabian fiction never filled the world
With half the wonders that were wrought for him. 40
Earth breathed in one great presence of the spring;
Life turned the meanest of her implements,
Before his eyes, to price above all gold;
The house she dwelt in was a sainted shrine;
Her chamber-window did surpass in glory 45
The portals of the dawn; all paradise
Could, by the simple opening of a door,
Let itself in upon him:--pathways, walks,
Swarmed with enchantment, till his spirit sank,
Surcharged, within him, overblest to move 50
Beneath a sun that wakes a weary world
To its dull round of ordinary cares;
A man too happy for mortality!
So passed the time, till whether through effect
Of some unguarded moment that dissolved 55
Virtuous restraint--ah, speak it, think it, not!
Deem rather that the fervent Youth, who saw
So many bars between his present state
And the dear haven where he wished to be
In honourable wedlock with his Love, 60
Was in his judgment tempted to decline
To perilous weakness, [2] and entrust his cause
To nature for a happy end of all;
Deem that by such fond hope the Youth was swayed,
And bear with their transgression, when I add 65
That Julia, wanting yet the name of wife,
Carried about her for a secret grief
The promise of a mother.
To conceal
The threatened shame, the parents of the Maid 70
Found means to hurry her away by night,
And unforewarned, that in some distant spot
She might remain shrouded in privacy,
Until the babe was born. When morning came,
The Lover, thus bereft, stung with his loss, 75
And all uncertain whither he should turn,
Chafed like a wild beast in the toils; but soon
Discovering traces of the fugitives,
Their steps he followed to the Maid's retreat.
Easily may the sequel be divined--[3] 80
Walks to and fro--watchings at every hour;
And the fair Captive, who, whene'er she may,
Is busy at her casement as the swallow
Fluttering its pinions, almost within reach,
About the pendent nest, did thus espy 85
Her Lover!--thence a stolen interview,
Accomplished under friendly shade of night.
I pass the raptures of the pair;--such theme
Is, by innumerable poets, touched
In more delightful verse than skill of mine 90
Could fashion; chiefly by that darling bard
Who told of Juliet and her Romeo,
And of the lark's note heard before its time,
And of the streaks that laced the severing clouds
In the unrelenting east.--Through all her courts 95
The vacant city slept; the busy winds,
That keep no certain intervals of rest,
Moved not; meanwhile the galaxy displayed
Her fires, that like mysterious pulses beat
Aloft;--momentous but uneasy bliss! 100
To their full hearts the universe seemed hung
On that brief meeting's slender filament!
They parted; and the generous Vaudracour
Reached speedily the native threshold, bent
On making (so the Lovers had agreed) 105
A sacrifice of birthright to attain
A final portion from his father's hand;
Which granted, Bride and Bridegroom then would flee
To some remote and solitary place,
Shady as night, and beautiful as heaven, 110
Where they may live, with no one to behold
Their happiness, or to disturb their love.
But _now_ of this no whisper; not the less,
If ever an obtrusive word were dropped
Touching the matter of his passion, still, 115
In his stern father's hearing, Vaudracour
Persisted openly that death alone
Should abrogate his human privilege
Divine, of swearing everlasting truth,
Upon the altar, to the Maid he loved. 120
"You shall be baffled in your mad intent
If there be justice in the court of France,"
Muttered the Father.--From these words the Youth [4]
Conceived a terror; and, by night or day,
Stirred nowhere without weapons, that full soon 125
Found dreadful provocation: for at night [5]
When to his chamber he retired, attempt
Was made to seize him by three armèd men,
Acting, in furtherance of the father's will,
Under a private signet of the State. 130
One the rash Youth's ungovernable hand
Slew, and as quickly to a second gave [6]
A perilous wound--he shuddered to behold
The breathless corse; then peacefully resigned
His person to the law, was lodged in prison, 135
And wore the fetters of a criminal.
Have you observed [7] a tuft of wingèd seed
That, from the dandelion's naked stalk,
Mounted aloft, is suffered not to use
Its natural gifts for purposes of rest, 140
Driven by the autumnal whirlwind to and fro
Through the wide element? or have you marked
The heavier substance of a leaf-clad bough,
Within the vortex of a foaming flood,
Tormented? by such aid you may conceive 145
The perturbation that ensued; [8]--ah, no!
Desperate the Maid--the Youth is stained with blood;
Unmatchable on earth is their disquiet! [9]
Yet [10] as the troubled seed and tortured bough
Is Man, subjected to despotic sway. 150
For him, by private influence with the Court,
Was pardon gained, and liberty procured;
But not without exaction of a pledge,
Which liberty and love dispersed in air.
He flew to her from whom they would divide him--155
He clove to her who could not give him peace--
Yea, his first word of greeting was,--"All right
Is gone from me; my lately-towering hopes,
To the least fibre of their lowest root,
Are withered; thou no longer canst be mine, 160
I thine--the conscience-stricken must not woo
The unruffled Innocent,--I see thy face,
Behold thee, and my misery is complete!"
"One, are we not?" exclaimed the Maiden--"One,
For innocence and youth, for weal and woe?" 165
Then with the father's name she coupled words
Of vehement indignation; but the Youth
Checked her with filial meekness; for no thought
Uncharitable crossed his mind, no sense
Of hasty anger rising in the eclipse [11] 170
Of true domestic loyalty, did e'er
Find place within his bosom.--Once again
The persevering wedge of tyranny
Achieved their separation: and once more
Were they united,--to be yet again 175
Disparted, pitiable lot! But here
A portion of the tale may well be left
In silence, though my memory could add
Much how the Youth, in scanty space of time,
Was traversed from without; much, too, of thoughts 180
That occupied his days in solitude
Under privation and restraint; and what,
Through dark and shapeless fear of things to come,
And what, through strong compunction for the past,
He suffered--breaking down in heart and mind! 185
Doomed to a third and last captivity,
His freedom he recovered on the eve
Of Julia's travail. When the babe was born,
Its presence tempted him to cherish schemes
Of future happiness. "You shall return, 190
Julia," said he, "and to your father's house
Go with the child.--You have been wretched; yet
The silver shower, whose reckless burthen weighs
Too heavily upon the lily's head,
Oft leaves a saving moisture at its root. 195
Malice, beholding you, will melt away.
Go!--'tis a town where both of us were born;
None will reproach you, for our truth is known;
And if, amid those once-bright bowers, our fate
Remain unpitied, pity is not in man. 200
With ornaments--the prettiest, nature yields
Or art can fashion, shall you deck our [12] boy,
And feed his countenance with your own sweet looks
Till no one can resist him.--Now, even now,
I see him sporting on the sunny lawn; 205
My father from the window sees him too;
Startled, as if some new-created thing
Enriched the earth, or Faery of the woods
Bounded before him;--but the unweeting Child
Shall by his beauty win his grandsire's heart 210
So that it shall be softened, and our loves
End happily, as they began!"
These gleams
Appeared but seldom; oftener was he seen
Propping a pale and melancholy face 215
Upon the Mother's bosom; resting thus
His head upon one breast, while from the other
The Babe was drawing in its quiet food.
--That pillow is no longer to be thine,
Fond Youth! that mournful solace now must pass 220
Into the list of things that cannot be!
Unwedded Julia, terror-smitten, hears
The sentence, by her mother's lip pronounced,
That dooms her to a convent.--Who shall tell,
Who dares report, the tidings to the lord 225
Of her affections? so they blindly asked
Who knew not to what quiet depths a weight
Of agony had pressed the Sufferer down:
The word, by others dreaded, he can hear
Composed and silent, without visible sign 230
Of even the least emotion. Noting this,
When the impatient object of his love
Upbraided him with slackness, he returned
No answer, only took the mother's hand
And kissed it; seemingly devoid of pain, 235
Or care, that what so tenderly he pressed
Was a dependant on [13] the obdurate heart
Of one who came to disunite their lives
For ever--sad alternative! preferred,
By the unbending Parents of the Maid, 240
To secret 'spousals meanly disavowed.
--So be it!
In the city he remained
A season after Julia had withdrawn
To those religious walls. He, too, departs--245
Who with him?--even the senseless Little-one.
With that sole charge he passed the city-gates,
For the last time, attendant by the side
Of a close chair, a litter, or sedan,
In which the Babe was carried. To a hill, 250
That rose a brief league distant from the town,
The dwellers in that house where he had lodged
Accompanied his steps, by anxious love
Impelled;--they parted from him there, and stood
Watching below till he had disappeared 255
On the hill top. His eyes he scarcely took,
Throughout that journey, from the vehicle
(Slow-moving ark of all his hopes!) that veiled
The tender infant: and at every inn,
And under every hospitable tree 260
At which the bearers halted or reposed,
Laid him with timid care upon his knees,
And looked, as mothers ne'er were known to look,
Upon the nursling which his arms embraced.
This was the manner in which Vaudracour 265
Departed with his infant; and thus reached
His father's house, where to the innocent child
Admittance was denied. The young man spake
No word [14] of indignation or reproof,
But of his father begged, a last request, 270
That a retreat might be assigned to him
Where in forgotten quiet he might dwell,
With such allowance as his wants required;
For wishes he had none. To a lodge that stood
Deep in a forest, with leave given, at the age 275
Of four-and-twenty summers he withdrew;
And thither took with him his motherless Babe, [15]
And one domestic for their common needs,
An aged woman. It consoled him here
To attend upon the orphan, and perform 280
Obsequious service to the precious child,
Which, after a short time, by some mistake
Or indiscretion of the Father, died.--
The Tale I follow to its last recess
Of suffering or of peace, I know not which: 285
Theirs be the blame who caused the woe, not mine!