The free-born Soul--that World whose vaunted skill
In selfish interest perverts the will,
Whose factions lead astray the wise and brave--
Not there; but in dark wood and rocky cave, 5
And hollow vale which foaming torrents fill
With omnipresent murmur as they rave
Down their steep beds, that never shall be still:
Here, mighty Nature! in this school sublime
I weigh the hopes and fears of suffering Spain; 10
For her consult the auguries of time,
And through the human heart explore my way;
And look and listen--gathering, whence[2] I may,
Triumph, and thoughts no bondage can restrain.
Wordsworth began to write on the Convention of Cintra in November 1808,
and sent two articles on the subject to the December (1808) and January
(1809) numbers of _The Courier_. The subject grew in importance to him
as he discussed it: and he threw his reflections on the subject into the
form of a small treatise, the preface to which was dated 20th May 1809.
The full title of this (so-called) "Tract" is "Concerning the Relations
of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal to each other, and to the common
Enemy, at this crisis; and specifically as affected by the Convention of
Cintra: the whole brought to the test of those Principles, by which
alone the Independence and Freedom of Nations can be Preserved or
Recovered."--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1820.
... which ... 1815.
[2] 1827.
... where ... 1815.
COMPOSED AT THE SAME TIME AND ON THE SAME OCCASION
Composed 1808.--Published 1815
One of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."--ED.
I dropped my pen; and listened to the Wind
That sang of trees up-torn and vessels tost--
A midnight harmony; and wholly lost
To the general sense of men by chains confined
Of business, care, or pleasure; or resigned 5
To timely sleep. Thought I, the impassioned strain,
Which, without aid of numbers, I sustain,
Like acceptation from the World will find.
Yet some with apprehensive ear shall drink
A dirge devoutly breathed o'er sorrows past; 10
And to the attendant promise will give heed--
The prophecy,--like that of this wild blast,
Which, while it makes the heart with sadness shrink,
Tells also of bright calms that shall succeed.
1809
The poems belonging to the years 1809 and 1810 were mainly
sonnets--although _The Excursion_ was being added to at intervals. Of
twenty-four which were included by Wordsworth, in the final arrangement
of his poems, among those "dedicated to National Independence and
Liberty," fourteen belong to the year 1809, and ten to 1810. It is
difficult to ascertain the principle which guided him in determining the
succession of these sonnets. They were not placed in chronological
order; nor is there any historical or topographical reason for their
being arranged as they were. I have therefore felt at liberty to depart
from his order, to the following extent.
The six sonnets referring to the Tyrolese have been brought together in
one group. Those containing allusions to Spain might have been similarly
treated; but the sonnets on Schill, the King of Sweden, and Napoleon--as
arranged by Wordsworth himself--do not break the continuity of the
series on Spain, in the same way that the insertion of those on Palafox
and Zaragoza interferes with the unity of the Tyrolean group; and the
re-arrangement of the latter series enables me more conveniently to
append to it a German translation of the sonnets, and a paper upon them,
by Alois Brandl.--ED.
TYROLESE SONNETS
I
HOFFER
Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]
The six sonnets of this Tyrolean group were placed among the "Sonnets
dedicated to Liberty."--ED.
Of mortal parents is the Hero born
By whom the undaunted Tyrolese are led?
Or is it Tell's great Spirit, from the dead
Returned to animate an age forlorn?
He comes like Phoebus through the gates of morn 5
When dreary darkness is discomfited,
Yet mark his modest[1] state! upon his head,
That simple crest, a heron's plume, is worn.[2]
O Liberty! they stagger at the shock
From van to rear--and with one mind would flee, 10
But half their host is buried:[3]--rock on rock
Descends:--beneath this godlike Warrior, see!
Hills, torrents, woods, embodied to bemock
The Tyrant, and confound his cruelty.
The expectation that the Germans would rise against the French in 1807
was realised only in the Tyrol. Andreas Hofer, an innkeeper in the
Passeierthal, was the chief of the Tyrolese leaders. More than once he
called his countrymen to arms, and was successful for a time. The
Bavarians, however, defeated him, in October 1809. He was tried by
court-martial, and shot in 1810.--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1815.
... simple ... 1809.
[2] 1815.
A Heron's feather for a crest is worn. 1809.
[3] 1837.
... at the shock;
The Murderers are aghast; they strive to flee
And half their Host is buried:-- ... 1809.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, October 26.--ED.
II
"ADVANCE--COME FORTH FROM THY TYROLEAN GROUND"
Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]
Advance--come forth from thy Tyrolean ground,
Dear Liberty! stern Nymph of soul untamed;
Sweet Nymph, O rightly of the mountains named!
Through the long chain of Alps from mound to mound
And o'er the eternal snows, like Echo, bound; 5
Like Echo, when the hunter train at dawn
Have roused her from her sleep: and forest-lawn,
Cliffs, woods and caves, her viewless steps resound
And babble of her pastime!--On, dread Power!
With such invisible motion speed thy flight, 10
Through hanging clouds, from craggy height to height,
Through the green vales and through the herdsman's bower--
That all the Alps may gladden in thy might,
Here, there, and in all places at one hour.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, October 26.--ED.
III
FEELINGS OF THE TYROLESE
Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]
The Land we from our fathers had in trust,
And to our children will transmit, or die:
This is our maxim, this our piety;
And God and Nature say that it is just.
That which we _would_ perform in arms--we must! 5
We read the dictate in the infant's eye;
In the wife's smile; and in the placid sky;
And, at our feet, amid the silent dust
Of them that were before us.--Sing aloud
Old songs, the precious music of the heart! 10
Give, herds and flocks, your voices to the wind!
While we go forth, a self-devoted crowd,
With weapons grasped in fearless hands,[1] to assert
Our virtue, and to vindicate mankind.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
With weapons in the fearless hand, 1809.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, December 21.--ED.
IV
"ALAS! WHAT BOOTS THE LONG LABORIOUS QUEST"
Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]
Alas! what boots the long laborious quest
Of moral prudence, sought through good and ill;
Or pains[1] abstruse--to elevate the will,
And[2] lead us on to that transcendent rest
Where every passion shall the sway attest 5
Of Reason, seated on her sovereign hill;
What is it but a vain and curious skill,
If sapient Germany must lie deprest,
Beneath the brutal sword?--Her haughty Schools
Shall blush; and may not we with sorrow say, 10
A few strong instincts and a few plain rules,
Among the herdsmen of the Alps, have wrought
More for mankind at this unhappy day
Than all the pride of intellect and thought?
See the paper by Alois Brandl appended to this series of sonnets, p.
218. Wordsworth had probably no means of knowing anything of Fichte's
"Addresses to the German Nation," delivered weekly in Berlin, from
December 1807 to March 1808. (See _Fichte_, by Professor Adamson, pp.
84-91.)--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1815.
... pain ... 1809.
[2] 1815.
Or ... 1809.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, November 16, under the title, _Sonnet suggested by
the efforts of the Tyrolese, contrasted with the present state of
Germany_.--ED.
V
ON THE FINAL SUBMISSION OF THE TYROLESE
Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]
It was a _moral_ end for which they fought;
Else how, when mighty Thrones were put to shame,
Could they, poor Shepherds, have preserved an aim,
A resolution, or enlivening thought?
Nor hath that moral good been _vainly_ sought; 5
For in their magnanimity and fame
Powers have they left, an impulse, and a claim
Which neither can be overturned nor bought.
Sleep, Warriors, sleep! among your hills repose!
We know that ye, beneath the stern control 10
Of awful prudence, keep the unvanquished soul:
And when, impatient of her guilt and woes,
Europe breaks forth; then, Shepherds! shall ye rise
For perfect triumph o'er your Enemies.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In _The Friend_, December 21, under the title, _On the report of the
submission of the Tyrolese_.--ED.
VI
"THE MARTIAL COURAGE OF A DAY IS VAIN"
Composed 1810?[A]--Published 1815
The martial courage of a day is vain,
An empty noise of death the battle's roar,
If vital hope be wanting to restore,
Or fortitude be wanting to sustain,
Armies or kingdoms. We have heard a strain 5
Of triumph, how the labouring Danube bore
A weight of hostile corses: drenched with gore
Were the wide fields, the hamlets heaped with slain.
Yet see (the mighty tumult overpast)
Austria a Daughter of her Throne hath sold! 10
And her Tyrolean Champion we behold
Murdered, like one ashore by shipwreck cast,
Murdered without relief. Oh! blind as bold,
To think that such assurance can stand fast!
FOOTNOTES:
[A] I retain this Tyrolese sonnet amongst the others belonging to the
same theme; but, as Hofer was shot in 1810, it was probably written in
that year.--ED.
* * * * *
I append to this series of sonnets on the Tyrol and the Tyrolese the
translation of a paper contributed by Alois Brandl, a Tyrolean, to the
_Neue Freie Presse_ of October 22, 1880. Herr Brandl was for some time
in England investigating the traces of a German literary influence on
Coleridge, Wordsworth, and their contemporaries.
"It was in the year 1809; Napoleon was at the height of his career
of victory; and England alone of all his opponents held the
supremacy at sea. For years the English were the only
representatives of freedom in Europe. At last it seemed that two
fortunate allies arose to join their cause--the insurgents in
Spain and in the little land of Tyrol. No wonder then that now
British poets sympathised with the victors at the hill of Isel,
and praised their courage and their leaders, and at last, when
they were overcome by superior forces, laid the laurel wreath of
tragic heroism on their graves.
"Thirty or forty years before, English poets would scarcely have
shown such a lively interest in a war of independence in a foreign
country. They stood under the curse of narrow-mindedness and
one-sidedness both in politics and in art, so that their
smooth-running verses neither sought nor found a response even in
the hearts of their own fellow-countrymen. The poets who appeared
before the public in the year 1798 with the famous 'Lyrical
Ballads' were the first to strike out a new path. Although
differing considerably from one another in other respects, they
agreed in their opposition to the conventionality of the old
school."
. . . . .
"Wordsworth lived in a simple little house on the romantic lake
of Grasmere, in the heart of the mountains of Westmoreland. He
studied more in his walks over heath and field than in books, and
entered with interest into the questions affecting the good of the
country people around him. All this of necessity impelled him to
take a warm interest in the herdsmen of the Alps.
"But the Tyrolese inspired him with still greater interest on
political grounds. Like all the lake poets, he was an enthusiastic
admirer, not of the French revolution, but of the republic as long
as it seemed to desire the realization of the ideas of Liberty,
Fraternity, Equality, and the rest of Rousseau's Arcadian notions;
and it was a bitter disillusion for him, as well as for Klopstock,
when this much-praised home of the free rights of man resolved
itself into the empire of Napoleon. From this moment he took his
place on the side of the enemies of France, and particularly on
the side of the Tyrolese, since they had never lost the natural
simplicity of their habits, and had regained the hereditary
freedom, of which they had been deprived, with the sword. Thus
arose the curious paradox, that a republican poet glorified
spontaneously the cause of an exceedingly monarchical and
conservative country.
"Wordsworth gave vent to his enthusiasm in six sonnets, which, as
far as power of language and vigour of thought are concerned, form
interesting companion-pieces to the poems of the contemporary
Tyrolese poet Alois Weissenbach. In the first three sonnets the
splendour of the Alpine world, which he knew from his journeys in
Switzerland, forms the background of the picture. In the
foreground he sees a band of brave and daring men, in whose hearts
he thought he could find all his own moral pathos. Many of the
features which he has introduced certainly show more ideal fancy
than knowledge of detail; but it was not his purpose to compose a
correct report of the war, but to give an exciting description of
the heroes of this struggle for independence, in order that, even
though they themselves should be overpowered, their spirit might
arise again among his own fellow-countrymen. In the fourth sonnet,
in his enthusiasm for the Tyrolese, he has treated the German
universities with unnecessary severity; but this does not prove
any intentional want of fairness on his part, for at that time our
universities stood under general discredit in England as the
hotbeds of the wildest metaphysics and political dreams. The
events of the year 1813 would probably induce Wordsworth to view
them in a more favourable light. Similarly the sixth sonnet is not
quite just to Austria; in particular Wordsworth has made
decidedly too little allowance for the fact that the Emperor Franz
I. ceded the Tyrol quite against his own will under the pressure
of circumstances. But in this case we must not simply impute all
the blame to the poet; for as we see from the diary of his friend
Southey, his information as to the doings of Austria was of a most
vague and unfavourable character. We, however, cannot have any
wish to impute to Austria the sins of ill-advised diplomacy."
The following are Herr Brandl's German translations of five of
Wordsworth's sonnets:--
1
Andreas Hofer.
Von Sterblichen geboren sei der Held,
Der den Tirolern todeskuehn gebeut?
Ist etwa Tell's Geist aus der Ewigkeit
Gekehrt, zu wecken die verlor'ne Welt?
Er kommt wie Phoebus aus dem Morgenzelt,
Wenn sich die Finsterniss der Nacht zerstreut,
Und doch, wie schlicht! Ein Falkenschweif nur dreut
Von seinem Hut und fuellt sein Wappenfeld.
O Freiheit! Wie der Feind erbebt in Ruecken
Und Front und gerne floeh' in ~einer~ Fluth,
Waer' er nicht halb bedeckt von Felsenstuecken,
Gewaelzt von dieses Kaempfers Goettermuth!
Geeint sind Berg, Wald, Wildbach, zu erdruecken
Hohnlachend den Tyrann und seine Wuth.
2[B]
Freiheit, ersteig aus deinem Heimatsland
Tirol! du Maedchen ernst und unzaehmbar
Und lieblich doch, der Berge Kind fuerwahr!
Ein Echo zwischen Fels und Alpenwand.
Und ueber Gletschern bist du festgebannt;
Ein Echo, das die Jagd im Morgengrau
Vom Schlaf' aufscheucht, dass Berg und Wald und Au
Und Hoehle droehnen, wo's unsichtbar stand,
Sein Spiel verkuendend. So urploetzlich strahl',
Du hehre Macht, hervor im Siegeslauf
Durch Wolkenwust, von Klippenknauf zu Knauf,
Durch Almenhuetten, durch das gruene Thal;
In dir dann jauchzen alle Alpen auf
Hier, dort und ueberall mit ~einem~ Mal!
3
Gefuehle der Tiroler.
"Das Land ist uns vertraut vom Ahngeschlecht:
So sei's vererbt--und kost' es auch das Leben--
Den Kindern: das ist Pflicht und fromm und eben;
Natur und Gott, sie nennen es gerecht.
Wir ~muessen~ thun, was moeglich, im Gefecht:
Sieh' dies Gebot im Kindesauge leben,
Von Frauenlippen, aus dem Aether schweben;
Ihr Vaeter selbst aus Grabesmoder sprecht
Es laut empor.--So kling' in Sangesbraus
Der alten Lieder herzliche Musik!
Einstimmen Hirt und Heerde in den Reihen!
Ein opferwillig' Haeuflein zieh'n wir aus,
Die Waffen in den Haenden, Muth im Blick,
Der Tugend treu, die Menschheit zu befreien."
4
Was nuetzt, ach! langes sittenkluges Streiten,
Das man aus "gut" und "boese" presst mit Mueh';
Was dummer Fleiss, zu hoeh'n die Energie
Und zu transcendentaler Ruh' zu leiten,
Dass jede Leidenschaft sich lasse reiten
Von der Vernunft in Allsuprematie:
Ist das nicht seltsam eitle Theorie,
Wenn Deutschland trotz so viel Spitzfindigkeiten
Dem rohen Schwert erliegt? Erroethen sollen
Die hohen Schulen! Muessen wir nicht sagen:
Mehr wussten wenig Regeln, starkes Wollen
Durch schlichte Alpenhirten auszufuehren
Fuer's Menschenwohl in diesen Unglueckstagen,
Als alles stolze Metaphysiciren?
5
Auf die schliessliche Unterwerfung der Tiroler.
Ist einer ~guten~ Sache galt ihr Schlagen;
Wie haetten bei der Throne Niederfahrt
Sonst sie, die armen Schaefer, sich bewahrt
Begeisternd hohen Sinn und kraeftig Wagen?
Auch hat ihr Kampf fuer's Gute Frucht getragen:
Weckt nicht ihr Ruhm, die grosse Denkungsart
Auch uns den Muth, mit Rechtsgefuehl gepaart,
Der nicht zu kaufen ist, nicht zu zernagen?
Schlaft, Kaempfer! Unter euren Bergen ruht!
Dem strengsten Richter kann es nicht entgehen:
Nie kannte euer ~Herz~ das Retiriren.
Und bricht in hoechster Pein und Rachewuth
Europa los, so sollt ihr auferstehen,
~Ganz~ ueber euern Feind zu triumphiren!
FOOTNOTES:
[B] Sonette 2 und 4 sind unbetitelt.
"AND IS IT AMONG RUDE UNTUTORED DALES"
Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]
This and the remaining sonnets of 1809 were placed among those
"dedicated to Liberty."--ED.
And is it among rude untutored Dales,[1]
There, and there only, that the heart is true?
And, rising to repel or to subdue,
Is it by rocks and woods that man prevails?
Ah no! though Nature's dread protection fails, 5
There is a bulwark in the soul.[2] This knew
Iberian Burghers when the sword they drew
In Zaragoza, naked to the gales
Of fiercely-breathing war. The truth was felt
By Palafox, and many a brave compeer, 10
Like him of noble birth and noble mind;
By ladies, meek-eyed women without fear;
And wanderers of the street, to whom is dealt
The bread which without industry they find.
Palafox-y-Melzi, Don Joseph (1780-1847), immortalized by his heroic
defence of Saragossa in 1808-9. He was of an old Aragon family, and
entered the Spanish army at an early age. In 1808, when twenty-nine
years of age, he was appointed governor of Saragossa, by the people of
the town, who were menaced by the French armies. He defended it with a
few men, against immense odds, and compelled the French to abandon the
siege, after sixty-one days' attack, and the loss of thousands.
Saragossa, however, was too important to lose, and Marshals Mortier and
Moncy renewed the siege with a large army. Palafox (twice defeated
outside) retired to the fortress as before, where the men, women, and
children fought in defence, till the city was almost a heap of ruins.
Typhus attacked the garrison within, while the French army assailed it
from without. Palafox, smitten by the fever, had to give up the command
to another, who signed a capitulation next day. He was sent a prisoner
to Vincennes, and kept there for nearly five years, till the restoration
of Ferdinand VII., when he was sent back on a secret mission to Madrid.
In 1814 he was appointed Captain-General of Aragon; but for about thirty
years--till his death in 1847--he took no part in public affairs.--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1815.
... vales, 1809.
[2] The word "soul" was _italicised_ in the editions of 1809 to 1832.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In Coleridge's _Friend_, December 21.--ED.
"O'ER THE WIDE EARTH, ON MOUNTAIN AND ON PLAIN"
Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]
O'er the wide earth, on mountain and on plain,
Dwells in the affections and the soul of man
A Godhead, like the universal PAN;[B]
But more exalted, with a brighter train:
And shall his bounty be dispensed in vain, 5
Showered equally on city and on field,
And neither hope nor stedfast promise yield
In these usurping times of fear and pain?
Such doom awaits us. Nay, forbid it Heaven!
We know the arduous strife, the eternal laws 10
To which the triumph of all good is given,
High sacrifice, and labour without pause,
Even to the death:--else wherefore should the eye
Of man converse with immortality?
FOOTNOTES:
[A] In Coleridge's _Friend_, December 21.--ED.
[B] Compare Aubrey de Vere's _Picturesque Sketches of Greece and
Turkey_, vol. i. chap. viii. p. 204.--ED.
In _The Friend_ (edition 1812), the following footnote occurs--
"... universal Pan,
Knit with the graces and the hours in dance,
Led on the eternal spring.--MILTON." ED.
"HAIL, ZARAGOZA! IF WITH UNWET EYE"
Composed 1809.--Published 1815
Hail, Zaragoza! If with unwet eye
We can approach, thy sorrow to behold,
Yet is the heart not pitiless nor cold;
Such spectacle demands not tear or sigh.
These desolate remains are trophies high 5
Of more than martial courage in the breast
Of peaceful civic virtue:[A] they attest
Thy matchless worth to all posterity.
Blood flowed before thy sight without remorse;
Disease consumed thy vitals; War upheaved 10
The ground beneath thee with volcanic force:
Dread trials! yet encountered and sustained
Till not a wreck of help or hope remained,
And law was from necessity[1] received.[B]
See note to the sonnet beginning "And is it among rude untutored Dales"
(p. 222). "Saragossa surrendered February 20, 1809, after a heroic
defence, which may recall the sieges of Numantiaor Saguntum. Every
street, almost every house, had been hotly contested; the monks, and
even the women, had taken a conspicuous share in the defence; more than
40,000 bodies of both sexes and every age testified to the obstinate
courage of the besieged." (See Dyer's _History of Modern Europe_, vol.
iv. p. 496.)--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] The word "necessity" was _italicised_ in the editions of 1815 to
1843.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare a passage in Wordsworth's Essay _Concerning the Convention
of Cintra_ (1809, pp. 180-1), beginning "Most gloriously have the
Citizens of Saragossa proved that the true army of Spain, in a contest
of this nature, is the whole people."--ED.
[B] The beginning is imitated from an Italian Sonnet.--W. W. 1815.
In 1837 Wordsworth put it thus, "In this Sonnet I am under some
obligations to one of an Italian author, to which I cannot refer." But
it is to be noted that in the edition of 1837, this note does not refer
to the sonnet on Saragossa, but to that beginning "O, for a kindling
touch from that pure flame," belonging to the year 1816. In subsequent
editions the note is reappended to this sonnet beginning "Hail,
Zaragoza!"--ED.
"SAY, WHAT IS HONOUR?--'TIS THE FINEST SENSE"
Composed 1809.--Published 1815
Say, what is Honour?--'Tis the finest sense
Of _justice_ which the human mind can frame,
Intent each lurking frailty to disclaim,
And guard the way of life from all offence
Suffered or done. When lawless violence 5
Invades a Realm, so pressed that in the scale[1]
Of perilous war her weightiest armies fail,
Honour is hopeful elevation,--whence
Glory, and triumph. Yet with politic skill
Endangered States may yield to terms unjust; 10
Stoop their proud heads, but not unto the dust--
A Foe's most favourite purpose to fulfil:
Happy occasions oft by self-mistrust
Are forfeited; but infamy doth kill.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
A Kingdom doth assault, and in the scale 1815.
"BRAVE SCHILL! BY DEATH DELIVERED, TAKE THY FLIGHT"
Composed 1809.--Published 1815
Brave Schill! by death delivered, take thy flight
From Prussia's timid region. Go, and rest
With heroes, 'mid the islands of the Blest,
Or in the fields of empyrean light.
A meteor wert thou crossing a dark night:[1] 5
Yet shall thy name, conspicuous and sublime,
Stand in the spacious firmament of time,
Fixed as a star: such glory is thy right.
Alas! it may not be: for earthly fame
Is Fortune's frail dependant; yet their lives 10
A Judge, who, as man claims by merit, gives;
To whose all-pondering mind a noble aim,
Faithfully kept, is as a noble deed;
In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed.