The tidings passed of servitude repealed,
And of that joy which shook the Isthmian Field,
The rough Aetolians smiled with bitter scorn.
"'Tis known," cried they, "that he, who would adorn
His envied temples with the Isthmian crown, 6
Must either win, through effort of his own,
The prize, or be content to see it worn
By more deserving brows.--Yet so ye prop,
Sons of the brave who fought at Marathon, 10
Your feeble spirits! Greece her head hath bowed,
As if the wreath of liberty thereon
Would fix itself as smoothly as a cloud,
Which, at Jove's will, descends on Pelion's top."
The Aetolians were the only Greeks that entertained suspicion of the
Roman designs from the first. When Flamininus was wintering in Phocis in
196, and an insurrection broke out at Opus, some of the citizens had
called in the aid of the Aetolians against the Macedonian garrison; but
the gates of the city were not opened to admit the Aetolian volunteers
till Flamininus arrived. Then in the battle at the heights of
Cynoscephalae, where the Macedonian army was routed, the Aetolian
contingent, which had helped Flamininus, claimed the sole credit of the
victory; and wished no truce made with Philip, as they were bent on the
destruction of the Macedonian power. The Aetolians aimed subsequently at
exciting suspicion against the sincerity of Flamininus. In the second
sonnet, Wordsworth's sympathy seems to have been with the Aetolians, as
much as it was with the Swiss and the Tyrolese in their attitude to
Buonaparte. But Flamininus was not a Napoleon.--ED.
THE OAK OF GUERNICA
Composed 1810.--Published 1815
The ancient oak of Guernica, says Laborde in his account of Biscay, is a
most venerable natural monument. Ferdinand and Isabella, in the year
1476, after hearing mass in the church of Santa Maria de la Antigua,
repaired to this tree, under which they swore to the Biscayans to
maintain their _fueros_ (privileges). What other interest belongs to
it in the minds of this people will appear from the following
SUPPOSED ADDRESS TO THE SAME. 1810
Oak of Guernica! Tree of holier power
Than that which in Dodona did enshrine
(So faith too fondly deemed) a voice divine
Heard from the depths of its aerial bower--
How canst thou flourish at this blighting hour? 5
What hope, what joy can sunshine bring to thee,
Or the soft breezes from the Atlantic sea,
The dews of morn, or April's tender shower?
Stroke merciful and welcome would that be
Which should extend thy branches on the ground, 10
If never more within their shady round
Those lofty-minded Lawgivers shall meet,
Peasant and lord, in their appointed seat,
Guardians of Biscay's ancient liberty.
Prophetic power was believed to reside within the grove which surrounded
the temple of Jupiter near Dodona, in Epirus, and oracles were given
forth from the boughs of the sacred oak.--ED.
INDIGNATION OF A HIGH-MINDED SPANIARD, 1810
Composed 1810.--Published 1815
We can endure that He should waste our lands,
Despoil our temples, and by sword and flame
Return us to the dust from which we came;
Such food a Tyrant's appetite demands:
And we can brook the thought that by his hands 5
Spain may be overpowered, and he possess,
For his delight, a solemn wilderness
Where all the brave lie dead. But, when of bands
Which he will break for us he dares to speak,
Of benefits, and of a future day 10
When our enlightened minds shall bless his sway;
_Then_, the strained heart of fortitude proves weak;
Our groans, our blushes, our pale cheeks declare
That he has power to inflict what we lack strength to bear.
Compare the two sonnets _On a Celebrated Event in Ancient History_ (pp.
242-44). The following note to the last line of this sonnet occurs in
Professor Reed's American edition of the Poems:--"The student of English
poetry will call to mind Cowley's impassioned expression of the
indignation of a Briton under the depression of disasters somewhat
similar.
Let rather Roman come again,
Or Saxon, Norman, or the Dane:
In all the bonds we ever bore,
We grieved, we sighed, we wept, _we never blushed before_."
See Cowley's _Discourse on the Government of Oliver Cromwell_.--ED.
"AVAUNT ALL SPECIOUS PLIANCY OF MIND"
Composed 1810.--Published 1815
Avaunt all specious pliancy of mind
In men of low degree, all smooth pretence!
I better like a blunt indifference,
And self-respecting slowness, disinclined
To win me at first sight: and be there joined 5
Patience and temperance with this high reserve,
Honour that knows the path and will not swerve;
Affections, which, if put to proof, are kind;
And piety towards God. Such men of old
Were England's native growth; and, throughout Spain,
(Thanks to high God) forests of such remain:[1] 11
Then for that Country let our hopes be bold;
For matched with these shall policy prove vain,
Her arts, her strength, her iron, and her gold.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
Forests of such do at this day remain; 1815.
"O'ERWEENING STATESMEN HAVE FULL LONG RELIED"
Composed 1810.--Published 1815
In all the editions this poem has for its title the date _1810_.--ED.
O'erweening Statesmen have full long relied
On fleets and armies, and external wealth:
But from _within_ proceeds a Nation's health;
Which shall not fail, though poor men cleave with pride
To the paternal floor; or turn aside, 5
In the thronged city, from the walks of gain,
As being all unworthy to detain
A Soul by contemplation sanctified.
There are who cannot languish in this strife,
Spaniards of every rank, by whom the good 10
Of such high course was felt and understood;
Who to their Country's cause have bound a life
Erewhile, by solemn consecration, given
To labour, and to prayer, to nature, and to heaven.[A]
FOOTNOTES:
[A] See Laborde's Character of the Spanish People; from him the
sentiment of these two last lines is taken.--W. W. 1815.
THE FRENCH AND THE SPANISH GUERILLAS
Composed 1810.--Published 1815
Hunger, and sultry heat, and nipping blast
From bleak hill-top, and length of march by night
Through heavy swamp, or over snow-clad height--
These hardships ill-sustained, these dangers past,
The roving Spanish Bands are reached at last, 5
Charged, and dispersed like foam: but as a flight
Of scattered quails by signs do reunite,
So these,--and, heard of once again, are chased
With combinations of long-practised art
And newly-kindled hope; but they are fled-- 10
Gone are they, viewless as the buried dead:
Where now?--Their sword is at the Foeman's heart!
And thus from year to year his walk they thwart,
And hang like dreams around his guilty bed.
See the note appended to the sonnet entitled _Spanish Guerillas_ (p.
254).--ED.
MATERNAL GRIEF
Composed 1810.--Published 1842
[This was in part an overflow from the Solitary's description of his own
and his wife's feelings upon the decease of their children. (See
_Excursion_, book 3rd.)--I. F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."--ED.
Departed Child! I could forget thee once
Though at my bosom nursed; this woeful gain
Thy dissolution brings, that in my soul
Is present and perpetually abides
A shadow, never, never to be displaced 5
By the returning substance, seen or touched,
Seen by mine eyes, or clasped in my embrace.
Absence and death how differ they! and how
Shall I admit that nothing can restore
What one short sigh so easily removed?-- 10
Death, life, and sleep, reality and thought,
Assist me, God, their boundaries to know,
O teach me calm submission to thy Will!
The Child she mourned had overstepped the pale
Of Infancy, but still did breathe the air 15
That sanctifies its confines, and partook
Reflected beams of that celestial light[A]
To all the Little-ones on sinful earth
Not unvouchsafed--a light that warmed and cheered
Those several qualities of heart and mind 20
Which, in her own blest nature, rooted deep,
Daily before the Mother's watchful eye,
And not hers only, their peculiar charms
Unfolded,--beauty, for its present self,
And for its promises to future years, 25
With not unfrequent rapture fondly hailed.
Have you espied upon a dewy lawn
A pair of Leverets each provoking each
To a continuance of their fearless sport,
Two separate Creatures in their several gifts 30
Abounding, but so fashioned that, in all
That Nature prompts them to display, their looks,
Their starts of motion and their fits of rest,
An undistinguishable style appears
And character of gladness, as if Spring 35
Lodged in their innocent bosoms, and the spirit
Of the rejoicing morning were their own?
Such union, in the lovely Girl maintained
And her twin Brother, had the parent seen,
Ere, pouncing like a ravenous bird of prey, 40
Death in a moment parted them, and left
The Mother, in her turns of anguish, worse
Than desolate; for oft-times from the sound
Of the survivor's sweetest voice (dear child,
He knew it not) and from his happiest looks, 45
Did she extract the food of self-reproach,
As one that lived ungrateful for the stay
By Heaven afforded to uphold her maimed
And tottering spirit. And full oft the Boy,
Now first acquainted with distress and grief, 50
Shrunk from his Mother's presence, shunned with fear
Her sad approach, and stole away to find,
In his known haunts of joy where'er he might,
A more congenial object. But, as time
Softened her pangs and reconciled the child 55
To what he saw, he gradually returned,
Like a scared Bird encouraged to renew
A broken intercourse; and, while his eyes
Were yet with pensive fear and gentle awe
Turned upon her who bore him, she would stoop 60
To imprint a kiss that lacked not power to spread
Faint colour over both their pallid cheeks,
And stilled his tremulous lip. Thus they were calmed
And cheered; and now together breathe fresh air
In open fields; and when the glare of day 65
Is gone, and twilight to the Mother's wish
Befriends the observance, readily they join
In walks whose boundary is the lost One's grave,
Which he with flowers hath planted, finding there
Amusement, where the Mother does not miss 70
Dear consolation, kneeling on the turf
In prayer, yet blending with that solemn rite
Of pious faith the vanities of grief;
For such, by pitying Angels and by Spirits
Transferred to regions upon which the clouds 75
Of our weak nature rest not, must be deemed
Those willing tears, and unforbidden sighs,
And all those tokens of a cherished sorrow,
Which, soothed and sweetened by the grace of Heaven
As now it is, seems to her own fond heart, 80
Immortal as the love that gave it being.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare the _Ode, Intimations of Immortality_, l. 4, and _passim_
(vol. viii.)--ED.
1811
In the spring of 1811 Wordsworth left Allan Bank, to reside for two
years in the Rectory, Grasmere. A small fragment on his daughter
Catherine, the _Epistle to Sir George Beaumont, Bart., from the
south-west coast of Cumberland_, the lines _To the Poet, John Dyer_, and
four sonnets (mainly suggested by the events of the year in Spain)
comprise all the poems belonging to 1811.--ED.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHILD THREE YEARS OLD
Composed 1811.--Published 1815
[Written at Allanbank, Grasmere. Picture of my daughter, Catherine, who
died the year after.--I. F.]
Classed among the "Poems referring to the Period of Childhood."--ED.
Loving she is, and tractable, though wild;
And Innocence hath privilege in her
To dignify arch looks and laughing eyes;
And feats of cunning; and the pretty round
Of trespasses, affected to provoke 5
Mock-chastisement and partnership in play.
And, as a faggot sparkles on the hearth,
Not less if unattended and alone
Than when both young and old sit gathered round
And take delight in its activity; 10
Even so this happy Creature of herself
Is all-sufficient; solitude to her
Is blithe society, who fills the air
With gladness and involuntary songs.
Light are her sallies as the tripping fawn's 15
Forth-startled from the fern where she lay couched;
Unthought-of, unexpected, as the stir
Of the soft breeze ruffling the meadow-flowers,
Or from before it chasing wantonly
The many-coloured images imprest 20
Upon the bosom of a placid lake.
On February 28, 1810, Dorothy Wordsworth wrote to Lady Beaumont,
"Catherine is the only funny child in the family; the rest of the
children are _lively_, but Catherine is comical in every look and
motion. Thomas perpetually forces a tender smile by his simplicity, but
Catherine makes you laugh outright, though she can hardly say a dozen
words, and she joins in the laugh, as if sensible of the drollery of her
appearance."--ED.
SPANISH GUERILLAS, 1811
Composed 1811.--Published 1815
Classed among the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."--ED.
They seek, are sought; to daily battle led,
Shrink not, though far outnumbered by their Foes,
For they have learnt to open and to close
The ridges of grim war;[A] and at their head
Are captains such as erst their country bred 5
Or fostered, self-supported chiefs,--like those
Whom hardy Rome was fearful to oppose;
Whose desperate shock the Carthaginian fled.
In One who lived unknown a shepherd's life
Redoubted Viriatus breathes again;[B] 10
And Mina, nourished in the studious shade,[C]
With that great Leader[D] vies, who, sick of strife
And bloodshed, longed in quiet to be laid
In some green island of the western main.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare _Paradise Lost_, book vi. ll. 235-36--
and when to close
The ridges of grim war. ED.
[B] Viriatus, for eight or fourteen years leader of the Lusitanians in
the war with the Romans in the middle of the second century B.C. He
defeated many of the Roman generals, including Q. Pompeius. Some of the
historians say that he was originally a shepherd, and then a robber or
guerilla chieftain. (See Livy, books 52 and 54.)--ED.
[C] "Whilst the chief force of the French was occupied in Portugal and
Andalusia, and there remained in the interior of Spain only a few weak
corps, the Guerilla system took deep root, and in the course of 1811
attained its greatest perfection. Left to itself the boldest and most
enterprising of its members rose to command, and the mode of warfare
best adapted to their force and habits was pursued. Each province
boasted of a hero, in command of a formidable band--Old Castile, Don
Julian Sanches; Aragon, Longa; Navarre, Esprez y Mina, ... with
innumerable others, whose deeds spread a lustre over every part of the
kingdom.... Mina and Longa headed armies of 6000 or 8000 men with
distinguished ability, and displayed manoeuvres oftentimes for months
together, in baffling the pursuit of more numerous bodies of French,
which would reflect credit on the most celebrated commanders." Mina had
been trained for clerical life. (See _Account of the War in Spain and
Portugal, and in the south of France, from 1808 to 1814 inclusive_, by
Lieut.-Colonel John T. Jones. London, 1818.)--ED.
[D] Sertorius.--W. W. 1827. See note to _The Prelude_ book i. vol. iii.
p. 138.--ED.
"THE POWER OF ARMIES IS A VISIBLE THING"
Composed 1811.--Published 1815
One of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."
The power of Armies is a visible thing,[A]
Formal, and circumscribed in time and space;[1]
But who the limits of that power shall trace[2]
Which a brave People into light can bring
Or hide, at will,--for freedom combating 5
By just revenge inflamed? No foot may chase,[3]
No eye can follow, to a fatal[4] place
That power, that spirit, whether on the wing
Like the strong wind, or sleeping like the wind
Within its awful caves.--From year to year 10
Springs this indigenous produce far and near;
No craft this subtle element can bind,
Rising like water from the soil, to find
In every nook a lip that it may cheer.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1827.
... and place; 1815.
[2] 1827.
... can trace 1815.
[3] 1827.
... can chase, 1815.
[4] The word "fatal" was _italicised_ in the editions of 1815-43.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare Aubrey de Vere's _Picturesque Sketches of Greece and
Turkey_, vol. i. chap. viii. p. 204.--ED.
"HERE PAUSE: THE POET CLAIMS AT LEAST THIS PRAISE"
Composed 1811.--Published 1815
Included among the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty." In 1815 it was called
_Conclusion_, as ending this series of poems in that edition. In all
editions it was headed by the date _1811_.--ED.
Here pause: the poet claims at least this praise,
That virtuous Liberty hath been the scope
Of his pure song, which did not shrink from hope
In the worst moment of these evil days;
From hope, the paramount _duty_ that Heaven lays, 5
For its own honour, on man's suffering heart.[A]
Never may from our souls one truth depart--
That an accursed[1] thing it is to gaze
On prosperous tyrants with a dazzled eye;
Nor--touched with due abhorrence of _their_ guilt 10
For whose dire ends tears flow, and blood is spilt,
And justice labours in extremity--
Forget thy weakness, upon which is built,
O wretched man, the throne of tyranny!
VARIANTS:
[1] The word "accursed" was _italicised_ in the editions of 1815-43.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare _The Excursion_ (book iv. l. 763)--
We live by Admiration, Hope, and Love,
and S. T. C. in _The Friend_ (vol. i. p. 172). "What an awful duty, what
a nurse of all others, the fairest virtues, does not Hope become! We are
bad ourselves, because we despair of the goodness of others."--ED.
EPISTLE TO SIR GEORGE HOWLAND BEAUMONT, BART.
FROM THE SOUTH-WEST COAST OF CUMBERLAND.--1811
Composed 1811.--Published 1842
[This poem opened, when first written, with a paragraph that has been
transferred as an introduction to the first series of my Scotch
Memorials. The journey, of which the first part is here described, was
from Grasmere to Bootle on the south-west coast of Cumberland, the whole
among mountain roads through a beautiful country; and we had fine
weather. The verses end with our breakfast at the head of Yewdale in a
yeoman's house, which, like all the other property in that sequestered
vale, has passed or is passing into the hands of Mr. James Marshall of
Monk Coniston--in Mr. Knott's, the late owner's, time called Waterhead.
Our hostess married a Mr. Oldfield, a lieutenant in the Navy. They lived
together for some time at Hacket, where she still resides as his widow.
It was in front of that house, on the mountain side, near which stood
the peasant who, while we were passing at a distance, saluted us, waving
a kerchief in her hand as described in the poem.[A] (This matron and her
husband were then residing at the Hacket. The house and its inmates are
referred to in the fifth book of _The Excursion_, in the passage
beginning--
You behold,
High on the breast of yon dark mountain, dark
With stony barrenness, a shining speck.--J. C.)[B]
The dog which we met with soon after our starting belonged to Mr.
Rowlandson, who for forty years was curate of Grasmere in place of the
rector who lived to extreme old age in a state of insanity. Of this Mr.
R. much might be said, both with reference to his character, and the way
in which he was regarded by his parishioners. He was a man of a robust
frame, had a firm voice and authoritative manner, of strong natural
talents, of which he was himself conscious, for he has been heard to say
(it grieves me to add) with an oath--"If I had been brought up at
college I should have been a bishop." Two vices used to struggle in him
for mastery, avarice and the love of strong drink; but avarice, as is
common in like cases, always got the better of its opponent; for, though
he was often intoxicated, it was never I believe at his own expense. As
has been said of one in a more exalted station, he would take any
_given_ quantity. I have heard a story of him which is worth the
telling. One summer's morning, our Grasmere curate, after a night's
carouse in the vale of Langdale, on his return home, having reached a
point near which the whole of the vale of Grasmere might be seen with
the lake immediately below him, stepped aside and sat down on the turf.
After looking for some time at the landscape, then in the perfection of
its morning beauty, he exclaimed--"Good God, that I should have led so
long such a life in such a place!" This no doubt was deeply felt by him
at the time, but I am not authorised to say that any noticeable
amendment followed. Penuriousness strengthened upon him as his body grew
feebler with age. He had purchased property and kept some land in his
own hands, but he could not find in his heart to lay out the necessary
hire for labourers at the proper season, and consequently he has often
been seen in half-dotage working his hay in the month of November by
moonlight, a melancholy sight which I myself have witnessed.
Notwithstanding all that has been said, this man, on account of his
talents and superior education, was looked up to by his parishioners,
who without a single exception lived at that time (and most of them upon
their own small inheritances) in a state of republican equality, a
condition favourable to the growth of kindly feelings among them, and
in a striking degree exclusive to temptations to gross vice and
scandalous behaviour. As a pastor their curate did little or nothing for
them; but what could more strikingly set forth the efficacy of the
Church of England through its Ordinances and Liturgy than that, in spite
of the unworthiness of the minister, his church was regularly attended;
and, though there was not much appearance in the flock of what might be
called animated piety, intoxication was rare, and dissolute morals
unknown. With the Bible they were for the most part well acquainted;
and, as was strikingly shown when they were under affliction, must have
been supported and comforted by habitual belief in those truths which it
is the aim of the Church to inculcate. _Loughrigg Tarn._--This beautiful
pool and the surrounding scene are minutely described in my little Book
upon the Lakes. Sir G. H. Beaumont, in the earlier part of his life, was
induced, by his love of nature and the art of painting, to take up his
abode at Old Brathay, about three miles from this spot, so that he must
have seen it under many aspects; and he was so much pleased with it that
he purchased the Tarn with a view to build, near it, such a residence as
is alluded to in this Epistle. Baronets and knights were not so common
in that day as now, and Sir Michael le Fleming, not liking to have a
rival in that kind of distinction so near him, claimed a sort of
Lordship over the territory, and showed dispositions little in unison
with those of Sir G. Beaumont, who was eminently a lover of peace. The
project of building was in consequence given up, Sir George retaining
possession of the Tarn. Many years afterwards a Kendal tradesman born
upon its banks applied to me for the purchase of it, and accordingly it
was sold for the sum that had been given for it, and the money was laid
out under my direction upon a substantial oak fence for a certain number
of yew trees to be planted in Grasmere church-yard; two were planted in
each enclosure, with a view to remove, after a certain time, the one
which throve least. After several years, the stouter plant being left,
the others were taken up and placed in other parts of the same
church-yard, and were adequately fenced at the expense and under the
care of the late Mr. Barber, Mr. Greenwood, and myself: the whole eight
are now thriving, and are already an ornament to a place which, during
late years, has lost much of its rustic simplicity by the introduction
of iron palisades to fence off family burying-grounds, and by numerous
monuments, some of them in very bad taste; from which this place of
burial was in my memory quite free. See the lines in the sixth book of
_The Excursion_ beginning--"Green is the church-yard, beautiful and
green." The _Epistle_ to which these notes refer, though written so far
back as 1804,[C] was carefully revised so late as 1842, previous to its
publication. I am loth to add, that it was never seen by the person to
whom it is addressed. So sensible am I of the deficiencies in all that I
write, and so far does everything I attempt fall short of what I wish it
to be, that even private publication, if such a term may be allowed,
requires more resolution than I can command. I have written to give vent
to my own mind, and not without hope that, some time or other, kindred
minds might benefit by my labours: but I am inclined to believe I should
never have ventured to send forth any verses of mine to the world if it
had not been done on the pressure of personal occasions. Had I been a
rich man, my productions, like this _Epistle_, the tragedy of _The
Borderers_, etc., would most likely have been confined to
manuscript.--I. F.]
Included among the "Miscellaneous Poems."--ED.