under Pelopidas had so large a share in sustaining the Theban ascendency
after the Battle of Leuctra (B.C. 371-366).--ED.]
COMPOSED IN ONE OF THE VALLEYS OF WESTMORELAND, ON EASTER SUNDAY[380]
Composed 1819.--Published 1819
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
With each recurrence of this glorious morn
That saw the Saviour in his human frame
Rise from the dead, erewhile the Cottage-dame
Put on fresh raiment--till that hour unworn:
Domestic[381] hands the home-bred wool had shorn, 5
And she who span it culled[382] the daintiest fleece,
In thoughtful reverence to the Prince of Peace,
Whose temples bled beneath the platted thorn.
A blest estate when piety sublime
These humble props disdained not! O green dales!
Sad may _I_ be who heard your sabbath chime 11
When Art's abused inventions were unknown;
Kind Nature's various wealth was all your own;
And benefits were weighed in Reason's scales!
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 380: 1819.
Written on Easter Sunday. MS.
]
[Footnote 381: 1819.
Her Husband's ... MS.
]
[Footnote 382: 1819.
Which she had spun--culling ... MS.
]
The following (incomplete) version of this Easter Sunday sonnet exists
in MS.:--
COMPOSED ON EASTER SUNDAY
Erewhile to celebrate this glorious morn
That saw the unvanquished Saviour of mankind
Rise from the grave, the Ruler and the Hind
Put on fresh raiment, till that hour unworn,
Fair cloth of home-bred wool which he had shorn,
Her hands had spun, culling her daintiest fleece,
Such reverence paid they to the Prince of Peace.
O blest estate, when Piety sublime
These humble props disdained not! Are thy flowers
Banished for aye, from Britain's hills and vales
Extinct, or lingering in a happier clime,
Where our abused inventions are unknown
And benefits are weighed in Reason's scales?
ED.
"GRIEF, THOU HAST LOST AN EVER READY FRIEND"
Composed 1819.--Published 1819
[I could write a treatise of lamentation upon the changes brought about
among the cottages of Westmoreland by the silence of the
spinning-wheel.[DR] During long winter nights and wet days, the wheel
upon which wool was spun gave employment to a great part of a family.
The old man, however infirm, was able to card the wool, as he sate in a
corner by the fire-side; and often, when a boy, have I admired the
cylinders of carded wool which were softly laid upon each other by his
side. Two wheels were often at work on the same floor; and others of the
family, chiefly little children, were occupied in teasing and cleaning
the wool to fit it for the hand of the carder. So that all, except the
smallest infants, were contributing to mutual support. Such was the
employment that prevailed in the pastoral vales. Where wool was not at
hand, in the small rural towns, the wheel for spinning flax was almost
in as constant use, if knitting was not preferred; which latter
occupation has the advantage (in some cases disadvantage) that, not
being of necessity stationary, it allowed of gossiping about from house
to house, which good housewives reckoned an idle thing.--I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Grief, thou hast lost an ever ready friend
Now that the cottage Spinning-wheel is mute;
And Care--a comforter that best could suit
Her froward mood, and softliest reprehend;
And Love--a charmer's voice, that used to lend, 5
More efficaciously than aught that flows
From harp or lute, kind influence to compose
The throbbing pulse--else troubled without end:
Even Joy could tell,[383] Joy craving truce and rest
From her own overflow, what power sedate 10
On those revolving motions did await
Assiduously--to soothe her aching breast;
And, to a point of just relief, abate
The mantling triumphs of a day too blest.
The following version of the last seven lines of this sonnet is from a
MS. copy of it:--
The panting breast else troubled without end:
And fancy prized the murmuring spinning-wheel
In sympathies inexplicably fine,
Instilled a confidence how sweet to feel!
That ever, in the night calm, when the sheep
Upon their grassy beds lay couched in sleep,
The quickening spindle drew a trustier line.
ED.
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 383: 1819.
And Joy can tell, ... MS.
]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote DR: Compare similar regrets in _The Excursion_.--ED.]
"I WATCH, AND LONG HAVE WATCHED, WITH CALM REGRET"
Composed 1819.--Published 1819[DS]
[Suggested in front of Rydal Mount, the rocky parapet being the summit
of Loughrigg Fell opposite. Not once only, but a hundred times, have the
feelings of this sonnet been awakened by the same objects seen from the
same place.--I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
I watch, and long have watched, with calm regret
Yon slowly-sinking star--immortal Sire
(So might he seem) of all the glittering quire!
Blue ether still surrounds him--yet--and yet;
But now the horizon's rocky parapet 5
Is reached, where, forfeiting his bright attire,
He burns--transmuted to a dusky fire--
Then pays submissively the appointed debt
To the flying moments, and is seen no more.[384]
Angels and gods! We struggle with our fate, 10
While health, power, glory, from their height decline,[385]
Depressed; and then extinguished: and our state,
In this, how different, lost Star, from thine,
That no to-morrow shall our beams restore![DT]
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 384: 1837.
... to a sullen fire,
That droops and dwindles; and, the appointed debt
To the flying moments paid, is seen no more. 1819.
]
[Footnote 385: 1837.
... glory, pitiably decline, 1819.
]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote DS: This sonnet was omitted in the edition of 1827.--ED.]
[Footnote DT: Compare Beattie's _Hermit_ (stanza iii. l. 5)--
Roll on then, fair orb, and with gladness pursue
The path that conducts thee to splendour again;
But man's faded glory no change shall renew;
Ah, fool! to exult in a glory so vain.
ED.
]
I HEARD (ALAS! 'TWAS ONLY IN A DREAM)
Composed 1819.--Published 1819
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
I heard (alas! 'twas only in a dream)
Strains--which, as sage Antiquity believed,
By waking[386] ears have sometimes been received
Wafted adown the wind from lake or stream;
A most melodious requiem, a supreme 5
And perfect harmony of notes, achieved
By a fair Swan on drowsy billows heaved,
O'er which her pinions shed a silver gleam.
For is she not the votary of Apollo?
And knows she not, singing as he inspires,[387] 10
That bliss awaits her which the ungenial Hollow[DU]
Of the dull earth partakes not, nor desires?
Mount, tuneful Bird, and join the immortal quires!
She soared--and I awoke, struggling in vain to follow.
Socrates to Simmias.--"Will you not allow that I have as much of the
spirit of prophecy in me as the swans? For they, when they perceive that
they must die, having sung all their life long, do then sing more than
ever, rejoicing in the thought that they are about to go away to the
God, whose ministers they are. But men, because they are themselves
afraid of death, slanderously affirm of the swans, that they sing a
lament at the last, not considering that no bird sings when cold, or
hungry, or in pain, not even the nightingale, nor the swallow, nor yet
the hoopoe, which are said indeed to tune a lay of sorrow, although I do
not believe this to be true of them any more than of the swans. But
because they are sacred to Apollo, they have the gift of prophecy, and
anticipate the good things of another world; wherefore they sing and
rejoice in that day more than ever they did before. And I too, believing
myself to be the consecrated servant of the same God, and the
fellow-servant of the swans, and thinking that I have received from my
master gifts of prophecy which are not inferior to theirs, would not go
out of life less merrily than the swans." _Phædo_, 85 (Jowett's
translation, vol. i. p. 462).--ED.
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 386: 1819.
By living ... MS.
]
[Footnote 387: 1819.
... inspired, MS.
]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote DU: See the _Phædon_ of Plato, by which this Sonnet was
suggested.--W. W. 1819.]
THE HAUNTED TREE[DV]
To ----
Composed 1819.--Published 1820
[This tree grew in the park of Rydal, and I have often listened to its
creaking as described.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.
Those silver clouds collected round the sun
His mid-day warmth abate not, seeming less
To overshade than multiply his beams
By soft reflection--grateful to the sky, 4
To rocks, fields, woods. Nor doth our human sense
Ask, for its pleasure, screen or canopy
More ample than the[388] time-dismantled Oak
Spreads o'er this tuft of heath, which now, attired
In the whole fulness of its bloom, affords
Couch beautiful as e'er for earthly use[389] 10
Was fashioned; whether by the hand of Art,
That eastern Sultan, amid flowers enwrought
On silken tissue, might diffuse his limbs
In languor; or, by Nature, for repose
Of panting Wood-nymph, wearied with the chase.[390] 15
O Lady! fairer in thy Poet's sight
Than fairest spiritual creature of the groves,
Approach;--and, thus invited, crown with rest
The noontide hour: though truly some there are
Whose footsteps superstitiously avoid 20
This venerable Tree; for, when the wind
Blows keenly, it sends forth a creaking sound
(Above the general roar of woods and crags)
Distinctly heard from far--a doleful note!
As if (so Grecian shepherds would have deemed) 25
The Hamadryad, pent within, bewailed
Some bitter wrong.[DW] Nor is it unbelieved,
By ruder fancy, that a troubled ghost
Haunts the old trunk;[391] lamenting deeds of which
The flowery ground is conscious. But no wind 30
Sweeps now along this elevated ridge;
Not even a zephyr stirs;--the obnoxious Tree
Is mute: and, in his silence, would look down,
O lovely Wanderer of the trackless hills,
On thy[392] reclining form with more delight 35
Than his coevals in the sheltered vale
Seem to participate, the while they view[393]
Their own far-stretching arms and leafy heads
Vividly pictured in some glassy pool,
That, for a brief space, checks the hurrying stream! 40
Where this _Haunted Tree_ stood in Rydal Park, or whether it is still
standing, cannot be determined. There are several "time-dismantled oaks"
in the Park, but none with a heather couch beneath them, so far as I
know. I have, however, heard stories of this tree from old residenters.
The "Lady," the "lovely wanderer of the trackless hills," may have been
the poet's daughter, Dora, to whom (probably) this poem was
inscribed.--ED.
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 388: 1827.
... that ... 1820.
]
[Footnote 389: 1827.
As beautiful a couch as e'er on earth 1820.
]
[Footnote 390: 1836.
... weary of the chace. 1820.
... wearied by the chase. 1827.
]
[Footnote 391: 1836.
Haunts this old Trunk; ... 1820.
]
[Footnote 392: 1827.
... would look down
On thy ... 1820.
]
[Footnote 393: 1849.
... whilst they view 1820.
]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote DV: The title in the first edition of 1820 was "To
----."--ED.]
[Footnote DW: The Hamadryads were supposed not only to haunt the trees,
but to live in them, and to die with them.--ED.]
SEPTEMBER, 1819
Composed 1819.--Published 1820
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.
The sylvan slopes with corn-clad fields
Are hung, as if with golden shields,
Bright trophies of the sun!
Like a fair sister of the sky,
Unruffled doth the blue lake lie, 5
The mountains looking on.[DX]
And, sooth to say, yon vocal grove,
Albeit uninspired by love,
By love untaught to ring,
May well afford to mortal ear 10
An impulse more profoundly dear
Than music of the Spring.
For _that_ from turbulence and heat
Proceeds, from some uneasy seat
In nature's struggling frame, 15
Some region of impatient life:
And jealousy, and quivering strife,
Therein a portion claim.
This, this is holy;--while I hear
These vespers of another year, 20
This hymn of thanks and praise,
My spirit seems to mount above
The anxieties of human love,
And earth's precarious days.
But list!--though winter storms be nigh, 25
Unchecked is that soft harmony;
There lives Who can provide
For all His creatures; and in Him,
Even like the radiant Seraphim,
These choristers confide. 30
See the Fenwick note to the second of the two _Odes to Lycoris_. This
poem and the next in order are "the two that follow," referred to in
that note as "composed in front of Rydal Mount, and during my walks in
the neighbourhood." Note the eulogy of Spring, and (comparative)
disparagement of Autumn, in _Lycoris_; and the complimentary truth, in
reference to Autumn, brought out in this fragment.--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote DX: Rydal Mere. Compare the _Ode to Lycoris_ (pp.
145-148).--ED.]
UPON THE SAME OCCASION
Composed 1819.--Published 1820
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.
Departing summer hath assumed
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy shade
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade, 5
A timely carolling.
No faint and hesitating trill,
Such tribute as to winter chill
The lonely redbreast pays!
Clear, loud, and lively is the din, 10
From social warblers gathering in
Their harvest of sweet lays.
Nor doth the example fail to cheer
Me, conscious that my leaf is sere,[DY]
And yellow on the bough:-- 15
Fall, rosy garlands, from my head!
Ye myrtle wreaths, your fragrance shed
Around a younger brow!
Yet will I temperately rejoice;
Wide is the range, and free the choice 20
Of undiscordant themes;
Which, haply, kindred souls may prize
Not less than vernal ecstasies,
And passion's feverish dreams.
For deathless powers to verse belong, 25
And they like Demi-gods are strong
On whom the Muses smile;
But some their function have disclaimed,
Best pleased with what is aptliest framed
To enervate and defile.[DZ] 30
Not such the initiatory strains
Committed to the silent plains
In Britain's earliest dawn:
Trembled the groves, the stars grew pale,
While all-too-daringly the veil 35
Of nature was withdrawn![EA]
Nor such the spirit-stirring note
When the live chords Alcæus smote,[EB]
Inflamed by sense of wrong;
Woe! woe to Tyrants! from the lyre 40
Broke threateningly, in sparkles dire
Of fierce vindictive song.[EC]
And not unhallowed was the page
By wingèd Love inscribed, to assuage
The pangs of vain pursuit; 45
Love listening while the Lesbian Maid[ED]
With finest touch of passion swayed[394]
Her own Æolian lute.
O ye, who patiently explore
The wreck of Herculanean lore,[EE] 50
What rapture! could ye seize
Some Theban fragment, or unroll
One precious, tender-hearted, scroll
Of pure Simonides.[EF]
That were, indeed, a genuine birth 55
Of poesy; a bursting forth
Of genius from the dust:
What Horace gloried to behold,[395][EG]
What Maro loved[EH] shall we enfold?
Can haughty Time be just! 60
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 394: 1827.
With passion's finest finger swayed 1820.
]
[Footnote 395: 1820.
(4 vol. edition.)
... boasted to behold, 1820.
(1 vol. edition.)
]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote DY: Compare _Macbeth_, act V. scene iii. l. 23--
my way of life
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf.
ED.
]
[Footnote DZ: The reference may be to some of the poets of the
Restoration.--ED.]
[Footnote EA: Here the reference may be to Cædmon's _Paraphrase_.--ED.]
[Footnote EB: Alcæus of Mytilene, in Lesbos, the first of the Æolian
lyric poets, flourished in the 42nd Olympiad, about 600 B.C. He wrote
odes, songs, and epigrams, and was the inventor of the Alcaic metre,
called after his name. "During the civil war Alcæus engaged actively on
the side of the nobles, whose spirits he endeavoured to cheer by a
number of most animated odes, full of invectives against the tyrant; and
after the defeat of his party, he, with his brother Antimenidas, led
them again in an attempt to regain their country." (Mr. Philip Smith in
the _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_.)--ED.]
[Footnote EC: I am indebted to Mr. H. T. Rhoades, Rugby, for the
following note on Alcæus:--"There is nothing exactly corresponding to
'Woe, woe, to Tyrants' in the fragments of Alcæus which have come down
to us--which are chiefly drinking songs--the nearest is an exultation
over a dead tyrant, νῦν χρὴ μεθύσθην ... ἐπειδὴ
κάτθανε Μύρσιλος--but he wrote verses which Pittacus thought
dangerous, and for which he was banished. Horace, _Od._ IV. ix. 7, has
'Alcæi minaces camenæ,' and Wordsworth has perhaps had this in his
mind."--ED.]
[Footnote ED: Sappho. Her ode to Aphrodite--of which Longinus said it
was "not one passion, but a congress of passions"--is the most perfect
in Greek literature. It is to it that Wordsworth refers; and as there
has been much controversy as to the character of this magnificent erotic
ode--compare the discussion by Welcher (_Rheinisches Museum_, 1857); by
Mure (_Critical History of the Language and Literature of Ancient
Greece_, vol. iii. chap. V. 11); by Müller (_Literature of Ancient
Greece_, pp. 175, 178); and by J. A. Symonds (_Studies of the Greek
Poets_, 1st Series, p. 129), Wordsworth's verdict--
Not unhallowed was the page
With finest touch of passion swayed,
is noteworthy.--ED.]
[Footnote EE: In 1752, during the excavations at Herculaneum, the villa
of an Epicurean philosopher was discovered, in which were 1800 rolls of
papyri, containing fragments of Epicurus' work _On Nature_. Only about
350 of these charred MSS. have as yet been unwound. When the discovery
was first made that a library of ancient literature had been unearthed,
European scholars everywhere anticipated
a bursting forth
Of genius from the dust.
Hence Wordsworth's allusion to the possible discovery of the long buried
fragments of classical antiquity, such as the poems of Simonides, or the
lost books of Livy and Tacitus, for which others longed.--ED.]
[Footnote EF: Simonides, of Ceos, perfected Greek elegy and epigram, a
"brilliant representative not only of Greek choral poetry in its prime,
but of the whole literary life of Hellas during the period which
immediately preceded and followed the Persian war." We find in him "a
Dorian solemnity of thought and feeling, which qualified him for
commemorating in elegy and epigram and funereal ode the achievements of
Hellas against Persia.... The genius of Simonides is unique in this
branch of monumental poetry (epigram). His couplets--calm, simple,
terse, strong as the deeds they celebrate, enduring as the brass or
stone which they adorned--animated succeeding generations of Greek
patriots." (Symonds, _Studies of the Greek Poets_, 1st Series, pp.
146-149.) The phrase "pure Simonides" probably refers to his
reputation--which was proverbial--for σωφροσύνη, that temperance
and restraint, that moderation and self-control which are seen both in
his poems and in his reputed sayings as a philosopher.--ED.]
[Footnote EG: Horace refers to Simonides, _Carmina_ IV. ix. 5-8--
Non, si priores Mæonius tenet
Sedes Homerus, Pindaricæ latent
Ceæque et Alcæi minaces
Stesichorique graves camenæ;
and again, _Carmina_ II. i. 37-40--
Sed ne relictis, Musa, procax iocis
Ceæ retractes munera neniæ:
Mecum Dionæo sub antro
Quære modos leviore plectro.
ED.
]
[Footnote EH: I have been unable to find any allusion to Simonides in
Virgil. But probably Wordsworth merely refers to the numerous lost books
of Greek and Latin literature; and wonders if these treasures (of all
kinds), which Horace and Virgil knew and prized, would ever be recovered
by us. Some of Horace's most significant references to the literature of
Greece, and of the past, occur in _Odes_ III. 3; iv. 2 and 3.
Since the above was written, the late Professor William Sellar wrote to
me:--"I do not find any special reference to Simonides in Virgil.
Besides the passages you refer to in Horace, there are two or three
lines in the _Odes_, which he has translated from Simonides, _e.g._
Est et fideli tuta silentio
Merces: (_Carmina_ III. ii. 25)
but I think Wordsworth's reference is quite vague. It is quite
appropriate so far, that it was only in the Augustan age that the Romans
got back to the great sources of Greek poetry, and one cause of the
superiority of Virgil and Horace to all their contemporaries was that
they did this much more thoroughly than the others, and appreciated the
purest and oldest of these sources. Horace's special study was of course
the whole range of Greek lyric poetry. He no doubt acknowledges his
relation to Sappho and Alcæus more than to Simonides, but he recognises
him as well as Pindar among the Masters of lyrical poetry. So far as one
can judge by the fragments of Simonides' lyrical poetry, I should say
that his characteristics were tenderness, piety, and purity; and, in
these respects, he has a strong affinity with Virgil, which may explain
their association together by Wordsworth. The passage quoted by you is
very interesting, as showing how Wordsworth--the most essentially modern
and least conventional of poets--regarded Virgil and Horace, who have
often been disparaged as types of conventionalism.... It would be very
interesting to bring together the various passages in which Wordsworth
draws from the sources of classical poetry. His reminiscences of Latin
poetry seem to me to have a peculiar freshness, different from the more
direct reproduction of Milton, Gray, etc."--ED.]
1820
The following poems may be assigned to the year 1820. _The River Duddon,
a series of Sonnets_, the Ode _To Enterprise_, some of the _Memorials of
a Tour on the Continent_, and a number of _Miscellaneous Sonnets_.
Several of the Duddon Sonnets were composed in previous years, and one
of them was published as early as 1807; but, as the volume containing
the entire series was published in 1820--and the dedication was written
on Christmas Eve of that year--the whole has been assigned to 1820. In
localising the allusions in these sonnets, I have been greatly indebted
to Mr. Herbert Rix, whose paper contributed to the "Transactions of the
Wordsworth Society" was only the first of a Series of admirable studies
of the Duddon. I have also been greatly indebted to Canon Rawnsley. Most
of the "Memorials" of the Continental Tour were written during the
journey; and, although they were not finished till 1822--the year of
publication--I think their chronological place should be in the year
1820. In connection with these poems, I have had the advantage of
perusing the two singularly interesting Journals of the Tour, written by
Mrs. Wordsworth, and by the poet's sister Dorothy. Both of these were
written, in the form of notes or "memoranda," during the journey. Miss
Wordsworth's was expanded from these earlier jottings, two months after
her return to Rydal Mount; and added to, as late as December 1821. In
the case of each poem, illustrative extracts are given from these two
Journals; and it will be seen that they cast much light on the incidents
which gave rise to the Memorial Verses, and the circumstances under
which they were composed. The poet's wish that these journals should be
published, at least in part, is expressed in the Fenwick note, which
precedes the sonnet beginning, "What lovelier home could gentle Fancy
choose?" p. 294; and Mrs. Wordsworth, in a letter to Mr. John
Kenyon--dated 28th December 1821--after referring to her husband's being
"busily engaged upon subjects connected with our Continental Journey,"
says, "Miss W. is going on with her Journal, which will be ready to go
to press interspersed with her brother's Poems I hope before your
return." She adds, however, "I do not say this seriously, but we
sometimes jestingly talk of raising a fund by such means, for a second
and a farther trip into Italy." The diary and correspondence of Henry
Crabb Robinson is also of use in determining some points connected with
this Continental Journey, in which he accompanied the Wordsworths.--ED.
COMPOSED ON THE BANKS OF A ROCKY STREAM
Composed 1820.--Published 1820
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.