find--sheltered in the little gullies which the rills have worn down the
fell-side--not only the strawberry, speedwell, and thyme, mentioned in
the sonnet, but sundry other flowers, such as the Spearwort, Milkwort,
Small Bedstraw, _Euphrasia officinalis_, and _Potentilla tormentilla_,
but this and the following Sonnet were perhaps inspired by the beauty of
the flowery meadows just below Cockley Beck." (Herbert Rix.)
* * * * *
"Wordsworth, from his Sonnet VI., would seem to have been describing the
Duddon in April; and though by some misnomer 'the little speedwell's
darling blue' has by him been called the 'trembling eyebright,' to-day
in July 1884--though the time of the singing of birds who 'warble to
their paramours' is over and gone--one can see by Duddon-side these 'old
remains of hawthorn bowers.'
But I shall never forget the beauty or the size of the golden feathery
spikes of sweet-scented Gallium (lady's bed straw), or the wonderful
odour of the self-heal, and the glory of the harebells, as I saw them
carpeting the meadows near Cockley Beck, this July day, 1884; and, as I
plucked the very faintly scented euphrasia (or eyebright), I wondered
much which were the spring-flowers Wordsworth had in his mind that by
their breath invited no caress. Would it be the buttercup, the daisy, or
which? He must have had some definite flower--scentless, but not less
beautiful--in his eye as he wrote Sonnet VI." (H. D. Rawnsley.)]
[Footnote 438: This refers to the year 1820, and the sentence only
occurs in the edition of 1820.--ED.]
VII
"CHANGE ME, SOME GOD, INTO THAT BREATHING ROSE!"
"Change me, some God, into that breathing rose!"
The love-sick Stripling fancifully sighs,
The envied flower beholding, as it lies
On Laura's breast, in exquisite repose;
Or he would pass into her bird, that throws 5
The darts of song from out its wiry cage;
Enraptured,--could he for himself engage
The thousandth part of what the Nymph bestows;
And what the little careless innocent
Ungraciously receives. Too daring choice! 10
There are whose calmer mind it would content
To be an unculled floweret of the glen,
Fearless of plough and scythe; or darkling wren[FF]
That tunes on Duddon's banks her slender voice.
VIII
"WHAT ASPECT BORE THE MAN WHO ROVED OR FLED"
What aspect bore the Man who roved or fled,
First of his tribe, to this dark dell[FG]--who first
In this pellucid Current slaked his thirst?
What hopes came with him? what designs were spread
Along his path? His unprotected bed 5
What dreams encompassed? Was the intruder nursed
In hideous usages, and rites accursed,
That thinned the living and disturbed the dead?
No voice replies;--both air and earth are mute;[439]
And Thou, blue Streamlet, murmuring yield'st no more 10
Than a soft record, that, whatever fruit
Of ignorance thou might'st witness heretofore,
Thy function was to heal and to restore,
To soothe and cleanse, not madden and pollute!
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 439: 1837.
... the earth, the air is mute; 1820.
]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote FF: "The 'darkling wren' was flitting from bush to bush,
tuneless but happy, as I walked towards the stepping-stones spoken of in
Sonnets IX., X.; and the timid little sandpiper, with its plaintive
note, shot back and forward from shallow to shallow." (H. D. Rawnsley.)]
[Footnote FG: "The 'dark dell' is perhaps Hardknot Ghyll. It is the only
spot in this part of the valley which could be so described. A footpath
which passes through the farmyard of Black Hall runs alongside this
ghyll and joins the Duddon Valley with the Whitehaven Road. The 'blue
streamlet' would then perhaps be the little tributary which flows down
the length of the ghyll over a slaty bed to join the Duddon below; or
perhaps Wordsworth was mentally addressing the Duddon itself, though
from the interior of the ghyll he would not be able to see it.
The alternative view is that by the 'dark dell' no particular spot is
indicated but the whole of the upper valley of the Duddon, which is of a
savage and forbidding aspect, and quite of a character to have inspired
the sonnet. It is almost treeless, and the ground on either side of the
stream is covered with bracken and loose blocks of slate, while the
fells rise steeply on either hand, and are capped by naked crags.
As to the epithet '_blue_' (line 10), the cerulean colour of the Duddon
is one of its most exquisite characteristics, and is due, as Wordsworth
has himself[FH] explained, to the hue of the rocks and gravel seen
through the 'perfectly pellucid' water." (Herbert Rix.)
* * * * *
"This sonnet puzzles me from the use of the words _dark dell_. I could
find nothing at all hereabout that could possibly be described so, until
I looked back at the rain-black solitudes north of Cockley Beck, and
imagined the poet using the word dark in the sense of mysterious, when I
can imagine he would have been helped to this thought of hideous usages,
and rites accursed, by the large Druid-like-looking boulders, and the
mounds of burial, suggested by the moraine-heaps in the neighbourhood.
But I think the '_blue Streamlet_' must have been suggested by the light
blue grey colour of the slate pebbles over which Duddon slides so easily
here." (H. D. Rawnsley.)
]
[Footnote FH: See his _Guide to the Lakes_. Fifth edition. Kendal, 1835,
p. 27.--ED.]
IX
THE STEPPING-STONES
The struggling Rill insensibly is grown
Into a Brook of loud and stately march,
Crossed ever and anon by plank or[440] arch;
And, for like use, lo! what might seem a zone
Chosen for ornament--stone matched with stone 5
In studied symmetry, with interspace
For the clear waters to pursue their race
Without restraint. How swiftly have they flown,
Succeeding--still succeeding! Here the Child
Puts, when the high-swoln Flood runs fierce and wild,
His budding courage to the proof; and here 11
Declining Manhood learns to note the sly
And sure encroachments of infirmity,
Thinking how fast time runs, life's end how near![FI]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote FI: "There are four sets of stepping-stones across the Duddon.
The first set is between Cockley Beck and Birks Brig, opposite to a
farmhouse called Dale Head; the second set, called by the natives of the
district the 'Fiddle Steps,' is in a deep hollow between Birks Brig and
Seathwaite, at a point where the footpath to Eskdale crosses the Duddon;
the third is opposite Seathwaite, and the fourth just above Ulpha.
Of these, the second and fourth may, I think, be disregarded. The
question lies between the first and third, which we will call
respectively the _upper_ and the _lower_ stones.
James Thorne has fixed upon the upper stones as those of Wordsworth's
two sonnets, and has given a picture of them. His woodcut is very rude,
but is sufficiently defined by the number of the stones, the gate on the
right, and the distant cottage on the left. Mrs. Lynn Linton, too, in
her _Lake Country_ (London, 1864, p. 251), claims the honour for the
same set, and has given (p. 252), a very pretty picture of them. Miss
Martineau, on the contrary, in her _Survey of the Lake District_,[441]
appears to regard the stones opposite Seathwaite as _the_ stones; and
the Rev. F. A. Malleson, in his article on 'Wordsworth and the
Duddon,'[442] takes the same view. This is the view which local
tradition favours, for any inhabitant of Seathwaite or Ulpha, if asked
for 'Wordsworth's Stones,' would at once direct the stranger to the
_lower_ stones.
There is something to be said for each of these opinions. The upper
stones fit in with the order of the sonnets, coming after the sonnet
about Cockley Beck, and before the sonnets about the Faëry Chasm,
Seathwaite Chapel, and Ulpha Kirk. Moreover, the emphasis of the earlier
sonnets in general, and of the opening lines of Sonnet IX. in
particular, is on the growth of the 'struggling rill'--a thought which
would be rather out of place if it came later in the series.
On the other hand the 'zone chosen for ornament,' and the 'studied
symmetry' are more applicable to the lower than to the upper stones;
they are of a bluish tint, are set at equal distances, and form a slight
curve down stream, looking to a fanciful eye as though they were bending
with the current. They are now (1894) disused, having been abandoned, on
account of the frequent floods, in favour of a foot-bridge recently
erected a little higher up the stream; and already the path to the
stepping-stones is overgrown and nearly obliterated.
If the sonnets are taken to refer to the lower stones 'yon high rock'
would probably mean Wallabarrow; if to the upper stones, they would
doubtless mean Castle How, a solitary and noticeable rock." (Herbert
Rix.)
* * * * *
"One cannot but believe that Wordsworth, as he wrote Sonnets IX., X.,
had in his mind the third series of stepping-stones opposite Seathwaite,
and under Wallabarrow Crag.
None of the others are fitly described as
a zone chosen for ornament.
Is it not possible that the word 'struggling,' as applied to rill,--when
viewed in connection with the words 'without restraint,' in line 8 of
Sonnet IX.--points with great definiteness to the localising of the
Sonnet at these Seathwaite stones?
Certainly the stream as it has descended through the 'deep chasm' of
Sonnet XV. between the Pen and Wallabarrow, is well described as having
grown after a struggle into a brook of loud and stately march at this
point. There are no likelier spots for the children to have put
Their budding courage to the proof
than here, for there are several houses and farms on the wayside, whose
younger inmates would have come down to these stepping-stones, in order
to get to the village school, that 'Wonderful Walker' kept with so much
honour at Seathwaite in olden time." (H. D. Rawnsley.)]
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 440: 1837.
... and ... 1820.
]
[Footnote 441: Whellan's _History and Topography of Westmoreland and
Cumberland_, 4to, Pontefract, 1860, p. 56.]
[Footnote 442: _Good Words_, vol. xxiv. p. 579.]
X
THE SAME SUBJECT
Not so that Pair whose youthful spirits dance
With prompt emotion, urging them to pass;
A sweet confusion checks the Shepherd-lass;
Blushing she eyes the dizzy flood askance;
To stop ashamed--too timid to advance; 5
She ventures once again--another pause!
His outstretched hand He tauntingly withdraws--
She sues for help with piteous utterance!
Chidden she chides again; the thrilling touch
Both feel, when he renews the wished-for aid: 10
Ah! if their fluttering hearts should stir too much,
Should beat too strongly, both may be betrayed.
The frolic Loves, who, from yon high rock, see
The struggle, clap their wings for victory!
XI
THE FAËRY CHASM[FJ]
No fiction was it of the antique age:
A sky-blue stone, within this sunless cleft,
Is of the very foot-marks unbereft
Which tiny Elves impressed;--on that smooth stage
Dancing with all their brilliant equipage 5
In secret revels--haply after theft
Of some sweet Babe--Flower stolen, and coarse Weed left
For the distracted Mother to assuage
Her grief with, as she might!--But, where, oh! where
Is traceable a vestige of the notes 10
That ruled those dances wild in character?--
Deep underground? Or in the upper air,
On the shrill wind of midnight? or where floats
O'er twilight fields the autumnal gossamer?
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote FJ: "Adopting the view that Sonnets IX. and X. refer to the
stepping-stones at Dale Head, the position of the 'Faëry Chasm,' which
has often caused perplexity, becomes clear. It must be looked for not
below but considerably above Seathwaite, and is, in fact, the very next
striking feature that occurs after the stepping-stones at Dale Head are
passed. It is, I believe, the rocky gorge which is crossed by Birks
Brig.
The stream is here precipitated down a series of falls, and at the same
time is forced into a much narrower channel than it has hitherto
occupied. In its downward course it is thrust from side to side in a
series of rebounds, the effect being that the flood is churned into a
mass of foam, while the rocks between which it is driven are scooped and
chiselled into the most fantastic shapes--basins and niches, caverns and
arches, and pillars with an odd spiral twist. Anything of a more elfin
character could hardly be conceived.
The turbulence of the water as it descends towards the bridge is very
well expressed in the charming little sketch given at page 245 of Mrs.
Lynn Linton's _Lake Country_, but the cleft itself is not there
represented. Of that, or a part of it, an illustration has been given by
Mr. Chattock in his etchings of the River Duddon published in 1884 by
the Fine Art Society.
Neither Mr. Chattock nor Mrs. Lynn Linton has, however, identified the
spot with the 'Faëry Chasm.' Mr. Chattock associates it with Sonnet XX.,
though the imagery of that sonnet must, as he himself confesses, have
been 'inspired by some scene farther down the river,' while Mrs. Lynn
Linton (p. 251) finds the 'Faëry Chasm' at Gowdrel Crag. This latter
view, which is, apparently, that adopted also by Canon Rawnsley, is a
very possible alternative, and is favoured by the fact that the bed of
the stream is at that point strewn with blocks of sky-blue stone. In
that case Sonnets XI. and XII. refer to the same chasm. Mr. Goodwin in
_Through the Wordsworth Country_, illustrates a note on the Faëry Chasm
by a picture of the chasm at Wallabarrow, and of all the 'clefts' this
best fits with the epithet 'sunless'; but is it not too vast for fairy
scenes?
I could not learn that any faëry tradition was associated with either
place." (Herbert Rix.)
* * * * *
"I cannot rest satisfied that the Faëry Chasm of Sonnet XI. is to be
looked for at Birks Brig. No sky-blue stone, above water or below, can
be pointed out--
As a smooth stage on which the tiny elves
Could leave their foot-prints as they danced in secret revels.
But if the wanderer by Duddon Vale rejoins the road till it passes these
same farm buildings further down the valley, will strike into the field,
and, attracted by the roar of the stream, search for the locality set
forth in Sonnet XII., he will find in mid-stream a huge blue-grey
boulder that may have suggested Sonnet XI. to the poet." (H. D.
Rawnsley.)]
XII
HINTS FOR THE FANCY[FK]
On, loitering Muse--the swift Stream chides us--on!
Albeit his deep-worn channel doth immure
Objects immense portrayed in miniature,
Wild shapes for many a strange comparison!
Niagaras, Alpine passes, and anon 5
Abodes of Naiads, calm abysses pure,
Bright liquid mansions, fashioned to endure
When the broad oak drops, a leafless skeleton,
And the solidities of mortal pride,
Palace and tower, are crumbled into dust!-- 10
The Bard who walks with Duddon for his guide,
Shall find such toys of fancy thickly set:
Turn from the sight, enamoured Muse--we must;
And, if thou canst, leave them without regret![443]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote FK: "Almost immediately after leaving Birks Brig the stream
plunges into a gorge--the 'deep-worn channel' of this sonnet. By dint of
a little clambering, all the picturesque features described in the
sonnet may be seen, but the traveller is forced at last to resume the
road. The channel is so deep and confined that the stream cannot be seen
from the road, and this is the first time since leaving the source that
the Duddon is lost to sight. It is this fact which gives rise to the
concluding lines of the sonnet:--
Turn from the sight, enamoured Muse--we must;
And, if thou canst, leave them without regret!"
(Herbert Rix.)
]
XIII
OPEN PROSPECT[FL]
Hail to the fields--with Dwellings sprinkled o'er,
And one small hamlet, under a green hill
Clustering,[444] with barn and byre, and spouting mill!
A glance suffices;--should we wish for more,
Gay June would scorn us. But when bleak winds roar 5
Through the stiff lance-like shoots of pollard ash,[FM]
Dread swell of sound! loud as the gusts that lash
The matted forests of Ontario's shore
By wasteful steel unsmitten--then would I
Turn into port; and, reckless of the gale, 10
Reckless of angry Duddon sweeping by,
While the warm hearth exalts the mantling ale,
Laugh with the generous household heartily
At all the merry pranks of Donnerdale!
VARIANTS:
[Footnote 443: 1827.
Leave them--and, if thou canst, without regret! 1820.
]
[Footnote 444: 1837.
Cluster'd, ... 1820.
]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote FL: "In determining the spot to which this sonnet belongs two
conditions have to be satisfied. In the first place, Seathwaite must be
seen from it; and, in the second, there must be an open prospect of
fields. Now, from Cockley Beck to Ulpha there is no single spot upon the
road satisfying these two conditions. Unless the line of the river is
entirely abandoned, and some point of view high up on the fells is
taken, there is, I believe, only one station in all the valley which
supplies them, and that is the summit of a rock called in maps and
guide-books 'Pen Crag,' but which the dalesmen always call simply '_The
Pen_' (not to be confounded with the mountain of that name lower down
the valley on the west). There is an additional reason for regarding the
Pen as the station whence Wordsworth viewed his 'open prospect,' namely,
that the point from which the ascent of the crag is most conveniently
made is identical with the point where the Duddon makes his second
plunge into a rocky abyss, which plunge is signalised in the very next
sonnet (XIV.). Thus, at the very spot where the poet is enabled to gain
a view of 'the haunts of men,' 'some awful Spirit' impels the torrent
'utterly to desert' those haunts, and to make a second plunge into the
wilderness. An increased significance is thus given to each of the
sonnets (XIII. and XIV.) by the juxtaposition of the localities which
they describe.
I should explain, in connection with this, that the Pen stands in the
centre of the valley, a prominent and inviting look-out, and that the
easy slope, by which it is on one side ascended, rises from the
high-road, so that anybody who cares for views at all--and Wordsworth
above all people--would not think of passing by without climbing to such
an obvious point of vantage.
The 'one small hamlet' (line 2) is Seathwaite, which lies just below the
Pen.
The 'barn and byre' (line 3) must have belonged to Newfield, the only
farmhouse in the foreground.
The 'spouting mill' (line 3) is now a ruin. In Wordsworth's time it was
in full work. Later (in the autumn of 1842), when it was visited by
James Thorne, the wheel was broken, the machinery decaying, and the roof
partly fallen in. At the present time, wheel, machinery, and roof have
totally disappeared, and there is nothing to indicate that it ever was a
mill. It was only by inquiring of the older inhabitants that I learnt
these ruined walls standing by the Beck represent that 'mill for
spinning yarn,' of which Wordsworth says that it calls to mind 'the
momentous changes wrought by such inventions in the frame of society.'
The ruin stands on the Tarn Beck, a few yards below Seathwaite Chapel,
and on the other side of the stream.
The last three lines of the sonnet,
While the warm hearth exalts the mantling ale, etc.,
are probably an allusion to the Inn which, in Wordsworth's time, was to
be found here. This is now a farmstead. It is called Newfield, and is
just below Seathwaite Chapel. In Wordsworth's day it was inn and farm
combined.
Mr. Malleson, in the article quoted above, appears (p. 576) to regard
the green slope ascending towards Seathwaite Tarn, which opens on the
left about a mile before the traveller reaches Seathwaite Chapel, as the
'Open Prospect'; but, though the fields here are certainly 'sprinkled
o'er with dwellings,' the juxtaposition of the 'hamlet,' the 'barn and
byre,' and the 'spouting mill' is wanting, and the allusion to the inn
loses its point." (Herbert Rix.)
* * * * *
"It may be of interest to know that still the Newfield farm (in
Wordsworth's time farm and inn combined) keeps up the well-deserved
description of the poet. It is still 'a generous household.' When the
yeoman, who was the last innkeeper and farmer combined, was on his
death-bed, he enjoined those to whom Newfield passed to remember that
'though the license was to drop, and it was to become a private house,
yet no stranger in the valley who requested a night's lodging was ever
to be refused,' and the generous household are proud to keep up the
tradition of hospitality." (H. D. Rawnsley.)]
[Footnote FM: Compare Virgil, _Æneid_ iii. 23--
Densis hastilibus horrida myrtus.
(W. G. Rushbrooke.)
]
XIV
"O MOUNTAIN STREAM! THE SHEPHERD AND HIS COT"
O mountain Stream! the Shepherd and his Cot
Are privileged Inmates of deep solitude;
Nor would the nicest Anchorite exclude
A field or two of brighter green, or plot
Of tillage-ground, that seemeth like a spot 5
Of stationary sunshine:--thou hast viewed
These only, Duddon! with their paths renewed
By fits and starts, yet this contents thee not.
Thee hath some awful Spirit impelled to leave,
Utterly to desert, the haunts of men,[FN] 10
Though simple thy companions were and few;
And through this wilderness a passage cleave
Attended but by thy own voice, save when
The clouds and fowls of the air thy way pursue!
This sonnet was first published in the small two-volume edition of the
_Poems_ in 1807, and was therefore written during or before 1807. In the
present edition, however, it was not printed amongst the poems belonging
to that year, since its appropriate place is manifestly in the series of
sonnets relating to the River Duddon.--ED.
XV
"FROM THIS DEEP CHASM, WHERE QUIVERING SUNBEAMS PLAY"
From this deep chasm, where quivering sunbeams play
Upon its loftiest crags, mine eyes behold
A gloomy NICHE, capacious, blank, and cold;[FO]
A concave free from shrubs and mosses grey;
In semblance fresh, as if, with dire affray, 5
Some Statue, placed amid these regions old
For tutelary service, thence had rolled,
Startling the flight of timid Yesterday!
Was it by mortals sculptured?--weary slaves
Of slow endeavour! or abruptly cast 10
Into rude shape by fire, with roaring blast
Tempestuously let loose from central caves?
Or fashioned by the turbulence of waves,
Then, when o'er highest hills the Deluge pass'd?
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote FN: See note [A] p. 243.--ED.]
XVI
AMERICAN TRADITION
Such fruitless questions may not long beguile
Or plague the fancy 'mid the sculptured shows
Conspicuous yet where Oroonoko flows;
_There_ would the Indian answer with a smile
Aimed at the White Man's ignorance the while, 5
Of the GREAT WATERS telling how they rose,
Covered the plains, and, wandering where they chose,
Mounted through every intricate defile,
Triumphant.--Inundation wide and deep,
O'er which his Fathers urged, to ridge and steep 10
Else unapproachable, their buoyant way;
And carved, on mural cliff's undreaded side,
Sun, moon, and stars, and beast of chase or prey;
Whate'er they sought, shunned, loved, or deified![FP]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote FO: "The 'deep chasm' of this sonnet is identical with the
'passage cleft through the wilderness' of Sonnet XIV. It lies between
the Pen on the left hand, and Wallabarrow Crag on the right. As to the
_niche_, which forms the subject of the sonnet, it cannot now be
identified. There are, of course, plenty of such niches in the crags
which tower above the Duddon just here, but none more striking than the
rest. From the fact that it was 'free from shrubs and mosses grey,' one
may perhaps infer that it was a place in the cliff from which a mass of
rock had recently fallen. The bed of the stream just here is a chaos of
such masses of rock, some of them being of enormous size.
Mr. Chattock identifies the 'chasm' with that at Gowdrel, higher up the
river--a view which, besides breaking the order of the sonnets, would
seem to be excluded by Wordsworth's note on Sonnets XVII. and XVIII.,
wherein he expressly states that the scenery 'which gave occasion to the
sonnets _from the 14th to the 20th inclusive_,' lies about Seathwaite.
Mr. Chattock's remark that 'the rocks are columnar in character,' so
that the fall of a fragment readily gives rise to the appearance of an
elongated 'niche,' is worthy of note. It would probably apply to either
chasm." (Herbert Rix.)
"I searched most carefully for some
Gloomy NICHE, capacious, blank, and cold,