THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
VOL. VII
[Illustration: William Wordsworth
after B. R. Haydon]
THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
EDITED BY
WILLIAM KNIGHT
VOL. VII
[Illustration: _Dove Cottage Grasmere_]
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO.
1896
_All rights reserved_
CONTENTS
1821-2
PAGE
Ecclesiastical Sonnets. In Series--
Part I.--From the Introduction of Christianity into
Britain, to the Consummation of the Papal Dominion--
I. Introduction 4
II. Conjectures 5
III. Trepidation of the Druids 6
IV. Druidical Excommunication 7
V. Uncertainty 7
VI. Persecution 8
VII. Recovery 9
VIII. Temptations from Roman Refinements 10
IX. Dissensions 10
X. Struggle of the Britons against the Barbarians 11
XI. Saxon Conquest 12
XII. Monastery of Old Bangor 13
XIII. Casual Incitement 14
XIV. Glad Tidings 15
XV. Paulinus 15
XVI. Persuasion 16
XVII. Conversion 17
XVIII. Apology 18
XIX. Primitive Saxon Clergy 19
XX. Other Influences 19
XXI. Seclusion 20
XXII. Continued 21
XXIII. Reproof 21
XXIV. Saxon Monasteries, and Lights and Shades of the
Religion 22
XXV. Missions and Travels 23
XXVI. Alfred 24
XXVII. His Descendants 25
XXVIII. Influence Abused 26
XXIX. Danish Conquests 27
XXX. Canute 27
XXXI. The Norman Conquest 28
XXXII. "Coldly we spake. The Saxons, overpowered" 29
XXXIII. The Council of Clermont 30
XXXIV. Crusades 31
XXXV. Richard I 31
XXXVI. An Interdict 32
XXXVII. Papal Abuses 33
XXXVIII. Scene in Venice 34
XXXIX. Papal Dominion 34
Part II.--To the Close of the Troubles in the Reign of Charles I--
I. "How soon--alas! did Man, created pure" 33
II. "From false assumption rose, and fondly hail'd" 36
III. Cistertian Monastery 37
IV. "Deplorable his lot who tills the ground" 38
V. Monks and Schoolmen 39
VI. Other Benefits 40
VII. Continued 40
VIII. Crusaders 41
IX. "As faith thus sanctified the warrior's crest" 42
X. "Where long and deeply hath been fixed the root" 43
XI. Transubstantiation 44
XII. The Vaudois 44
XIII. "Praised be the Rivers, from their mountain springs" 45
XIV. Waldenses 46
XV. Archbishop Chichely to Henry V. 47
XVI. Wars of York and Lancaster 48
XVII. Wicliffe 49
XVIII. Corruptions of the Higher Clergy 49
XIX. Abuse of Monastic Power 50
XX. Monastic Voluptuousness 51
XXI. Dissolution of the Monasteries 52
XXII. The Same Subject 52
XXIII. Continued 53
XXIV. Saints 54
XXV. The Virgin 54
XXVI. Apology 55
XXVII. Imaginative Regrets 56
XXVIII. Reflections 57
XXIX. Translation of the Bible 58
XXX. The Point at Issue 58
XXXI. Edward VI 59
XXXII. Edward signing the Warrant for the Execution of Joan
of Kent 60
XXXIII. Revival of Popery 61
XXXIV. Latimer and Ridley 61
XXXV. Cranmer 62
XXXVI. General View of the Troubles of the Reformation 64
XXXVII. English Reformers in Exile 64
XXXVIII. Elizabeth 65
XXXIX. Eminent Reformers 66
XL. The Same 67
XLI. Distractions 68
XLII. Gunpowder Plot 69
XLIII. Illustration. The Jung-frau and the Fall of
the Rhine near Schaffhausen 70
XLIV. Troubles of Charles the First 71
XLV. Laud 71
XLVI. Afflictions of England 72
Part III.--From the Restoration to the Present Times--
I. "I saw the figure of a lovely Maid" 74
II. Patriotic Sympathies 74
III. Charles the Second 75
IV. Latitudinarianism 76
V. Walton's Book of Lives 77
VI. Clerical Integrity 78
VII. Persecution of the Scottish Covenanters 79
VIII. Acquittal of the Bishops 79
IX. William the Third 80
X. Obligations of Civil to Religious Liberty 81
XI. Sacheverel 82
XII. "Down a swift Stream, thus far, a bold design" 83
XIII. Aspects of Christianity in America.--1. The Pilgrim
Fathers 84
XIV. 2. Continued 85
XV. 3. Concluded.--American Episcopacy 85
XVI. "Bishops and Priests, blessèd are ye, if deep" 86
XVII. Places of Worship 87
XVIII. Pastoral Character 87
XIX. The Liturgy 88
XX. Baptism 89
XXI. Sponsors 90
XXII. Catechising 91
XXIII. Confirmation 92
XXIV. Confirmation Continued 92
XXV. Sacrament 93
XXVI. The Marriage Ceremony 94
XXVII. Thanksgiving after Childbirth 95
XXVIII. Visitation of the Sick 96
XXIX. The Commination Service 96
XXX. Forms of Prayer at Sea 97
XXXI. Funeral Service 97
XXXII. Rural Ceremony 98
XXXIII. Regrets 99
XXXIV. Mutability 100
XXXV. Old Abbeys 100
XXXVI. Emigrant French Clergy 101
XXXVII. Congratulation 102
XXXVIII. New Churches 102
XXIX. Church to be erected 103
XL. Continued 104
XLI. New Churchyard 104
XLII. Cathedrals, etc. 105
XLIII. Inside of King's College Chapel, Cambridge 106
XLIV. The Same 106
XLV. Continued 107
XLVI. Ejaculation 107
XLVII. Conclusion 108
To the Lady Fleming, on seeing the Foundation preparing
for the Erection of Rydal Chapel, Westmoreland 109
On the Same Occasion 114
1823
Memory 117
"Not Love, not War, nor the tumultuous swell" 118
"A volant Tribe of Bards on earth are found" 119
1824
To ---- 121
To ---- 122
"How rich that forehead's calm expanse!" 123
To ---- 124
A Flower Garden, at Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire 125
To the Lady E. B. and the Hon. Miss P. 128
To the Torrent at the Devil's Bridge, North Wales, 1824 129
Composed among the Ruins of a Castle in North Wales 131
Elegiac Stanzas 132
Cenotaph 135
1825
The Pillar of Trajan 137
The Contrast: The Parrot and the Wren 141
To a Skylark 143
1826
"Ere with cold beads of midnight dew" 145
Ode composed on May Morning 146
To May 148
"Once I could hail (howe'er serene the sky)" 152
"The massy Ways, carried across these heights" 154
Farewell Lines 155
1827
On seeing a Needlecase in the Form of a Harp 157
Miscellaneous Sonnets--
Dedication 159
To ---- 159
"Her only pilot the soft breeze, the boat" 160
"Why, Minstrel, these untuneful murmurings" 161
To S. H. 162
Decay of Piety 163
"Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned" 163
"Fair Prime of life! were it enough to gild" 164
Retirement 165
"There is a pleasure in poetic pains" 166
Recollection of the Portrait of King Henry Eighth,
Trinity Lodge, Cambridge 166
"When Philoctetes in the Lemnian isle" 167
"While Anna's peers and early playmates tread" 168
To the Cuckoo 169
The Infant M---- M---- 170
To Rotha Q---- 171
To ----, in her Seventieth Year 172
"In my mind's eye a Temple, like a cloud" 173
"Go back to antique ages, if thine eyes" 174
"If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven" 174
In the Woods of Rydal 176
Conclusion. To ---- 177
1828
A Morning Exercise 178
The Triad 181
The Wishing-Gate 189
The Wishing-Gate Destroyed 192
A Jewish Family 195
Incident at Brugès 198
A Grave-Stone upon the Floor in the Cloisters of Worcester
Cathedral 201
The Gleaner 202
On the Power of Sound 203
1829
Gold and Silver Fishes in a Vase 214
Liberty. (Sequel to the above) 216
Humanity 222
"This Lawn, a carpet all alive" 227
Thoughts on the Seasons 229
A Tradition of Oker Hill in Darley Dale, Derbyshire 230
Filial Piety 231
1830
The Armenian Lady's Love 232
The Russian Fugitive 239
The Egyptian Maid; or, The Romance of the Water Lily 252
The Poet and the Caged Turtledove 265
Presentiments 266
"In these fair vales hath many a Tree" 269
Elegiac Musings 269
"Chatsworth! thy stately mansion, and the pride" 272
1831
The Primrose of the Rock 274
To B. R. Haydon, on seeing his Picture of Napoleon
Bonaparte on the Island of St. Helena 276
Yarrow Revisited, and Other Poems--
I. "The gallant Youth, who may have gained" 280
II. On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from
Abbotsford, for Naples 284
III. A Place of Burial in the South of Scotland 285
IV. On the Sight of a Manse in the South of Scotland 286
V. Composed in Roslin Chapel, during a Storm 287
VI. The Trosachs 288
VII. "The pibroch's note, discountenanced or mute" 290
VIII. Composed after reading a Newspaper of the Day 290
IX. Composed in the Glen of Loch Etive 291
X. Eagles 292
XI. In the Sound of Mull 293
XII. Suggested at Tyndrum in a Storm 294
XIII. The Earl of Breadalbane's Ruined Mansion, and
Family Burial-Place, near Killin 295
XIV. "Rest and be Thankful!" 295
XV. Highland Hut 296
XVI. The Brownie 297
XVII. To the Planet Venus, an Evening Star 299
XVIII. Bothwell Castle 299
XIX. Picture of Daniel in the Lions' Den, at Hamilton
Palace 301
XX. The Avon 303
XXI. Suggested by a View from an Eminence in Inglewood
Forest 304
XXII. Hart's-Horn Tree, near Penrith 305
XXIII. Fancy and Tradition 306
XXIV. Countess' Pillar 307
XXV. Roman Antiquities 308
XXVI. Apology for the Foregoing Poems 309
XXVII. The Highland Broach 310
1832
Devotional Incitements 314
"Calm is the fragrant air, and loth to lose" 317
To the Author's Portrait 318
Rural Illusions 319
Loving and Liking 320
Upon the late General Fast 323
1833
A Wren's Nest 325
To ----, upon the Birth of her First-born Child, March 1833 328
The Warning. A Sequel to the Foregoing 330
"If this great world of joy and pain" 336
On a High Part of the Coast of Cumberland 337
(By the Sea-Side) 338
Composed by the Sea-Shore 340
Poems, composed or suggested during a Tour in the
Summer of 1833--
I. "Adieu, Rydalian Laurels! that have grown" 342
II. "Why should the Enthusiast, journeying through this
Isle" 343
III. "They called Thee Merry England, in old time" 343
IV. To the River Greta, near Keswick 344
V. To the River Derwent 345
VI. In Sight of the Town of Cockermouth 346
VII. Address from the Spirit of Cockermouth Castle 347
VIII. Nun's Well, Brigham 347
IX. To a Friend 348
X. Mary Queen of Scots 349
XI. Stanzas suggested in a Steam-Boat off Saint Bees'
Heads, on the Coast of Cumberland 351
XII. In the Channel, between the Coast of Cumberland
and the Isle of Man 358
XIII. At Sea off the Isle of Man 359
XIV. "Desire we past illusions to recal?" 360
XV. On entering Douglas Bay, Isle of Man 360
XVI. By the Sea-Shore, Isle of Man 361
XVII. Isle of Man 362
XVIII. Isle of Man 363
XIX. By a Retired Mariner 364
XX. At Bala-Sala, Isle of Man 365
XXI. Tynwald Hill 366
XXII. "Despond who will--_I_ heard a Voice exclaim" 368
XXIII. In the Frith of Clyde, Ailsa Crag, during an
Eclipse of the Sun, July 17 369
XXIV. On the Frith of Clyde 370
XXV. On revisiting Dunolly Castle 371
XXVI. The Dunolly Eagle 372
XXVII. Written in a Blank Leaf of Macpherson's Ossian 373
XXVIII. Cave of Staffa 376
XXIX. Cave of Staffa. (After the Crowd had departed) 377
XXX. Cave of Staffa 377
XXXI. Flowers on the Top of the Pillars at the Entrance of
the Cave 378
XXXII. Iona 379
XXXIII. Iona. (Upon Landing) 380
XXXIV. The Black Stones of Iona 381
XXXV. "Homeward we turn. Isle of Columba's Cell" 382
XXXVI. Greenock 383
XXXVII. "'There!' said a Stripling, pointing with meet pride" 383
XXXVIII. The River Eden, Cumberland 385
XXXIX. Monument of Mrs. Howard, in Wetheral
Church, near Corby, on the Banks of the
Eden 386
XL. Suggested by the Foregoing 387
XLI. Nunnery 388
XLII. Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways 389
XLIII. The Monument, commonly called Long Meg
and her Daughters, near the River Eden 390
XLIV. Lowther 391
XLV. To the Earl of Lonsdale 392
XLVI. The Somnambulist 393
XLVII. To Cordelia M---- 400
XLVIII. "Most sweet it is with unuplifted eyes" 401
1834
"Not in the lucid intervals of life" 402
By the Side of Rydal Mere 403
"Soft as a cloud is yon blue Ridge--the Mere" 405
"The leaves that rustled on this oak-crowned hill" 406
The Labourer's Noon-Day Hymn 408
The Redbreast 410
ADDENDA 415
WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS
1821-2
The only poems belonging to the years 1821-2 were the "Ecclesiastical
Sonnets," originally called "Ecclesiastical Sketches." These were
written at intervals, from 1821 onwards, but the great majority belong
to 1821. They were first published in 1822, in three parts; 102 Sonnets
in all. Ten were added in the edition of 1827, several others in the
years 1835 and 1836, and fourteen in 1845,--the final edition of 1850
containing 132.
After Wordsworth's return from the Continent in 1820, he visited
the Beaumonts at Coleorton, and as Sir George was then about to
build a new Church on his property, conversation turned frequently
to ecclesiastical topics, and gave rise to the idea of embodying
the History of the Church of England in a series of "Ecclesiastical
Sketches" in verse. The Sonnets Nos. XXXIX., XL., and XLI., in the
third series, entitled, _Church to be erected_, and _New Churchyard_,
are probably those to which Wordsworth refers as written first, in
memory of his morning walk with Sir George Beaumont to fix the site
of the Church: but it was the discussions which were being carried on
in the British Parliament and elsewhere, in 1821, on the subject of
Catholic Disabilities, that led him to enlarge his idea, and project a
series of Sonnets dealing with the whole course of the Ecclesiastical
History of his country. His brother Christopher--while Dean and Rector
of Bocking, and domestic chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury--had
published, in 1809, six volumes of _Ecclesiastical Biography; or,
the Lives of Eminent Men connected with the History of Religion in
England_. Southey's _Book of the Church_,--to which Wordsworth refers
in the Fenwick note prefixed to his _Sonnets_--was not published till
1823; and Wordsworth says, in a note to the edition of 1822, that his
own work was far advanced before he was aware that Southey had taken up
the subject. As several of the Sonnets, however, are well illustrated
by passages in Southey's book, I have given a number of extracts from
the latter work in the editorial notes.
Southey, writing to C. H. Townshend, on 6th May 1821, says: "Wordsworth
was with me lately. His thoughts and mine have for some time
unconsciously been travelling in the same direction; for while I have
been sketching a brief history of the English Church, and the systems
which it has subdued or struggled with, he has been pursuing precisely
the same subject in a series of sonnets, to which my volume will serve
for a commentary, as completely as if it had been written with that
intent." (See _Life and Correspondence of R. Southey_, vol. v. p. 65.)
Wordsworth's own notes appended to the Sonnets, and others which are
added, will show his indebtedness to such writers as Bede, Strype,
Foxe, Walton, Whitaker, and Sharon Turner. The subjects of the sonnets
on the "Aspects of Christianity in America" were suggested to him
by Bishop Doane and Professor Henry Reed; and others in the series,
dealing with offices of the English Liturgy, were also suggested by Mr.
Reed.--ED.
ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS[1]
IN SERIES
Composed 1821.--Published 1822
[My purpose in writing this Series was, as much as possible, to confine
my view to the introduction, progress, and operation of the Church in
England, both previous and subsequent to the Reformation. The Sonnets
were written long before ecclesiastical history and points of doctrine
had excited the interest with which they have been recently enquired
into and discussed. The former particular is mentioned as an excuse for
my having fallen into error in respect to an incident which had been
selected as setting forth the height to which the power of the Popedom
over temporal sovereignty had attained, and the arrogance with which it
was displayed. I allude to the last Sonnet but one in the first series,
where Pope Alexander the Third at Venice is described as setting his
foot on the neck of the Emperor Barbarossa. Though this is related
as a fact in history, I am told it is a mere legend of no authority.
Substitute for it an undeniable truth not less fitted for my purpose,
namely the penance inflicted by Gregory the Seventh upon the Emperor
Henry the Fourth.
Before I conclude my notice of these Sonnets, let me observe that the
opinion I pronounced in favour of Laud (long before the Oxford Tract
Movement) and which had brought censure upon me from several quarters,
is not in the least changed. Omitting here to examine into his conduct
in respect to the persecuting spirit with which he has been charged, I
am persuaded that most of his aims to restore ritual practices which
had been abandoned were good and wise, whatever errors he might commit
in the manner he sometimes attempted to enforce them. I further believe
that, had not he, and others who shared his opinions and felt as he
did, stood up in opposition to the reformers of that period, it is
questionable whether the Church would ever have recovered its lost
ground and become the blessing it now is, and will, I trust, become in
a still greater degree, both to those of its communion and to those who
unfortunately are separated from it.--I. F.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] During the month of December, 1820, I accompanied a much-beloved
and honoured Friend[2] in a walk through different parts of his estate,
with a view to fix upon the site of a new Church which he intended to
erect. It was one of the most beautiful mornings of a mild season,--our
feelings were in harmony with the cherishing[3] influences of the
scene; and such being our purpose, we were naturally led to look back
upon past events with wonder and gratitude, and on the future with
hope. Not long afterwards, some of the Sonnets which will be found
towards the close of this series were produced as a private memorial of
that morning's occupation.
The Catholic Question, which was agitated in Parliament about that
time, kept my thoughts in the same course; and it struck me that
certain points in the Ecclesiastical History of our Country might
advantageously be presented to view in verse. Accordingly, I took up
the subject, and what I now offer to the reader was the result.
When this work was far advanced, I was agreeably surprised to find that
my friend, Mr. Southey, had been engaged with similar views in writing
a concise History of the Church _in_ England. If our Productions, thus
unintentionally coinciding, shall be found to illustrate each other, it
will prove a high gratification to me, which I am sure my friend will
participate.
W. WORDSWORTH.
RYDAL MOUNT, _January 24, 1822_.
For the convenience of passing from one point of the subject to another
without shocks of abruptness, this work has taken the shape of a
series of Sonnets: but the Reader, it is to be hoped, will find that
the pictures are often so closely connected as to have jointly the
effect of passages of a poem in a form of stanza to which there is no
objection but one that bears upon the Poet only--its difficulty.--W. W.
1822.
[2] Sir George Beaumont.--ED.
[3] This occurs in all the editions. It maybe a misprint for
"cheering."--ED.
PART I
FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO BRITAIN, TO THE CONSUMMATION
OF THE PAPAL DOMINION
A verse may catch a wandering Soul, that flies
Profounder Tracts, and by a blest surprise
Convert delight into a Sacrifice.[4]
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Compare, in George Herbert's "The Temple," _The Church Porch_, i.
1--
A verse may find him, who a Sermon flies,
And turn delight into a Sacrifice.--ED.
I
INTRODUCTION
I, who accompanied with faithful pace[5]
Cerulean Duddon from its[6] cloud-fed spring,[7]
And loved with spirit ruled by his to sing
Of mountain-quiet and boon nature's grace;[8]
I, who essayed the nobler Stream to trace 5
Of Liberty,[9] and smote the plausive string
Till the checked torrent, proudly triumphing,
Won for herself a lasting resting-place;[10]
Now seek upon the heights of Time the source
Of a HOLY RIVER,[11]on whose banks are found 10
Sweet pastoral flowers, and laurels that have crowned
Full oft the unworthy brow of lawless force;
And,[12] for delight of him who tracks its course,[13]
Immortal amaranth and palms abound.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] 1827.
I, who descended with glad step to chase 1822.
[6] 1850.
... his ... 1822.
The text of 1857 (edited by Mr. Carter) returned to that of 1822.
[7] See "The River Duddon, a Series of Sonnets" (vol. vi. p. 225).--ED.
[8] 1827.
And of my wild Companion dared to sing,
In verse that moved with strictly-measured pace; 1822.
[9] See the series of "Poems dedicated to National Independence and
Liberty."--ED.
[10] 1827.
... Torrent, fiercely combating,
In victory found her natural resting-place; 1822.
[11] Compare the last sonnet of this Series (Part III. XLVII., p.
108).--ED.
[12] 1837.
Where, ... 1822.
[13] It may not be unworthy of note that in the first edition of this
sonnet Wordsworth made the stream of the Duddon masculine, that of
Liberty feminine, and that of the Church neuter.--ED.
II
CONJECTURES
If there be prophets on whose spirits rest
Past things, revealed like future, they can tell
What Powers, presiding o'er the sacred well
Of Christian Faith, this savage Island blessed
With its first bounty. Wandering through the west,
Did holy Paul[14] a while in Britain dwell, 6
And call the Fountain forth by miracle,
And with dread signs the nascent Stream invest?
Or He, whose bonds dropped off, whose prison doors
Flew open, by an Angel's voice unbarred?[15] 10
Or some of humbler name, to these wild shores
Storm-driven; who, having seen the cup of woe
Pass from their Master, sojourned here to guard
The precious Current they had taught to flow?
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Stillingfleet adduces many arguments in support of this opinion,
but they are unconvincing. The latter part of this Sonnet refers to a
favourite notion of Roman Catholic writers, that Joseph of Arimathea
and his companions brought Christianity into Britain, and built a rude
church at Glastonbury; alluded to hereafter, in a passage upon the
dissolution of monasteries.--W. W. 1822.
[15] St. Peter.--ED.
III
TREPIDATION OF THE DRUIDS
Screams round the Arch-druid's brow the seamew[16]--white
As Menai's foam; and toward the mystic ring
Where Augurs stand, the Future questioning,
Slowly the cormorant aims her heavy flight,
Portending ruin to each baleful rite, 5
That, in the lapse, of ages,[17] hath crept o'er
Diluvian truths, and patriarchal lore.
Haughty the Bard: can these meek doctrines blight
His transports? wither his heroic strains?
But all shall be fulfilled;--the Julian spear 10
A way first opened;[18] and, with Roman chains,
The tidings come of Jesus crucified;
They come--they spread--the weak, the suffering, hear;
Receive the faith, and in the hope abide.
FOOTNOTES:
[16] This water-fowl was, among the Druids, an emblem of those
traditions connected with the deluge that made an important part of
their mysteries. The Cormorant was a bird of bad omen.--W. W. 1822.
[17] 1827.
... seasons ... 1822.
[18] The reference is to the conquest of Britain by Julius Cæsar.--ED.
IV
DRUIDICAL EXCOMMUNICATION
Mercy and Love have met thee on thy road,
Thou wretched Outcast, from the gift of fire
And food cut off by sacerdotal ire,
From every sympathy that Man bestowed!
Yet shall it claim our reverence, that to God, 5
Ancient of days! that to the eternal Sire,
These jealous Ministers of law aspire,
As to the one sole fount whence wisdom flowed,
Justice, and order. Tremblingly escaped,
As if with prescience of the coming storm, 10
_That_ intimation when the stars were shaped;
And still, 'mid yon thick woods, the primal truth
Glimmers through many a superstitious form[19]
That fills the Soul with unavailing ruth.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] 1827.
And yon thick woods maintain the primal truth,
Debased by many a superstitious form, 1822.
V
UNCERTAINTY
Darkness surrounds us: seeking, we are lost
On Snowdon's wilds, amid Brigantian coves,[20]
Or where the solitary shepherd roves
Along the plain of Sarum, by the ghost
Of Time and shadows of Tradition, crost;[21] 5
And where the boatman of the Western Isles
Slackens his course--to mark those holy piles
Which yet survive on bleak Iona's coast.[22]
Nor these, nor monuments of eldest name,[23]
Nor Taliesin's unforgotten lays,[24] 10
Nor characters of Greek or Roman fame,
To an unquestionable Source have led;
Enough--if eyes, that sought the fountain-head
In vain, upon the growing Rill may gaze.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] The reference is to Yorkshire. The Brigantes inhabited England
from sea to sea, from Cumberland to Durham, but more especially
Yorkshire. See Tacitus, _Annals_, book xii. 32; Ptolemy, _Geographia_,
27, 1; Camden, _Britannia_, 556-648.--ED.
[21] 1827.
Of silently departed ages crossed; 1822.
[22] Compare the four sonnets on Iona, in the "Poems composed or
suggested during a Tour in the Summer of 1833."--ED.
[23] 1841.
... fame, 1822.
[24] See note [40], p. 13.--ED.
VI
PERSECUTION
Lament! for Diocletian's fiery sword
Works busy as the lightning; but instinct
With malice ne'er to deadliest weapon linked,
Which God's ethereal store-houses afford:
Against the Followers of the incarnate Lord 5
It rages;--some are smitten in the field--
Some pierced to the heart through the ineffectual shield[25]
Of sacred home;--with pomp are others gored
And dreadful respite. Thus was Alban tried,[26]
England's first Martyr, whom no threats could shake;
Self-offered victim, for his friend he died, 11
And for the faith; nor shall his name forsake
That Hill, whose flowery platform seems to rise
By Nature decked for holiest sacrifice.[27]
FOOTNOTES:
[25] 1840.
Some pierced beneath the unavailing shield 1822.
... ineffectual 1827.
[26] "The first man who laid down his life in Britain for the Christian
faith was Saint Alban.... During the tenth, and most rigorous of the
persecutions, a Christian priest, flying from his persecutors, came
to the City of Verulamium, and took shelter in Alban's house: he, not
being of the faith himself, concealed him for pure compassion; but when
he observed the devotion of his guest, how fervent it was, and how
firm, his heart was touched.... When the persecutors came to search the
house, Alban, putting on the hair-cassock of his teacher, delivered
himself into their hands, as if he had been the fugitive, and was
carried before the heathen governor.... Because he refused to betray
his guest or offer sacrifices to the Roman gods, he was scourged, and
then led to execution upon the spot where the abbey now stands, which
in after times was erected to his memory, and still bears his name.
That spot was then a beautiful meadow upon a little rising ground,
'seeming,' says the venerable Bede, 'a fit theatre for the martyr's
triumph.'" (Southey's _Book of the Church_, vol. i.--pp. 13-14.)--ED.
[27] This hill at St. Albans must have been an object of great interest
to the imagination of the venerable Bede, who thus describes it,
with a delicate feeling, delightful to meet with in that rude age,
traces of which are frequent in his works:--"Variis herbarum floribus
depictus imo usquequaque vestitus, in quo nihil repente arduum, nihil
præceps, nihil abruptum, quem lateribus longe lateque deductum in modum
æquoris natura complanat, dignum videlicet eum pro insita sibi specie
venustatis jam olim reddens, qui beati martyris cruore dicaretur."--W.
W. 1822.
VII
RECOVERY
As, when a storm hath ceased, the birds regain
Their cheerfulness, and busily retrim
Their nests, or chant a gratulating hymn
To the blue ether and bespangled plain;
Even so, in many a re-constructed fane, 5
Have the survivors of this Storm renewed
Their holy rites with vocal gratitude:
And solemn ceremonials they ordain
To celebrate their great deliverance;
Most feelingly instructed 'mid their fear-- 10
That persecution, blind with rage extreme,
May not the less, through Heaven's mild countenance,
Even in her own despite, both feed and cheer;
For all things are less dreadful than they seem.
VIII
TEMPTATIONS FROM ROMAN REFINEMENTS
Watch, and be firm! for, soul-subduing vice,
Heart-killing luxury, on your steps await.
Fair houses, baths, and banquets delicate,
And temples flashing, bright as polar ice,
Their radiance through the woods--may yet suffice 5
To sap your hardy virtue, and abate
Your love of Him upon whose forehead sate
The crown of thorns; whose life-blood flowed, the price
Of your redemption. Shun the insidious arts
That Rome provides, less dreading from her frown 10
Than from her wily praise, her peaceful gown,
Language, and letters;--these, though fondly viewed
As humanising graces, are but parts
And instruments of deadliest servitude!
IX
DISSENSIONS
That heresies should strike (if truth be scanned
Presumptuously) their roots both wide and deep,
Is natural as dreams to feverish sleep.
Lo! Discord at the altar dares to stand[28]
Uplifting toward[29] high Heaven her fiery brand, 5
A cherished Priestess of the new-baptized!
But chastisement shall follow peace despised.
The Pictish cloud darkens the enervate land
By Rome abandoned; vain are suppliant cries,
And prayers that would undo her forced farewell; 10
For she returns not.--Awed by her own knell,
She casts the Britons upon strange Allies,
Soon to become more dreaded enemies
Than heartless misery called them to repel.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] Arianism had spread into Britain, and British Bishops were
summoned to councils held concerning it, at Sardica, A.D. 347, and at
Ariminum, A.D. 360. See Fuller's _Church History_, p. 25; and Churton's
_Early English Church_, p. 9.--ED.
[29] 1827.
Lifting towards ... 1822.
X
STRUGGLE OF THE BRITONS AGAINST THE BARBARIANS
Rise!--they _have_ risen: of brave Aneurin ask[30]
How they have scourged old foes, perfidious friends:
The Spirit of Caractacus descends
Upon the Patriots, animates their task;[31]
Amazement runs before the towering casque 5
Of Arthur, bearing through the stormy field
The Virgin sculptured on his Christian shield:--
Stretched in the sunny light of victory bask
The Host that followed Urien[32] as he strode
O'er heaps of slain;--from Cambrian wood and moss 10
Druids descend, auxiliars of the Cross;
Bards, nursed on blue Plinlimmon's still abode,[33]
Rush on the fight, to harps preferring swords,
And everlasting deeds to burning words!
FOOTNOTES:
[30] Aneurin was the bard who--in the poem named the
_Gododin_--celebrated the struggle between the Cymri and the Teutons
in the middle of the sixth century, which ended in the great battle of
Catterick, or Cattreath, in Yorkshire. Aneurin was himself chieftain as
well as bard.--ED.
[31] 1837.
The spirit of Caractacus defends
The Patriots, animates their glorious task;-- 1822.
[32] Urien was chief of the Cymri, and led them in the great conflict
of the sixth century against the Angles.--ED.
[33] Such as Aneurin, Taliesin, Llywarch Hen, and Merlin.--ED.
XI
SAXON CONQUEST
Nor wants the cause the panic-striking aid
Of hallelujahs[34] tost from hill to hill--
For instant victory. But Heaven's high will
Permits a second and a darker shade
Of Pagan night. Afflicted and dismayed, 5
The Relics of the sword flee to the mountains:
O wretched Land! whose tears have flowed like fountains;
Whose arts and honours in the dust are laid
By men yet scarcely conscious of a care
For other monuments than those of Earth;[35] 10
Who, as the fields[36] and woods have given them birth,
Will[37] build their savage fortunes only there;
Content, if foss, and barrow, and the girth
Of long-drawn rampart, witness what they were.[38]
FOOTNOTES:
[34] Alluding to the victory gained under Germanus. See Bede.--W. W.
1822.
The Saxons and Picts threatening the Britons, the latter asked the
assistance of Germanus. The following is Bede's account:--"Germanus
bearing in his hands the standard, instructed his men all in a loud
voice to repeat his words, and the enemy advancing securely, as
thinking to take them by surprise, the priests three times cried
Hallelujah. A universal shout of the same word followed, and the hills
resounding the echo on all sides, the enemy was struck with dread....
They fled in disorder, casting away their arms." (Bede, _Ecclesiastica
Historia gentis Anglorum_, book i. chap. xx.)--ED.
[35] The last six lines of this Sonnet are chiefly from the prose
of Daniel; and here I will state (though to the Readers whom this
Poem will chiefly interest it is unnecessary) that my obligations to
other prose writers are frequent,--obligations which, even if I had
not a pleasure in courting, it would have been presumptuous to shun,
in treating an historical subject. I must, however, particularise
Fuller, to whom I am indebted in the Sonnet upon Wicliffe and in other
instances. And upon the acquittal of the Seven Bishops I have done
little more than versify a lively description of that event in the MS.
Memoirs of the first Lord Lonsdale.--W. W. 1822.
[36] 1827.
Intent, as fields ... 1822.
[37] 1827.
To ... 1822.
[38] 1827.
Witness the foss, the barrow, and the girth
Of many a long-drawn rampart, green and bare! 1822.
XII
MONASTERY OF OLD BANGOR[39]
_The oppression of the tumult--wrath and scorn--_
_The tribulation--and the gleaming blades_--
Such is the impetuous spirit that pervades
The song of Taliesin;[40]--Ours shall mourn
The _unarmed_ Host who by their prayers would turn 5
The sword from Bangor's walls, and guard the store
Of Aboriginal and Roman lore,
And Christian monuments, that now must burn
To senseless ashes. Mark! how all things swerve
From their known course, or vanish like a dream;[41] 10
Another language spreads from coast to coast;
Only perchance some melancholy Stream[42]
And some indignant Hills old names preserve,[43]
When laws, and creeds, and people all are lost!
FOOTNOTES:
[39] "Ethelforth reached the convent of Bangor, he perceived the Monks,
twelve hundred in number, offering prayers for the success of their
countrymen: 'If they are praying against us,' he exclaimed, 'they
are fighting against us'; and he ordered them to be first attacked:
they were destroyed; and, appalled by their fate, the courage of
Brocmail wavered, and he fled from the field in dismay. Thus abandoned
by their leader, his army soon gave way, and Ethelforth obtained a
decisive conquest. Ancient Bangor itself soon fell into his hands, and
was demolished; the noble monastery was levelled to the ground; its
library, which is mentioned as a large one, the collection of ages, the
repository of the most precious monuments of the ancient Britons, was
consumed; half ruined walls, gates, and rubbish were all that remained
of the magnificent edifice." (See Turner's valuable history of the
Anglo-Saxons.)
The account Bede gives of this remarkable event, suggests a most
striking warning against National and Religious prejudices.--W. W.
1822. Appendix note.
[40] Taliesin was present at the battle which preceded this
desolation.--W. W. 1822.
Taliesin was chief bard and retainer in the Hall of Urien, the great
North England Cymric chief. He sang of Urien's and his son Owain's
victories, in the middle of the sixth century. See Pitseus, _Relationes
Historicae de rebus Anglicis_, 1619, vol. i. p. 95, _De Thelesino_.
See also Sharon Turner's _History of the Anglo-Saxons_ (vol. i. book
iii. chap, iv.).--ED.
[41] 1827.
... or pass away like steam; 1822.
[42] _e.g._ in the Lake District, the Greta, Derwent, etc.--ED.
[43] _e.g._ in the Lake District, Stone Arthur, Blencathara, and
Catbells.--ED.
XIII
CASUAL INCITEMENT
A bright-haired company of youthful slaves,
Beautiful strangers, stand within the pale
Of a sad market, ranged for public sale,
Where Tiber's stream the immortal[44] City laves:
ANGLI by name; and not an ANGEL waves 5
His wing who could seem lovelier to man's eye[45]
Than they appear to holy Gregory;
Who, having learnt that name, salvation craves
For Them, and for their Land. The earnest Sire,
His questions urging, feels, in slender ties 10
Of chiming sound, commanding sympathies;
DE-IRIANS--he would save them from God's IRE;
Subjects of Saxon ÆLLA--they shall sing
Glad HALLE-lujahs to the eternal King![46]
FOOTNOTES:
[44] 1827.
... glorious ... 1822.
[45] 1837.
His wing who seemeth lovelier in Heaven's eye 1822.
[46] The story is told of Gregory who was afterwards Pope, and is known
as Gregory the Great, that "he was one day led into the market-place at
Rome to look at a large importation from, abroad. Among other things
there were some boys exposed for sale like cattle. He was struck by the
appearance of the boys, their fine clear skins, their flaxen or golden
hair, and their ingenuous countenances; so that he asked from what
country they came; and when he was told from the island of
Britain, ... and were Angles, he played upon the word and said, 'Well
may they be so called, for they are like Angels.' ... Then demanding
from what province they were brought, the answer was 'from Deira'; and
in the same humour he observed that rightly might this also be said,
for _de Dei ira_, from the wrath of God were they to be delivered. And
when he was told that their King was Ælla, he replied that Hallelujahs
ought to be sung in his dominions. This trifling sprung from serious
thought. From that day the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons became a
favourite object with Gregory." (Southey's _Book of the Church_, vol.
i. pp. 22, 23.)--ED.
XIV
GLAD TIDINGS
For ever hallowed be this morning fair,
Blest be the unconscious shore on which ye tread,
And blest the silver Cross, which ye, instead
Of martial banner, in procession bear;
The Cross preceding Him who floats in air, 5
The pictured Saviour!--By Augustin led,
They come--and onward travel without dread,
Chanting in barbarous ears a tuneful prayer--
Sung for themselves, and those whom they would free!
Rich conquest waits them:--the tempestuous sea 10
Of Ignorance, that ran so rough and high
And heeded not the voice of clashing swords,
These good men humble by a few bare words,
And calm with fear of God's divinity.[47]
FOOTNOTES:
[47] Augustin was prior of St. Gregory's Monastery, dedicated to St.
Andrew in Rome, and was sent by Gregory in the year 597 with several
other monks into Britain. Ethelbert was then king of Kent, and, as they
landed on the Isle of Thanet, he ordered them to stay there. According
to Bede, "Some days after, the king came into the island and ordered
Augustin and his companions to be brought into his presence.... They
came ... bearing a silver cross for their banner, and an image of
our Lord and Saviour painted on a board; and singing the litany they
offered up their prayers to the Lord for the eternal salvation both
of themselves and of those to whom they were come." (_Ecclesiastica
Historia gentis Anglorum_, book i. chap, xxv.)--ED.
XV
PAULINUS
But, to remote Northumbria's royal Hall,
Where thoughtful Edwin, tutored in the school
Of sorrow, still maintains a heathen rule,
_Who_ comes with functions apostolical?
Mark him,[48] of shoulders curved, and stature tall, 5
Black hair, and vivid eye, and meagre cheek,
His prominent feature like an eagle's beak;
A Man whose aspect doth at once appal
And strike with reverence. The Monarch leans
Toward the pure truths[49] this Delegate propounds, 10
Repeatedly his own deep mind he sounds
With careful hesitation,--then convenes
A synod of his Councillors:--give ear,
And what a pensive Sage doth utter, hear![50]
FOOTNOTES:
[48] The person of Paulinus is thus described by Bede, from the memory
of an eye-witness:--"Longæ staturæ, paululum incurvus, nigro capillo,
facie macilenta, naso adunco, pertenui, venerabilis simul et terribilis
aspectu."--W. W. 1822.
[49] 1832.
Towards the Truths.... 1822.
[50] Paulinus won over Edwin, king of the Northumbrians, to the
Christian faith, and baptized him "with his people," A.D. 627. (See
_The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_.)--ED.
XVI
PERSUASION
"Man's life is like a Sparrow,[51] mighty King!
"That--while at banquet with your Chiefs you sit
"Housed near a blazing fire--is seen to flit
"Safe from the wintry tempest. Fluttering,[52]
"Here did it enter; there, on hasty wing, 5
"Flies out, and passes on from cold to cold;
"But whence it came we know not, nor behold
"Whither it goes. Even such, that transient Thing,
"The human Soul; not utterly unknown
"While in the Body lodged, her warm abode; 10
"But from what world She came, what woe or weal
"On her departure waits, no tongue hath shown;
"This mystery if the Stranger can reveal,
"His be a welcome cordially bestowed!"
FOOTNOTES:
[51] See the original of this speech in Bede.--The Conversion of Edwin,
as related by him, is highly interesting--and the breaking up of this
Council accompanied with an event so striking and characteristic, that
I am tempted to give it at length in a translation. "Who, exclaimed
the King, when the Council was ended, shall first desecrate the
altars and the temples? I, answered the Chief Priest: for who more
fit than myself, through the wisdom which the true God hath given me,
to destroy, for the good example of others, what in foolishness I
worshipped? Immediately, casting away vain superstition, he besought
the King to grant him what the laws did not allow to a priest, arms
and a courser (equum emissarium); which mounting, and furnished with a
sword and lance, he proceeded to destroy the Idols. The crowd, seeing
this, thought him mad--he however, halted not, but, approaching, he
profaned the temple, casting it against the lance which he had held in
his hand, and, exulting in acknowledgement of the worship of the true
God, he ordered his companions to pull down the temple, with all its
enclosures. The place is shown where those idols formerly stood, not
far from York, at the source of the river Derwent, and is at this day
called Gormund Gaham [W. W. 1822], ubi pontifex ille, inspirante Deo
vero, polluit ac destruxit eas, _quas ipse sacraverat aras_." The last
expression is a pleasing proof that the venerable monk of Wearmouth was
familiar with the poetry of Virgil.--W. W. 1832.
The following is Bede's account of the speech of "another of the
king's chief men":--"The present life of man, O king, seems to me in
comparison of that time which is unknown to us, like to the swift
flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit, at supper in
winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the
midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad. The sparrow,
I say--flying in at one door, and immediately out at another--whilst
he is within, is safe from the misty storm; but, after a short space
of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight into the
dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for
a short space, but of what went before, and of what is to follow, we
are utterly ignorant. If therefore this new doctrine contains something
more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed."--ED.
[52] 1837.
"That, stealing in while by the fire you sit
"Housed with rejoicing Friends, is seen to flit
"Safe from the storm, in comfort tarrying." 1822.
XVII
CONVERSION[53]
Prompt transformation works the novel Lore;
The Council closed, the Priest in full career
Rides forth, an armèd man, and hurls a spear
To desecrate the Fane which heretofore
He served in folly. Woden falls, and Thor 5
Is overturned: the mace, in battle heaved
(So might they dream) till victory was achieved,
Drops, and the God himself is seen no more.
Temple and Altar sink, to hide their shame
Amid oblivious weeds, "_O come to me, 10_
_Ye heavy laden!_" such the inviting voice
Heard near fresh streams;[54] and thousands, who rejoice
In the new Rite--the pledge of sanctity,
Shall, by regenerate life, the promise claim.
FOOTNOTES:
[53] See Wordsworth's note to Sonnet XVI.--ED.
[54] The early propagators of Christianity were accustomed to preach
near rivers, for the convenience of baptism.--W. W. 1822.
XVIII
APOLOGY
Nor scorn the aid which Fancy oft doth lend
The Soul's eternal interests to promote:
Death, darkness, danger, are our natural lot;
And evil Spirits _may_ our walk attend
For aught the wisest know or comprehend; 5
Then be _good_ Spirits free[55] to breathe a note
Of elevation; let their odours float
Around these Converts; and their glories blend,
The midnight stars outshining,[56] or the blaze
Of the noon-day. Nor doubt that golden cords 10
Of good works, mingling with the visions, raise
The Soul to purer worlds: and _who_ the line
Shall draw, the limits of the power define,
That even imperfect faith to man affords?
FOOTNOTES:
[55] 1827.
Then let the _good_ be free ... 1822.
[56] 1837.
Outshining nightly tapers, ... 1822.
XIX
PRIMITIVE SAXON CLERGY[57]
How beautiful your presence, how benign,
Servants of God! who not a thought will share
With the vain world; who, outwardly as bare
As winter trees, yield no fallacious sign
That the firm soul is clothed with fruit divine! 5
Such Priest, when service worthy of his care
Has called him forth to breathe the common air,
Might seem a saintly Image from its shrine
Descended:--happy are the eyes that meet
The Apparition; evil thoughts are stayed 10
At his approach, and low-bowed necks entreat
A benediction from his voice or hand;
Whence grace, through which the heart can understand,
And vows, that bind the will, in silence made.
XX
OTHER INFLUENCES
Ah, when the Body,[58] round which in love we clung,
Is chilled by death, does mutual service fail?
Is tender pity then of no avail?
Are intercessions of the fervent tongue
A waste of hope?--From this sad source have sprung
Rites that console the Spirit, under grief 6
Which ill can brook more rational relief:
Hence, prayers are shaped amiss, and dirges sung
For Souls[59] whose doom is fixed! The way is smooth
For Power that travels with the human heart: 10
Confession ministers the pang to soothe
In him who at the ghost of guilt doth start.
Ye holy Men, so earnest in your care,
Of your own mighty instruments beware!
FOOTNOTES:
[57] Having spoken of the zeal, disinterestedness, and temperance of
the clergy of those times, Bede thus proceeds:--"Unde et in magna
erat veneratione tempore illo religionis habitus, ita ut ubicunque
clericus aliquis aut monachus adveniret, gaudenter ab omnibus tanquam
Dei famulus exciperetur. Etiam si in itinere pergens inveniretur,
accurrebant, et flexa cervice, vel manu signari, vel ore illius se
benedici, gaudebant. Verbis quoque horum exhortatonis diligenter
auditum praebebant" (Lib. iii. cap. 26.)--W. W. 1822.
[58] 1837.
... Frame,.... 1822
[59] 1832.
For those ... 1822.
XXI[60]
SECLUSION
Lance, shield, and sword relinquished--at his side
A bead-roll, in his hand a claspèd book,
Or staff more harmless than a shepherd's crook,
The war-worn Chieftain quits the world--to hide
His thin autumnal locks where Monks abide 5
In cloistered privacy. But not to dwell
In soft repose he comes. Within his cell,
Round the decaying trunk of human pride,
At morn, and eve, and midnight's silent hour,
Do penitential cogitations cling; 10
Like ivy, round some ancient elm, they twine
In grisly folds and strictures serpentine;[61]
Yet, while they strangle, a fair growth they bring,[62]
For recompense--their own perennial bower.
FOOTNOTES:
[60] This, and the two following sonnets, were published in _Time's
Telescope_, July 2, 1823.--ED.
[61] The "ancient elm," with ivy twisting round it "in grisly folds
and strictures serpentine," which suggested these lines, grew in Rydal
Park, near the path to the upper waterfall.--ED.
[62] 1837.
... strangle without mercy, bring 1822.
XXII
CONTINUED
Methinks that to some vacant hermitage
_My_ feet would rather turn--to some dry nook
Scooped out of living rock, and near a brook
Hurled down a mountain-cove from stage to stage,
Yet tempering, for my sight, its bustling rage 5
In the soft heaven of a translucent pool;
Thence creeping under sylvan[63] arches cool,
Fit haunt of shapes whose glorious equipage
Would elevate[64] my dreams.[65] A beechen bowl,
A maple dish, my furniture should be; 10
Crisp, yellow leaves my bed; the hooting owl
My night-watch: nor should e'er the crested fowl
From thorp or vill his matins sound for me,
Tired of the world and all its industry.
FOOTNOTES:
[63] 1837.
... forest ... 1822.
[64] 1827.
Perchance would throng ... 1822.
[65] There are several natural "hermitages," such as this, near the
Rydal beck.--ED.
XXIII
REPROOF
But what if One, through grove or flowery meed,
Indulging thus at will the creeping feet
Of a voluptuous indolence, should meet
Thy hovering Shade, O[66] venerable Bede!
The saint, the scholar, from a circle freed 5
Of toil stupendous, in a hallowed seat
Of learning, where thou heard'st[67] the billows beat
On a wild coast, rough monitors to feed
Perpetual industry.[68] Sublime Recluse!
The recreant soul, that dares to shun the debt 10
Imposed on human kind, must first forget
Thy diligence, thy unrelaxing use
Of a long life; and, in the hour of death,
The last dear service of thy passing breath![69]
FOOTNOTES:
[66] 1827.
The hovering Shade of ... 1822.
[67] 1827.
... he heard ... 1822.
[68] Bede spent the most of his life in the seclusion of the monastery
of Jarrow, near the mouth of the Tyne; the wild coast referred to in
the Sonnet being the coast of Northumberland.--ED.
[69] He expired in the act of concluding a translation of St. John's
Gospel.--W. W. 1822.
He expired dictating the last words of a translation of St. John's
Gospel.--W. W. 1827.
XXIV
SAXON MONASTERIES, AND LIGHTS AND SHADES OF THE RELIGION
By such examples moved to unbought pains,
The people work like congregated bees;[70]
Eager to build the quiet Fortresses
Where Piety, as they believe, obtains
From Heaven a _general_ blessing; timely rains 5
Or needful sunshine; prosperous enterprise,
Justice and peace:--bold faith! yet also rise
The sacred Structures for less doubtful gains.[71]
The Sensual think with reverence of the palms
Which the chaste Votaries seek, beyond the grave;
If penance be redeemable, thence alms 11
Flow to the poor, and freedom to the slave;
And if full oft the Sanctuary save
Lives black with guilt, ferocity it calms.
FOOTNOTES:
[70] See, in Turner's _History_, vol. iii. p. 528, the account of
the erection of Ramsey Monastery. Penances were removable by the
performance of acts of charity and benevolence.--W. W. 1822.
"Wherever monasteries were founded, marshes were drained, or woods
cleared, and wastes brought into cultivation; the means of subsistence
were increased by improved agriculture, and by improved horticulture
new comforts were added to life. The humblest as well as the
highest pursuits were followed in these great and most beneficial
establishments. While part of the members were studying the most
inscrutable points of theology, ... others were employed in teaching
babes and children the rudiments of useful knowledge; others as
copyists, limners, carvers, workers in wood, and in stone, and in
metal, and in trades and manufactures of every kind which the community
required." (Southey's _Book of the Church_, vol. i. chap. iv. pp. 61,
62.)--ED.
[71] 1832.
And peace, and equity.--Bold faith! yet rise
The sacred Towers for universal gains. 1822.
And peace, and equity.--Bold faith! yet rise
The sacred Structures for less doubtful gains. 1827.
XXV
MISSIONS AND TRAVELS
Not sedentary all: there are who roam
To scatter seeds of life on barbarous shores;
Or quit with zealous step their knee-worn floors
To seek the general mart of Christendom;
Whence they, like richly-laden merchants, come 5
To their belovèd cells:--or shall we say
That, like the Red-cross Knight, they urge their way,
To lead in memorable triumph home
Truth, their immortal Una? Babylon,
Learned and wise, hath perished utterly, 10
Nor leaves her Speech one word to aid the sigh[72]
That would lament her;--Memphis, Tyre, are gone
With all their Arts,--but classic lore glides on
By these Religious saved for all posterity.
FOOTNOTES:
[72] 1827.
... speech wherewith to clothe a sigh 1822.
XXVI
ALFRED
Behold a pupil of the monkish gown,
The pious ALFRED, King to Justice dear!
Lord of the harp and liberating spear;[73]
Mirror of Princes![74] Indigent Renown
Might range the starry ether for a crown 5
Equal to _his_ deserts, who, like the year,
Pours forth his bounty, like the day doth cheer,
And awes like night with mercy-tempered frown.
Ease from this noble miser of his time
No moment steals; pain narrows not his cares.[75] 10
Though small his kingdom as a spark or gem,
Of Alfred boasts remote Jerusalem,[76]
And Christian India, through her wide-spread clime,
In sacred converse gifts with Alfred shares.[77][78]
FOOTNOTES:
[73] "The memory of the life and doings of the noblest of English
rulers has come down to us living and distinct through the mist of
exaggeration and legend that gathered round it.... He lived solely
for the good of his people. He is the first instance in the history
of Christendom of the Christian king, of a ruler who put aside every
personal aim or ambition to devote himself to the welfare of those whom
he ruled. So long as he lived he strove 'to live worthily'; but in his
mouth a life of worthiness meant a life of justice, temperance, and
self-sacrifice. Ardent warrior as he was, with a disorganised England
before him, he set aside at thirty-one the dream of conquest to leave
behind him the memory, not of victories, but of 'good works,' of daily
toils by which he secured peace, good government, education for his
people.... The spirit of adventure that made him in youth the first
huntsman of his day took later and graver form in an activity that
found time amidst the cares of state for the daily duties of religion,
for converse with strangers, for study and translation, for learning
poems by heart, for planning buildings and instructing craftsmen
in gold work, for teaching even falconers and dog-keepers their
business.... He himself superintended a school for the young nobles of
the court." (Green's _Short History of the English People_, chap. i.
sec. 5.)--ED.
[74] Compare Voltaire, _Essai sur les Moeurs_, chap. xxvi.; and
Herder's _Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit_. Werke
(1820), vol. vi. p. 153.--ED.
[75] Through the whole of his life, Alfred was subject to grievous
maladies.--W. W. 1822.
"Although disease succeeded disease, and haunted him with tormenting
agony, nothing could suppress his unwearied and inextinguishable
genius." (Sharon Turner's _History of the Anglo-Saxons_, vol. i. book
iv. chap. v. p. 503.)--ED.
[76] "His mind was far from being prisoned within his own island. He
sent a Norwegian shipmaster to explore the White Sea.... Envoys bore
his presents to the Christians of India and Jerusalem, and an annual
mission carried Peter's-pence to Rome." (Green's _Short History of the
English People_, i. 5.)--ED.
[77] 1827.
And Christian India gifts with Alfred shares
By sacred converse link'd with India's clime. 1822
[78] "With Alfred" is in all the editions. The late Bishop of St.
Andrews, Charles Wordsworth, suggested that "of Alfred" or "from
Alfred" would be a better reading.--ED.
XXVII
HIS DESCENDANTS
When thy great soul was freed from mortal chains,
Darling of England! many a bitter shower
Fell on thy tomb; but emulative power
Flowed in thy line through undegenerate veins.[79]
The Race of Alfred covet[80] glorious pains[81] 5
When dangers threaten, dangers ever new!
Black tempests bursting, blacker still in view!
But manly sovereignty its hold retains;
The root sincere, the branches bold to strive
With the fierce tempest, while,[82] within the round 10
Of their protection, gentle virtues thrive;
As oft, 'mid some green plot of open ground,
Wide as the oak extends its dewy gloom,
The fostered hyacinths spread their purple bloom.[83]
FOOTNOTES:
[79] 1837.
Can aught survive to linger in the veins
Of kindred bodies--an essential power
That may not vanish in one fatal hour,
And wholly cast away terrestrial chains? 1822.
[80] 1832.
... covets ... 1822.
[81] In Eadward the elder, his son; Eadmund I., his grandson; Eadward
(the Martyr), grandson of Eadmund I.; and Eadward (the Confessor),
nephew to the Martyr.--ED.
[82] 1827.
... to thrive
With the fierce storm; meanwhile, ... 1822.
[83] As, pre-eminently, in the wood by the road, half-way from Rydal to
Ambleside.--ED.
XXVIII
INFLUENCE ABUSED
Urged by Ambition, who with subtlest skill
Changes her means, the Enthusiast as a dupe
Shall soar, and as a hypocrite can stoop,
And turn the instruments of good to ill,
Moulding the credulous people to his will. 5
Such DUNSTAN:--from its Benedictine coop
Issues the master Mind,[84] at whose fell swoop
The chaste affections tremble to fulfil
Their purposes. Behold, pre-signified,
The Might of spiritual sway! his thoughts, his dreams,
Do in the supernatural world abide: 11
So vaunt a throng of Followers, filled with pride
In what they see of virtues pushed to extremes,[85]
And sorceries of talent misapplied.
FOOTNOTES:
[84] Dunstan was made Abbot of Glastonbury by Eadmund, and there he
introduced the Benedictine rule, being the first Benedictine Abbot in
England. His aim was a remodelling of the Anglo-Saxon Church, "for
which," says Southey, "he was qualified by his rank, his connections,
his influence at court, his great and versatile talents, and more
than all, it must be added, by his daring ambition, which scrupled at
nothing for the furtherance of its purpose." (_Book of the Church_, i.
6.) "Dunstan stands first in the line of ecclesiastical statesmen, who
counted among them Lanfranc and Wolsey, and ended in Laud." "Raised to
the See of Canterbury, he wielded for sixteen years, as the minister of
Eadgar, the secular and ecclesiastical powers of the realm." (Green, i.
6.) In the effort to retain the ascendency he had won, he lent himself,
however, to superstition and to fraud, to craft and mean device. He was
a type of the ecclesiastical sorcerer.--ED.
[85] 1837.
In shows of virtue pushed to its extremes, 1822.
XXIX
DANISH CONQUESTS
Woe to the Crown that doth the Cowl obey![86]
Dissension, checking[87] arms that would restrain
The incessant Rovers of the northern main,[88]
Helps to restore and spread a Pagan sway:[89]
But Gospel-truth is potent to allay 5
Fierceness and rage; and soon the cruel Dane
Feels, through the influence of her gentle reign,
His native superstitions melt away.
Thus, often, when thick gloom the east o'ershrouds,
The full-orbed Moon, slow-climbing, doth appear 10
Silently to consume the heavy clouds;
_How_ no one can resolve; but every eye
Around her sees, while air is hushed, a clear
And widening circuit of ethereal sky.
FOOTNOTES:
[86] The violent measures carried on under the influence of _Dunstan_,
for strengthening the Benedictine Order, were a leading cause of the
second series of Danish invasions. See Turner.--W. W. 1822.
[87] 1837.
Dissention checks the ... 1822.
[88] _e.g._ Anlaef, Haco, Svein. (See Turner's _History of the_
_Anglo-Saxons_, book ii. chaps. iii., viii., ix.)--ED.
[89] 1837.
And widely spreads once more a Pagan sway; 1822.
XXX
CANUTE
A pleasant music floats along the Mere,
From Monks in Ely chanting service high,
While-as Canùte the King is rowing by:
"My Oarsmen," quoth the mighty King, "draw near,
"That we the sweet song of the Monks may hear!"[90]
He listens (all past conquests and all schemes 6
Of future vanishing like empty dreams)
Heart-touched, and haply not without a tear.
The Royal Minstrel, ere the choir is still,[91]
While his free Barge skims the smooth flood along,
Gives to that rapture an accordant Rhyme.[92][93] 11
O suffering Earth! be thankful; sternest clime
And rudest age are subject to the thrill
Of heaven-descended Piety and Song.
FOOTNOTES:
[90] A monk of Ely, who wrote a History of the Church (circa 1166),
records a fragment of song, said to have been composed by Canute when
on his way to a church festival. He told his rowers to proceed slowly,
and near the shore, that he might hear the chanting of the Psalter by
the monks, and he then composed a song himself.
Merie sangen the Muneches binnen Ely,
Tha Cnut ching reu therby:
Roweth cnites ner the land
And here ye thes Muneches sang.--ED.
[91] 1827.
... was still, 1822.
[92] 1827.
... a memorial Rhyme. 1822.
[93] Which is still extant.--W. W. 1822. See last note.--ED.
XXXI
THE NORMAN CONQUEST
The woman-hearted Confessor prepares[94]
The evanescence of the Saxon line.
Hark! 'tis the tolling Curfew!--the stars shine;[95]
But of the lights that cherish household cares
And festive gladness, burns not one that dares 5
To twinkle after that dull stroke of thine,
Emblem and instrument, from Thames to Tyne,
Of force that daunts, and cunning that ensnares!
Yet as the terrors of the lordly bell,
That quench, from hut to palace, lamps and fires,[96] 10
Touch not the tapers of the sacred quires;
Even so a thraldom, studious to expel
Old laws, and ancient customs to derange,
To Creed or Ritual brings no fatal change.[97]
FOOTNOTES:
[94] Edward the Confessor (1042-1066).--"There was something shadowlike
in the thin form, the delicate complexion, the transparent womanly
hands, that contrasted with the blue eyes and golden hair of his race;
and it is almost as a shadow that he glides over the political stage.
The work of government was done by sterner hands." (Green's _Short
History of the English People_, chap. ii. sec. 2.)--ED.
XXXII
"COLDLY WE SPAKE. THE SAXONS, OVERPOWERED"
Published 1837
Coldly we spake. The Saxons, overpowered
By wrong triumphant through its own excess,
From fields laid waste, from house and home devoured
By flames, look up to heaven and crave redress
From God's eternal justice. Pitiless 5
Though men be, there are angels that can feel
For wounds that death alone has power to heal,
For penitent guilt, and innocent distress.
And has a Champion risen in arms to try
His Country's virtue, fought, and breathes no more; 10
Him in their hearts the people canonize;
And far above the mine's most precious ore
The least small pittance of bare mould they prize
Scooped from the sacred earth where his dear relics lie.
FOOTNOTES:
[95] 1827.
Hark! 'tis the Curfew's knell! the stars may shine; 1822.
[96] The introduction of the curfew-bell (_couvre-feu_, cover fire)
into England is ascribed to the Conqueror, but the custom was common in
Europe long before his time.--ED.
[97] 1837.
Brings to Religion no injurious change. 1822.
XXXIII
THE COUNCIL OF CLERMONT
"And shall," the Pontiff asks, "profaneness flow
From Nazareth--source of Christian piety,
From Bethlehem, from the Mounts of Agony
And glorified Ascension? Warriors, go,
With prayers and blessings we your path will sow; 5
Like Moses hold our hands erect, till ye
Have chased far off by righteous victory
These sons of Amalek, or laid them low!"--
"GOD WILLETH IT," the whole assembly cry;
Shout which the enraptured multitude astounds![98] 10
The Council-roof and Clermont's towers reply;--
"God willeth it," from hill to hill rebounds,
And, in awe-stricken[99] Countries far and nigh,
Through "Nature's hollow arch"[100] that voice resounds.[101][102]
FOOTNOTES:
[98] 1827.
... astounded. 1822.
[99] 1827.
... rebounded;
Sacred resolve, in ... 1822.
[100] Compare Fuller's _Holy War_, I. 8.--ED.
[101] 1837.
... that night, resounded! 1822.
... the voice resounds. 1827.
[102] The decision of this Council was believed to be instantly known
in remote parts of Europe.--W. W. 1822.
There were several Councils of Clermont, the chief of them being that
of 1095, at which the Crusade was definitely planned. Pope Urban
II. addressed the Council in such a way that at the close the whole
multitude exclaimed simultaneously _Deus Vult_; and this phrase became
the war-cry of the Crusade.--ED.
XXXIV
CRUSADES
The turbaned Race are poured in thickening swarms
Along the west; though driven from Aquitaine,
The Crescent glitters on the towers of Spain;
And soft Italia feels renewed alarms;
The scimitar, that yields not to the charms 5
Of ease, the narrow Bosphorus will disdain;
Nor long (that crossed) would Grecian hills detain
Their tents, and check the current of their arms.
Then blame not those who, by the mightiest lever
Known to the moral world, Imagination, 10
Upheave, so seems it, from her natural station
All Christendom:--they sweep along (was never
So huge a host!)[103]--to tear from the Unbeliever
The precious Tomb, their haven of salvation.
FOOTNOTES:
[103] Ten successive armies, amounting to nearly 950,000 men, took
part in the first Crusade. "The most distant islands and savage
countries," says William of Malmesbury, "were inspired with this ardent
passion"--ED.
XXXV
RICHARD I
Redoubted King, of courage leonine,
I mark thee, Richard! urgent to equip
Thy warlike person with the staff and scrip;
I watch thee sailing o'er the midland brine;
In conquered Cyprus see thy Bride decline 5
Her blushing cheek, love-vows[104] upon her lip,
And see love-emblems streaming from thy ship,
As thence she holds her way to Palestine.[105]
My Song, a fearless homager, would attend
Thy thundering battle-axe as it cleaves the press 10
Of war, but duty summons her away
To tell--how, finding in the rash distress
Of those Enthusiasts a subservient friend,
To[106] giddier heights hath clomb the Papal sway.
FOOTNOTES:
[104] 1827.
... Love's vow ... 1822.
[105] Richard I. (Coeur de Lion), one of the two leaders in the third
Crusade, after conquering Cyprus--on his way to Palestine--while
in that island married Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of
Navarre.--ED.
[106] 1837.
Of those enthusiast powers a constant Friend,
Through ... 1822.
XXXVI
AN INTERDICT[107]
Realms quake by turns: proud Arbitress of grace,
The Church, by mandate shadowing forth the power
She arrogates o'er heaven's eternal door,
Closes the gates of every sacred place.
Straight from the sun and tainted air's embrace 5
All sacred things are covered: cheerful morn
Grows sad as night--no seemly garb is worn,
Nor is a face allowed to meet a face
With natural smiles[108] of greeting. Bells are dumb;
Ditches are graves--funereal rites denied; 10
And in the church-yard he must take his bride
Who dares be wedded! Fancies thickly come
Into the pensive heart ill fortified,
And comfortless despairs the soul benumb.
FOOTNOTES:
[107] At the command of Pope Innocent III., the Bishops of London, Ely,
and Worcester were charged to lay England under an interdict. They did
so, in defiance of King John, and left England. Southey's description
of the result maybe compared with this sonnet. "All the rites of a
Church whose policy it was to blend its institutions with the whole
business of private life were suddenly suspended: no bell heard, no
taper lighted, no service performed, no church open; only baptism was
permitted, and confession and sacrament for the dying. The dead were
either interred in unhallowed ground, without the presence of a priest,
or any religious ceremony, ... or they were kept unburied.... Some
little mitigation was allowed, lest human nature should have rebelled
against so intolerable a tyranny. The people, therefore, were called
to prayers and sermon on the Sunday, in the churchyards, and marriages
were performed at the church door." (Southey's _Book of the Church_,
vol. i. chap. ix. pp. 261, 262.)--ED.
[108] 1845.
... smile ... 1822.
XXXVII
PAPAL ABUSES
As with the Stream our voyage we pursue,
The gross materials of this world present
A marvellous study of wild accident;[109]
Uncouth proximities of old and new;
And bold transfigurations, more untrue 5
(As might be deemed) to disciplined intent
Than aught the sky's fantastic element,
When most fantastic, offers to the view.
Saw we not Henry scourged at Becket's shrine?[110]
Lo! John self-stripped of his insignia:--crown, 10
Sceptre and mantle, sword and ring, laid down
At a proud Legate's feet![111] The spears that line
Baronial halls, the opprobrious insult feel;
And angry Ocean roars a vain appeal.
FOOTNOTES:
[109] Compare Aubrey de Vere's _Thomas à Becket_.--ED.
[110] After Becket's murder and canonisation Henry II., from political
motives, did penance publicly at his shrine. Clad in a coarse garment,
he walked three miles barefoot to Canterbury, and at the shrine
submitted to the discipline of the Church. Four bishops, abbots, and
eighty clergy were present, each with a knotted cord, and inflicted 380
lashes. Bleeding he threw sackcloth over his shoulders, and continued
till midnight kneeling at prayer, then visited all the altars,
and returned fainting to Becket's shrine, where he remained till
morning.--ED.
[111] On the festival of the Ascension, John "laid his crown at
Pandulph's feet, and signed an instrument by which, for the remission
of his sins, and those of his family, he surrendered the kingdoms
of England and Ireland to the Pope, to hold them thenceforth under
him, and the Roman see." Pandulph "kept the crown five days before he
restored it to John." (Southey, _Book of the Church_, vol. i. p.
218.)--ED.
XXXVIII
SCENE IN VENICE
Black Demons hovering o'er his mitred head,
To Cæsar's Successor the Pontiff spake;[112]
"Ere I absolve thee, stoop! that on thy neck
Levelled with earth this foot of mine may tread."
Then he, who to the altar had been led, 5
He, whose strong arm the Orient could not check,
He, who had held the Soldan[113] at his beck,
Stooped, of all glory disinherited,
And even the common dignity of man!--
Amazement strikes the crowd: while many turn 10
Their eyes away in sorrow, others burn
With scorn, invoking a vindictive ban
From outraged Nature; but the sense of most
In abject sympathy with power is lost.
FOOTNOTES:
[112] The reference is to the legend of Pope Alexander III. and
Frederick Barbarossa. See the Fenwick note prefixed to these
sonnets.--ED.
[113] Soldan, or Sultan, "Soldanus quasi solus dominus."--ED.
XXXIX
PAPAL DOMINION
Unless to Peter's Chair the viewless wind[114]
Must come and ask permission when to blow,
What further empire would it have? for now
A ghostly Domination, unconfined
As that by dreaming Bards to Love assigned, 5
Sits there in sober truth--to raise the low,
Perplex the wise, the strong to overthrow;
Through earth and heaven to bind and to unbind!--
Resist--the thunder quails thee!--crouch--rebuff
Shall be thy recompense! from land to land 10
The ancient thrones of Christendom are stuff
For occupation of a magic wand,
And 'tis the Pope that wields it:--whether rough
Or smooth his front, our world is in his hand![115]
FOOTNOTES:
[114] Compare _Measure for Measure_, act III. scene i. l. 124.--ED.
[115] According to the canons of the Church, the Pope was above all
kings, "He was king of kings and lord of lords, although he subscribed
himself the servant of servants." He might dethrone kings, and tax
nations, or destroy empires, as he pleased. All power had been
committed to him, and any secular law that was opposed to a papal
decree was, _ipso facto_, null and void.--ED.
PART II
TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I.
I
"HOW SOON--ALAS! DID MAN, CREATED PURE"
Published 1845
How soon--alas! did Man, created pure--
By Angels guarded, deviate from the line
Prescribed to duty:--woeful forfeiture[116]
He made by wilful breach of law divine.
With like perverseness did the Church abjure 5
Obedience to her Lord, and haste to twine,[117]
'Mid Heaven-born flowers that shall for aye endure,
Weeds on whose front the world had fixed her sign.
O Man,--if with thy trials thus it fares,
If good can smooth the way to evil choice, 10
From all rash censure be the mind kept free;
He only judges right who weighs, compares,
And, in the sternest sentence which his voice
Pronounces, ne'er abandons Charity.[118]
FOOTNOTES:
[116] 1845.
Even when the state of man seems most secure
And tempted least to deviate from the line
Of simple duty, woeful forfeiture C.
How difficult for man to keep the line
Prescribed by duty! Happy once and pure C.
[117] 1845.
Though Angels watched lest man should from the line
Of duty sever, blest though he was, and pure
In thought and deed, a woeful forfeiture
He made by wilful breach of law divine,
The church of Christ how prompt was she to abjure
Allegiance to her Lord how prone to twine C.
[118] 1845.
{The visible church how prone was she to abjure}
{Allegiance to Christ's Kingdom and entwine}
With glorious flowers that shall for aye endure
Weeds on whose front the world had fixed her sign.
False man--if with thy trials thus it fared--
If good can smooth the way to evil choice,
From hasty answer be our minds kept free;
He only judges right who weighs, compares,
And, in the sternest sentence that his voice
May utter, ne'er abandons charity. C.
II
"FROM FALSE ASSUMPTION ROSE, AND FONDLY HAIL'D"
Published 1845
From false assumption rose, and fondly hail'd
By superstition, spread the Papal power;
Yet do not deem the Autocracy prevail'd
Thus only, even in error's darkest hour.
She daunts, forth-thundering from her spiritual tower
Brute rapine, or with gentle lure she tames. 6
Justice and Peace through Her uphold their claims;
And Chastity finds many a sheltering bower.
Realm there is none that if controul'd or sway'd
By her commands partakes not, in degree, 10
Of good, o'er manners arts and arms, diffused:
Yes, to thy domination, Roman See,
Tho' miserably, oft monstrously, abused
By blind ambition, be this tribute paid.[119]
FOOTNOTES:
[119] The following version of this sonnet is from a MS. copy of it in
Wordsworth's own handwriting.--ED.
On false assumption, though the Papal Power
Rests, and spreads wide, beduped, by ignorance hailed,
A darker empire must have else prevailed,
For deeds of mischief strengthening every hour.
Behold how thundering from her spiritual tower
She daunts brute rapine, cruelty she tames.
Justice and charity through her assert their claims,
And chastity finds many a sheltering bower.
Realm is there none that, if controlled or swayed
By her commands, partakes not in degree
Of good, on manners arts and arms diffused:
To mock thy exaltation, Roman See,
And to the Autocracy, howe'er abused
Through blind ambition, be this tribute paid.
III
CISTERTIAN MONASTERY[120]
"_Here Man more purely lives, less oft doth fall,_
_More promptly rises, walks with stricter heed,[121]_
_More safely rests, dies happier, is freed_
_Earlier from cleansing fires, and gains withal_
_A brighter crown._"[122]--On yon Cistertian wall 5
_That_ confident assurance may be read;
And, to like shelter, from the world have fled
Increasing multitudes. The potent call
Doubtless shall cheat full oft the heart's desires:[123]
Yet, while the rugged Age on pliant knee 10
Vows to rapt Fancy humble fealty,
A gentler life spreads round the holy spires;
Where'er they rise, the sylvan waste retires,
And aëry harvests crown the fertile lea.
FOOTNOTES:
[120] The Cistertian order was named after the monastery of Citéaux
or Cistercium, near Dijon, founded in 1098 by the Benedictine abbot,
Robert of Molême.--ED.
[121] 1837.
... with nicer heed, 1822.
[122] "Bonum est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit purius, cadit rarius,
surgit velocius, incedit cautius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius,
purgatur citius, praemiatur copiosius."--Bernard. "This sentence," says
Dr. Whitaker, "is usually inscribed on some conspicuous part of the
Cistertian houses."--W. W. 1822.
[123] 1827.
... desire; 1822.
IV[124]
"DEPLORABLE HIS LOT WHO TILLS THE GROUND"
Published 1835
Deplorable his lot who tills the ground,
His whole life long tills it, with heartless toil
Of villain-service, passing with the soil
To each new Master, like a steer or hound,
Or like a rooted tree, or stone earth-bound; 5
But mark how gladly, through their own domains,
The Monks relax or break these iron chains;
While Mercy, uttering, through their voice, a sound
Echoed in Heaven, cries out, "Ye Chiefs, abate
These legalized oppressions! Man--whose name 10
And nature God disdained not; Man--whose soul
Christ died for--cannot forfeit his high claim
To live and move exempt from all controul
Which fellow-feeling doth not mitigate!"
FOOTNOTES:
[124] The following note, referring to Sonnets IV., XII., and XIII.,
appears in the volume of 1835--entitled _Yarrow Revisited, and other
Poems_--immediately after the poem _St. Bees_--
"The three following Sonnets are an intended addition to the
'Ecclesiastical Sketches,' the first to stand second; and the two that
succeed, seventh and eighth, in the second part of the Series. (See the
Author's Poems.) They are placed here as having some connection with
the foregoing Poem."--ED.
V
MONKS AND SCHOOLMEN
Record we too, with just and faithful pen,
That many hooded Cenobites[125] there are,
Who in their private cells have yet a care
Of public quiet; unambitious Men,
Counsellors for the world, of piercing ken; 5
Whose fervent exhortations from afar
Move Princes to their duty, peace or war;[126]
And oft-times in the most forbidding den
Of solitude, with love of science strong,
How patiently the yoke of thought they bear! 10
How subtly glide its finest threads along!
Spirits that crowd the intellectual sphere[127]
With mazy boundaries, as the astronomer
With orb and cycle girds the starry throng.
FOOTNOTES:
[125] Cenobites (#koinobioi#), monks who live in common, as
distinguished from hermits or anchorites, who live alone.--ED.
[126] "Counts, kings, bishops," says F.D. Maurice, "in the fulness of
their wealth and barbaric splendour, may be bowing before a monk, who
writes them letters from a cell in which he is living upon vegetables
and water." (_Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy_ (Edition 1873), vol.
i., Mediæval Philosophy, chap. iv. p. 534.)--ED.
[127] _e.g._ Anselm (1033-1109); Albertus Magnus (1193-1280); Thomas
Aquinas (1226-1274); Duns Scotus (1265-1308).--ED.
VI
OTHER BENEFITS
And, not in vain embodied to the sight,
Religion finds even in the stern retreat
Of feudal sway her own appropriate seat;[128]
From the collegiate pomps on Windsor's height
Down to the humbler[129] altar, which the Knight 5
And his Retainers of the embattled hall
Seek in domestic oratory small,
For prayer in stillness, or the chanted rite;
Then chiefly dear, when foes are planted round,
Who teach the intrepid guardians of the place-- 10
Hourly exposed to death, with famine worn,
And suffering under many a perilous wound--[130]
How sad would be their durance, if forlorn
Of offices dispensing heavenly grace!
FOOTNOTES:
[128] St. George's Chapel, Windsor, begun by Henry III. and finished
by Edward III., rebuilt by Henry VII., and enlarged by Cardinal
Wolsey.--ED.
[129] 1837.
... humble ... 1822.
[130] 1827.
... doubtful wound, 1822.
VII
CONTINUED
And what melodious sounds at times prevail!
And, ever and anon, how bright a gleam
Pours on the surface of the turbid Stream!
What heartfelt fragrance mingles with the gale
That swells the bosom of our passing sail! 5
For where, but on _this_ River's margin, blow
Those flowers of chivalry, to bind the brow
Of hardihood with wreaths that shall not fail?--
Fair Court of Edward! wonder of the world![131]
I see a matchless blazonry unfurled 10
Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love;
And meekness tempering honourable pride;
The lamb is couching by the lion's side,
And near the flame-eyed eagle sits the dove.
FOOTNOTES:
[131] Edward the Third (1336-1360). See _The Wonderful Deeds of Edward_
_the Third_, by Robert of Avesbury; and Longman's _History of Edward
the Third_.--ED.
VIII
CRUSADERS
Furl we the sails, and pass with tardy oars
Through these bright regions, casting many a glance
Upon the dream-like issues--the romance[132]
Of many-coloured life that[133] Fortune pours
Round the Crusaders, till on distant shores 5
Their labours end; or they return to lie,
The vow performed, in cross-legged effigy,
Devoutly stretched upon their chancel floors.
Am I deceived? Or is their requiem chanted
By voices never mute when Heaven unties 10
Her inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies;
Requiem which Earth takes up with voice undaunted,
When she would tell how Brave, and Good, and Wise,[134]
For their high guerdon not in vain have panted!
FOOTNOTES:
[132] 1845.
Nor can Imagination quit the shores
Of these bright scenes without a farewell glance
Given to those dream-like Issues--that Romance 1822.
Given to the dream-like Issues--that Romance 1837.
[133] 1837.
... which ... 1822.
[134] 1837.
... Good, and Brave, and Wise, 1822
IX
"AS FAITH THUS SANCTIFIED THE WARRIOR'S CREST"
Composed 1842.--Published 1845
As faith thus sanctified the warrior's crest
While from the Papal Unity there came,
What feebler means had fail'd to give, one aim
Diffused thro' all the regions of the West;
So does her Unity its power attest 5
By works of Art, that shed, on the outward frame
Of worship, glory and grace, which who shall blame
That ever looked to heaven for final rest?
Hail countless Temples! that so well befit
Your ministry; that, as ye rise and take 10
Form spirit and character from holy writ,
Give to devotion, wheresoe'er awake,
Pinions of high and higher sweep, and make
The unconverted soul with awe submit.[135]
FOOTNOTES:
[135] In a letter to Professor Henry Reed, Philadelphia, September
4, 1842, Wordsworth writes: "To the second part of the Series" (the
"Ecclesiastical Sonnets") "I have also added two, in order to do more
justice to the Papal Church for the services which she did actually
render to Christianity and humanity in the Middle Ages."--ED.
X
"WHERE LONG AND DEEPLY HATH BEEN FIXED THE ROOT"
Composed 1842.--Published 1845
Where long and deeply hath been fixed the root
In the blest soil of gospel truth, the Tree,
(Blighted or scathed tho' many branches be,
Put forth to wither, many a hopeful shoot)
Can never cease to bear celestial fruit. 5
Witness the Church that oft-times, with effect
Dear to the saints, strives earnestly to eject[136]
Her bane, her vital energies recruit.
Lamenting, do not hopelessly repine
When such good work is doomed to be undone,[137] 10
The conquests lost that were so hardly won:--
All promises vouchsafed by Heaven will shine[138]
In light confirmed while years their course shall run,
Confirmed alike in[139] progress and decline.
FOOTNOTES:
[136] 1845.
Blighted and scathed tho' many branches be,
Can never cease to bear and ripen fruit
Worthy of Heaven. This law is absolute.
Behold the Church that often with effect
Dear to the Saints doth labouring to eject C.
[137] 1845.
{The Church not seldom surely with effect}
{Dear to the Saints doth labour to eject}
Her bane, her vital energy recruit.
So Providence ordains and why repine
If this good work is doomed to be undone, C.
[138] 1845.
Trust that the promises vouchsafed will shine C.
[139] 1845.
... thro' ... C.
XI
TRANSUBSTANTIATION
Enough! for see, with dim association
The tapers burn; the odorous incense feeds
A greedy flame; the pompous mass proceeds;
The Priest bestows the appointed consecration;
And, while the HOST is raised, its elevation 5
An awe and supernatural horror breeds;
And all the people bow their heads, like reeds
To a soft breeze, in lowly adoration.
This Valdo brooks[140] not.[141] On the banks of Rhone
He taught, till persecution chased him thence, 10
To adore the Invisible, and Him alone.
Nor are[142] his Followers loth to seek defence,
'Mid woods and wilds, on Nature's craggy throne,
From rites that trample upon soul and sense.
FOOTNOTES:
[140] 1837.
... brook'd ... 1822.
[141] Peter Waldo (or Valdo), a rich merchant of Lyons (1160 or 1170),
becoming religious, dedicated himself to poverty and almsgiving.
Disciples gathered round him; and they were called the poor men of
Lyons--a modest, frugal, and industrious order. They were reformers
before the Reformation. Peter Waldo exposed the corruption of the
clergy, had the four gospels translated for the people, and maintained
the rights of the laity to read them to the masses. He was condemned by
the Lateran Council in 1179.--ED.
[142] 1837.
... were ... 1822.
XII
THE VAUDOIS
Published 1835
But whence came they who for the Saviour Lord
Have long borne witness as the Scriptures teach?--
Ages ere Valdo raised his voice to preach
In Gallic ears the unadulterate Word,
Their fugitive Progenitors explored 5
Subalpine vales, in quest of safe retreats
Where that pure Church survives, though summer heats
Open a passage to the Romish sword,
Far as it dares to follow. Herbs self-sown,
And fruitage gathered from the chesnut wood, 10
Nourish the sufferers then; and mists, that brood
O'er chasms with new-fallen obstacles bestrown,
Protect them; and the eternal snow that daunts
Aliens, is God's good winter for their haunts.
XIII
"PRAISED BE THE RIVERS, FROM THEIR MOUNTAIN SPRINGS"
Published 1835
Praised be the Rivers, from their mountain springs
Shouting to Freedom, "Plant thy banners here!"[143]
To harassed Piety, "Dismiss thy fear,
"And in our caverns smooth thy ruffled wings!"
Nor be unthanked their final lingerings-- 5
Silent, but not to high-souled Passion's ear--
'Mid reedy fens wide-spread and marshes drear,
Their own creation. Such glad welcomings
As Po was heard to give where Venice rose
Hailed from aloft those Heirs of truth divine[144] 10
Who near his fountains sought obscure repose,
Yet came[145] prepared as glorious lights to shine,
Should that be needed for their sacred Charge;
Blest Prisoners They, whose spirits were[146] at large!
FOOTNOTES:
[143] See the story of the rebuilding of Rome after its plunder by the
Gauls.--ED.
[144] 1837.
... their tardiest lingerings
'Mid reedy fens wide-spread and marshes drear,
Their own creation, till their long career
End in the sea engulphed. Such welcomings
As came from mighty Po when Venice rose,
Greeted those simple Heirs of truth divine 1835.
[145] 1837.
Yet were ... 1835.
[146] 1840.
... are ... 1835.
XIV
WALDENSES[147]
Those had given[148] earliest notice, as the lark
Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate;
Or[149] rather rose the day to antedate,
By striking out a solitary spark, 4
When all the world with midnight gloom was dark.--
Then followed the Waldensian bands, whom Hate[150]
In vain endeavours[151] to exterminate,
Whom[152] Obloquy pursues with hideous bark:[153]
But they desist not;--and the sacred fire,[154]
Rekindled thus, from dens and savage woods 10
Moves, handed on with never-ceasing care,
Through courts, through camps, o'er limitary floods;
Nor lacks this sea-girt Isle a timely share
Of the new Flame, not suffered to expire.
FOOTNOTES:
[147] The followers of Peter Waldo afterwards became a separate
community, and multiplied in the valleys of Dauphiné and Piedmont. They
suffered persecutions in 1332, 1400, and 1478, but these only drove
them into fresh districts in Europe. Francis I. of France ordered them
to be extirpated from Piedmont in 1541, and many were massacred. In
1560 the Duke of Savoy renewed the persecution at the instance of the
Papal See. Charles Emmanuel II., in 1655, continued it.--ED.
[148] 1845.
These who gave ... 1822.
These had given ... 1840.
[149] 1840.
Who ... 1822.
[150] 1845.
These Harbingers of good, whom bitter hate 1822.
At length come those Waldensian bands, whom Hate 1840.
[151] 1840.
... endeavoured ... 1822
[152] 1840.
Fell ... 1822
[153] The list of foul names bestowed upon those poor creatures is long
and curious:--and, as is, alas! too natural, most of the opprobrious
appellations are drawn from circumstances into which they were forced
by their persecutors, who even consolidated their miseries into one
reproachful term, calling them Patarenians, or Paturins, from _pati_,
to suffer.
Dwellers with wolves, she names them, for the pine
And green oak are their covert; as the gloom
Of night oft foils their enemy's design,
She calls them Riders on the flying broom;
Sorcerers, whose frame and aspect have become
One and the same through practices malign.--W. W. 1822.
[154] 1827.
Meanwhile the unextinguishable fire, 1822
XV
ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V.
"What beast in wilderness or cultured field
"The lively beauty of the leopard shows?
"What flower in meadow-ground or garden grows
"That to the towering lily doth not yield?
"Let both meet only on thy royal shield! 5
"Go forth, great King! claim what thy birth bestows;
"Conquer the Gallic lily which thy foes
"Dare to usurp;--thou hast a sword to wield,
"And Heaven will crown the right."--The mitred Sire
Thus spake--and lo! a Fleet, for Gaul addrest, 10
Ploughs her bold course across the wondering seas;[155]
For, sooth to say, ambition, in the breast
Of youthful heroes, is no sullen fire,
But one that leaps to meet the fanning breeze.
FOOTNOTES:
[155] Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1414, persuaded Henry
V. to carry on war with France, and helped to raise money for the
purpose. Henry crossed to Harfleur, Chichele accompanying him, with an
army of 30,000, and won the battle of Agincourt.--ED.
XVI
WARS OF YORK AND LANCASTER
Thus is the storm abated by the craft
Of a shrewd Counsellor, eager to protect
The Church, whose power hath recently been checked,
Whose monstrous riches threatened. So the shaft
Of victory mounts high, and blood is quaffed 5
In fields that rival Cressy and Poictiers--[156]
Pride to be washed away by bitter tears!
For deep as Hell itself, the avenging draught[157]
Of civil slaughter. Yet, while temporal power
Is by these shocks exhausted, spiritual truth 10
Maintains the else endangered gift of life;
Proceeds from infancy to lusty youth;
And, under cover of this[158] woeful strife,
Gathers unblighted strength from hour to hour.
FOOTNOTES:
[156] _e.g._ the battles of St. Albans, Wakefield, Mortimer's Cross,
Towton, Barnet, Tewkesbury, Bosworth.--ED.
[157] 1827.
But mark the dire effect in coming years!
Deep, deep as hell itself, the future draught 1822.
[158] 1827.
... that ... 1822.
XVII
WICLIFFE
Once more the Church is seized with sudden fear,
And at her call is Wicliffe disinhumed:
Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed
And flung into the brook that travels near; 4
Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams can hear
Thus speaks (that Voice which walks upon the wind,
Though seldom heard by busy human kind)--
"As thou these ashes, little Brook! wilt bear
"Into the Avon, Avon to the tide
"Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas, 10
"Into main Ocean they, this deed accurst
"An emblem yields to friends and enemies
"How the bold Teacher's Doctrine, sanctified
"By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed."[159]
FOOTNOTES:
[159] The Council of Constance condemned Wicliffe as a heretic,
and issued an order that his remains should be exhumed, and burnt.
"Accordingly, by order of the Bishop of Lincoln, as Diocesan of
Lutterworth, his grave, which was in the chancel of the church, was
opened, forty years after his death; the bones were taken out and burnt
to ashes, and the ashes thrown into a neighbouring brook called the
Swift." (Southey's _Book of the Church_, vol. i. p. 384.) "Thus this
brook," says Fuller, "hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into
Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean; and
thus the ashes of Wicliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now
is dispersed all the world over." (_The Church History of Britain
from the Birth of Christ until the year MDCXLVIII. endeavoured_, book
iv. p. 424.) In the note to the 11th Sonnet of Part I., Wordsworth
acknowledges his obligations to Fuller in connection with this Sonnet
on Wicliffe.
See Charles Lamb's comment on this passage of Fuller's, Prose Works
(1876), vol. iv. p. 277.--ED.
XVIII
CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY
"Woe to you, Prelates! rioting in ease
"And cumbrous wealth--the shame of your estate;
"You, on whose progress dazzling trains await
"Of pompous horses; whom vain titles please;
"Who will be served by others on their knees, 5
"Yet will yourselves to God no service pay;
"Pastors who neither take nor point the way
"To Heaven; for, either lost in vanities
"Ye have no skill to teach, or if ye know
"And speak the word ----" Alas! of fearful things
'Tis the most fearful when the people's eye 11
Abuse hath cleared from vain imaginings;
And taught the general voice to prophesy
Of Justice armed, and Pride to be laid low.
XIX
ABUSE OF MONASTIC POWER
And what is Penance with her knotted thong;
Mortification with the shirt of hair,
Wan cheek, and knees indúrated with prayer,
Vigils, and fastings rigorous as long;
If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong 5
The pious, humble, useful Secular,[160]
And rob[161] the people of his daily care,
Scorning that world whose blindness makes her strong?
Inversion strange! that, unto One who lives[162]
For self, and struggles with himself alone, 10
The amplest share of heavenly favour gives;
That to a Monk allots, both in the esteem
Of God and man, place higher than to him[163]
Who on the good of others builds his own!
FOOTNOTES:
[160] The _secular_ clergy are the priests of the Roman church, who
belong to no special religious order, but have the charge of parishes,
and so live in the world (_seculum_). The _regular_ clergy are the
monks belonging to one or other of the monastic orders, and are subject
to its rules (_regulæ_).--ED.
[161] 1827.
And robs ... 1822.
[162] 1827.
Scorning their wants because her arm is strong?
Inversion strange! that to a Monk, who lives 1822.
[163] 1845.
And hath allotted, in the world's esteem,
To such a higher station than to him 1822.
That to a Monk allots, in the esteem
Of God and Man, place higher than to him 1827.
XX
MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS
Yet more,--round many a Convent's blazing fire
Unhallowed threads of revelry are spun;
There Venus sits disguisèd like a Nun,--
While Bacchus, clothed in semblance of a Friar,
Pours out his choicest beverage high and higher 5
Sparkling, until it cannot choose but run
Over the bowl, whose silver lip hath won
An instant kiss of masterful desire--
To stay the precious waste. Through every brain
The domination of the sprightly juice 10
Spreads high conceits to madding Fancy dear,[164]
Till the arched roof, with resolute abuse
Of its grave echoes, swells a choral strain,
Whose votive burthen is--"OUR KINGDOM 'S HERE!"[165]
FOOTNOTES:
[164] 1832.
In every brain
Spreads the dominion of the sprightly juice,
Through the wide world to madding Fancy dear, 1822.
[165] See Wordsworth's note to the next Sonnet.--ED.
XXI
DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES
Threats come which no submission may assuage,
No sacrifice avert, no power dispute;
The tapers shall be quenched, the belfries mute,
And,'mid their choirs unroofed by selfish rage,
The warbling wren shall find a leafy cage; 5
The gadding bramble hang her purple fruit;
And the green lizard and the gilded newt
Lead unmolested lives, and die of age.[166]
The owl of evening and the woodland fox
For their abode the shrines of Waltham choose:[167] 10
Proud Glastonbury can no more refuse
To stoop her head before these desperate shocks--
She whose high pomp displaced, as story tells,
Arimathean Joseph's wattled cells.[168]
FOOTNOTES:
[166] These two lines are adopted from a MS., written about the year
1770, which accidentally fell into my possession. The close of the
preceding Sonnet on monastic voluptuousness is taken from the same
source, as is the verse, "Where Venus sits," etc. [W. W. 1822], and
the line, "Once ye were holy, ye are holy still," in a subsequent
Sonnet.--W. W. 1837.
[167] Waltham Abbey is in Essex, on the Lea.--ED.
[168] Alluding to the Roman legend that Joseph of Arimathea brought
Christianity into Britain, and built Glastonbury Church. See Part I.
Sonnet II. (p. 5) and note [14].--ED.
XXII
THE SAME SUBJECT
The lovely Nun (submissive, but more meek
Through saintly habit than from effort due
To unrelenting mandates that pursue
With equal wrath the steps of strong and weak)
Goes forth--unveiling timidly a cheek[169] 5
Suffused with blushes of celestial hue,
While through the Convent's[170] gate to open view
Softly she glides, another home to seek.
Not Iris, issuing from her cloudy shrine,
An Apparition more divinely bright! 10
Not more attractive to the dazzled sight
Those watery glories, on the stormy brine
Poured forth, while summer suns at distance shine,
And the green vales lie hushed in sober light!
FOOTNOTES:
[169] 1837.
... her cheek 1822.
[170] 1837.
... Convent ... 1822.
XXIII
CONTINUED
Yet many a Novice of the cloistral shade,
And many chained by vows, with eager glee[171]
The warrant hail, exulting to be free;
Like ships before whose keels, full long embayed
In polar ice, propitious winds have made 5
Unlooked-for outlet to an open sea,
Their liquid world, for bold discovery,
In all her quarters temptingly displayed!
Hope guides the young; but when the old must pass
The threshold, whither shall they turn to find 10
The hospitality--the alms (alas!
Alms may be needed) which that House bestowed?
Can they, in faith and worship, train the mind
To keep this new and questionable road?
FOOTNOTES:
[171] 1840.
Yet some, Noviciates of the cloistral shade,
Or chained by vows, with undissembled glee 1822.
XXIV
SAINTS
Ye, too, must fly before a chasing hand,
Angels and Saints, in every hamlet mourned!
Ah! if the old idolatry be spurned,
Let not your radiant Shapes desert the Land:
Her adoration was not your demand, 5
The fond heart proffered it--the servile heart;
And therefore are ye summoned to depart,
Michael, and thou, St. George, whose flaming brand[172]
The Dragon quelled; and valiant Margaret[173]
Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew: 10
And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen[174]
Of harmony; and weeping Magdalene,
Who in the penitential desert met
Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew!
FOOTNOTES:
[172] St. George, patron Saint of England, supposed to have suffered
A.D. 284. The Greek Church honours him as "the great martyr."--ED.
[173] St. Margaret, supposed to have suffered martyrdom at Antioch,
A.D. 275.--ED.
[174] St. Cecilia, patron Saint of Music, has been enrolled as a martyr
by the Latin Church from the fifth century.--ED.
XXV
THE VIRGIN[175]
Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost
With the least shade of thought to sin allied;
Woman! above all women glorified,
Our tainted nature's solitary boast;
Purer than foam on central ocean tost; 5
Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn
With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon
Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast;
Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween,
Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend, 10
As to a visible Power, in which did blend
All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee
Of mother's love with maiden purity,
Of high with low, celestial with terrene![176]
FOOTNOTES:
[175] Compare the _Stanzas suggested in a Steam-boat off Saint Bees'
Head_, (l. 114); also the following sonnet by the late John Nichol,
Professor of English Literature in the University of Glasgow. (See _The
Death of Themistocles, and other Poems_, p. 189.)
AVE MARIA
Ave Maria! on a thousand thrones
Raised by the weary hearts that beat to thee,
As 'neath the softer light the throbbing sea,
Thy name a spell of peace, in lingering tones
Is whispered through the world: thy truth condones
The feebler faith of worshippers that flee,
Lost in the sovereign awe, to bend the knee
By pictured holiness or breathing stones.
Mother of Christ! whom ages old adorn,
And hundred climes, by gentle thought and deed,
Forgive the sacrilege, the brandished scorn
Of the grim guardians of a narrow creed,
Who fence their folds from Love's serener law,
And "grate on scrannel pipes of wretched straw."--ED.
[176] This sonnet was published in _Time's Telescope_, July 2, 1823, p.
136.--ED.
XXVI
APOLOGY
Not utterly unworthy to endure
Was the supremacy of crafty Rome;[177]
Age after age to the arch of Christendom
Aërial keystone haughtily secure;
Supremacy from Heaven transmitted pure, 5
As many hold; and, therefore, to the tomb
Pass, some through fire--and by the scaffold some--
Like saintly Fisher,[178] and unbending More.[179]
"Lightly for both the bosom's lord did sit
Upon his throne;"[180] unsoftened, undismayed 10
By aught that mingled with the tragic scene
Of pity or fear; and More's gay genius played
With the inoffensive sword of native wit,
Than the bare axe more luminous and keen.
FOOTNOTES:
[177] "To the second part of the same series" (the "Ecclesiastical
Sonnets") "I have added two, in order to do more justice to the Papal
Church for the services which she did actually render to Christianity
and Humanity in the Middle Ages."--W. W. (in a letter to Professor
Reed, Sept. 4, 1842).--ED.
[178] John Fisher, born in 1469, became Bishop of Rochester in 1504,
was one of the first in England to write against Luther, opposed the
divorce of Henry VIII., was sent to the Tower in 1534, and his see
declared void, was made a Cardinal by the Pope while in prison, and
beheaded on Tower Hill, 1535.--ED.
[179] Sir Thomas More, the author of _Utopia_, born in 1478, was
Speaker of the House of Commons in 1523, and succeeded Wolsey as Lord
Chancellor in 1529. Disapproving of the king's divorce, he resigned
office, was committed to the Tower for refusing to take the oath of
supremacy, found guilty of treason, and beheaded in 1535.--ED.
[180] See _Romeo and Juliet_, act V. scene i. l. 3--
My bosom's lord sits lightly on his throne.--ED.
XXVII
IMAGINATIVE REGRETS
Deep is the lamentation! Not alone
From Sages justly honoured by mankind;
But from the ghostly tenants of the wind,
Demons and Spirits, many a dolorous groan
Issues for that dominion overthrown: 5
Proud Tiber grieves, and far-off Ganges, blind
As his own worshippers: and Nile, reclined
Upon his monstrous urn, the farewell moan
Renews.[181] Through every forest, cave, and den,
Where frauds were hatched of old, hath sorrow past--
Hangs o'er the Arabian Prophet's native Waste,[182] 11
Where once his airy helpers[183] schemed and planned
'Mid spectral[184] lakes bemocking thirsty men,[185]
And stalking pillars built of fiery sand.[186]
FOOTNOTES:
[181] Compare the echo of the Lady's voice in the lines _To Joanna_, in
the "Poems on the Naming of Places" (vol. ii. p. 157).--ED.
[182] The desert around Mecca.--ED.
[183] Mahomet affirmed that he had constant visits from angels; and
that the angel Gabriel dictated to him the Koran.--ED.
[184] 1837.
'Mid phantom ... 1822.
[185] The mirage.--ED.
[186] Pillars of sand raised by whirlwinds in the desert, which
correspond to waterspouts at sea.--ED.
XXVIII
REFLECTIONS
Grant, that by this unsparing hurricane
Green leaves with yellow mixed are torn away,
And goodly fruitage with the mother spray;
'Twere madness--wished we, therefore, to detain,
With hands stretched forth in[187] mollified disdain, 5
The "trumpery" that ascends in bare display--
Bulls, pardons, relics, cowls black, white, and grey--[188]
Upwhirled, and flying o'er the ethereal plain
Fast bound for Limbo Lake.[189] And yet not choice
But habit rules the unreflecting herd, 10
And airy bonds are hardest to disown;
Hence, with the spiritual sovereignty transferred
Unto itself, the Crown assumes a voice
Of reckless mastery, hitherto unknown.
FOOTNOTES:
[187] 1827.
With farewell sighs of 1822.
[188] See _Paradise Lost_, book iii. ll. 474, 475--
Eremites and Friars,
White, black, and grey, with all their trumperie.--ED.
[189] Hades.--ED.
XXIX
TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE
But, to outweigh all harm, the sacred Book,
In dusty sequestration wrapt too long,
Assumes the accents of our native tongue;
And he who guides the plough, or wields the crook,
With understanding spirit now may look 5
Upon her records, listen to her song,
And sift her laws--much wondering that the wrong,
Which Faith has suffered, Heaven could calmly brook
Transcendent Boon! noblest that earthly King
Ever bestowed to equalize and bless 10
Under the weight of mortal wretchedness!
But passions spread like plagues, and thousands wild
With bigotry shall tread the Offering
Beneath their feet, detested and defiled.[190]
FOOTNOTES:
[190] As was the case during the French Revolution.--ED.
XXX
THE POINT AT ISSUE
Published 1827
For what contend the wise?--for nothing less
Than that the Soul, freed from the bonds of Sense,
And to her God restored by evidence[191]
Of things not seen, drawn forth from their recess,
Root there, and not in forms, her holiness;-- 5
For[192] Faith, which to the Patriarchs did dispense
Sure guidance, ere a ceremonial fence
Was needful round men thirsting to transgress;--
For[193] Faith, more perfect still, with which the Lord
Of all, himself a Spirit, in the youth 10
Of Christian aspiration, deigned to fill
The temples of their hearts who, with his word
Informed, were resolute to do his will,
And worship him in spirit and in truth.
FOOTNOTES:
[191] 1832.
Than that pure Faith dissolve the bonds of Sense;
The Soul restored to God by evidence 1827.
[192] 1832.
_That_ ... 1827.
[193] 1832.
That ... 1827.
XXXI
EDWARD VI
"Sweet is the holiness of Youth"--so felt
Time-honoured Chaucer speaking through that Lay[194]
By which the Prioress beguiled the way,[195]
And many a Pilgrim's rugged heart did melt.
Hadst thou, loved Bard! whose spirit often dwelt 5
In the clear land of vision, but foreseen
King, child, and seraph,[196] blended in the mien
Of pious Edward kneeling as he knelt
In meek and simple infancy, what joy
For universal Christendom had thrilled 10
Thy heart! what hopes inspired thy genius, skilled
(O great Precursor, genuine morning Star)
The lucid shafts of reason to employ,
Piercing the Papal darkness from afar!
FOOTNOTES:
[194] 1845.
... Chaucer when he framed the lay 1822.
... Chaucer when he framed that Lay 1837.
[195] The quotation is not from _The Prioress's Tale_ of Chaucer, but
from Wordsworth's own _Selections from Chaucer modernized_, stanza ix.
Wordsworth adds an idea, not found in the original, and to make room
for it, he extends the stanza from seven to eight lines.--ED.
[196] King Edward VI. ascended the throne in 1547, at the age of ten,
and reigned for six years.--ED.
XXXII
EDWARD SIGNING THE WARRANT FOR THE EXECUTION OF JOAN OF KENT
The tears of man in various measure gush
From various sources; gently overflow
From blissful transport some--from clefts of woe
Some with ungovernable impulse rush;
And some, coëval with the earliest blush 5
Of infant passion, scarcely dare to show
Their pearly lustre--coming but to go;
And some break forth when others' sorrows crush
The sympathising heart. Nor these, nor yet
The noblest drops to admiration known, 10
To gratitude, to injuries forgiven--
Claim Heaven's regard like waters that have wet
The innocent eyes of youthful Monarchs driven
To pen the mandates, nature doth disown.[197]
FOOTNOTES:
[197] Joan Bocher, of Kent, a woman of good birth, friend of Ann Askew
at Court, was accused, and condemned to die for maintaining that
Christ was human only in appearance. Cranmer, by order of the Council,
obtained from Edward a warrant for her execution. Edward, who was then
in his thirteenth year, signed it, telling Cranmer that he must be
answerable for the deed.--ED.
XXXIII
REVIVAL OF POPERY
Published 1827
The saintly Youth has ceased to rule, discrowned[198]
By unrelenting Death.[199] O People keen
For change, to whom the new looks always green!
Rejoicing did they cast upon the ground[200]
Their Gods of wood and stone; and, at the sound 5
Of counter-proclamation, now are seen,
(Proud triumph is it for a sullen Queen!)
Lifting them up, the worship to confound
Of the Most High. Again do they invoke
The Creature, to the Creature glory give; 10
Again with frankincense the altars smoke
Like those the Heathen served; and mass is sung;
And prayer, man's rational prerogative,
Runs through blind channels of an unknown tongue.[201]
FOOTNOTES:
[198] 1832.
Melts into silent shades the Youth, discrowned 1827.
[199] Edward died in 1553, aged sixteen.--ED.
[200] 1832.
They cast, they cast with joy upon the ground 1827.
[201] On the death of Edward and the accession of Mary Tudor, the Roman
Catholic worship was restored, all the statutes of Edward VI. with
regard to religion being repealed by Parliament.--ED.
XXXIV
LATIMER AND RIDLEY
Published 1827
How fast the Marian death-list is unrolled!
See Latimer and Ridley in the might
Of Faith stand coupled for a common flight![202]
One (like those prophets whom God sent of old)
Transfigured,[203] from this kindling hath foretold 5
A torch of inextinguishable light;
The Other gains a confidence as bold;
And thus they foil their enemy's despite.
The penal instruments, the shows of crime,
Are glorified while this once-mitred pair 10
Of saintly Friends the "murtherer's chain partake,
Corded, and burning at the social stake:"
Earth never witnessed object more sublime
In constancy, in fellowship more fair!
FOOTNOTES:
[202] Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester, and Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of
Winchester, were sent to the Tower, and subsequently burnt together at
Oxford in the front of Balliol College, October 16, 1555.--ED.
[203] M. Latimer suffered his keeper very quietly to pull off his
hose, and his other array, which to looke unto was very simple: and
being stripped into his shrowd, he seemed as comely a person to them
that were present, as one should lightly see: and whereas in his
clothes hee appeared a withered and crooked sillie (weak) olde man,
he now stood bolt upright, as comely a father as one might lightly
behold.... Then they brought a faggotte, kindled with fire, and laid
the same downe at doctor Ridley's feete. To whome M. Latimer spake in
this manner, "Bee of good comfort, master Ridley, and play the man:
wee shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England, as I
trust shall never bee put out." (_Fox's Acts_, _etc._)
Similar alterations in the outward figure and deportment of persons
brought to like trial were not uncommon. See note to the above passage
in Dr. Wordsworth's _Ecclesiastical Biography_, for an example in an
humble Welsh fisherman.--W. W. 1827. (_Ecclesiastical Biography_, vol.
iii. pp. 287, 288.)--ED.
XXXV
CRANMER[204]
Outstretching flame-ward his upbraided hand[205]
(O God of mercy, may no earthly Seat
Of judgment such presumptuous doom repeat!)
Amid the shuddering throng doth Cranmer stand;
Firm as the stake to which with iron band 5
His frame is tied; firm from the naked feet
To the bare head. The victory is complete;[206]
The shrouded Body to the Soul's command
Answers[207] with more than Indian fortitude,
Through all her nerves with finer sense endued, 10
Till breath departs in blissful aspiration:
Then, 'mid the ghastly ruins of the fire,
Behold the unalterable heart entire,
Emblem of faith untouched, miraculous attestation![208][209]
FOOTNOTES:
[204] Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, and leader in the
ecclesiastical affairs of England during the latter part of Henry
VIII. and Edward VI.'s reign, was, on the accession of Mary Tudor,
committed to the Tower, tried on charges of heresy, and condemned. He
recanted his opinions, but was nevertheless condemned to die. He then
recanted his recantation. "They brought him to the spot where Latimer
and Ridley had suffered. After a short prayer, he put off his clothes
with a cheerful countenance and a willing mind. His feet were bare;
his head appeared perfectly bald. Called to abide by his recantation,
he stretched forth his right arm, and replied, 'This is the hand that
wrote it, and therefore it shall suffer punishment first.' Firm to
his purpose, as soon as the flame rose, he held his hand out to meet
it, and retained it there steadfastly, so that all the people saw
it sensibly burning before the fire reached any other part of his
body; and after he repeated with a loud and firm voice, 'This hand
hath offended, this unworthy right hand.' Never did martyr endure the
fire with more invincible resolution; no cry was heard from him, save
the exclamation of the protomartyr Stephen, 'Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit!' The fire did its work soon--and his heart was found unconsumed
amid the ashes." (Southey's _Book of the Church_, vol. ii. pp. 240,
241.)--ED.
[205] 1827.
... upbraiding ... 1822.
[206] 1837.
... head, the victory complete; 1822.
[207] 1837.
Answering ... 1822.
[208] 1827.
Now wrapt in flames--and now in smoke embowered--
'Till self-reproach and panting aspirations
Are, with the heart that held them, all devoured;
The Spirit set free, and crown'd with joyful acclamations! 1822.
[209] For the belief in this fact, see the contemporary Historians.--W.
W. 1827.
XXXVI
GENERAL VIEW OF THE TROUBLES OF THE REFORMATION
Aid, glorious Martyrs, from your fields of light,
Our mortal ken! Inspire a perfect trust
(While we look round) that Heaven's decrees are just:
Which few can hold committed to a fight
That shows, ev'n on its better side, the might 5
Of proud Self-will, Rapacity, and Lust,
'Mid clouds enveloped of polemic dust,
Which showers of blood seem rather to incite
Than to allay. Anathemas are hurled
From both sides; veteran thunders (the brute test 10
Of truth) are met by fulminations new--
Tartarean flags are caught at, and unfurled--
Friends strike at friends--the flying shall pursue--
And Victory sickens, ignorant where to rest!
XXXVII
ENGLISH REFORMERS IN EXILE[210]
Scattering, like birds escaped the fowler's net,
Some seek with timely flight a foreign strand;
Most happy, re-assembled in a land
By dauntless Luther freed, could they forget
Their Country's woes. But scarcely have they met, 5
Partners in faith, and brothers in distress,
Free to pour forth their common thankfulness,
Ere hope declines:--their union is beset
With speculative notions[211] rashly sown, 9
Whence thickly-sprouting growth of poisonous weeds;
Their forms are broken staves; their passions, steeds
That master them. How enviably blest
Is he who can, by help of grace, enthrone
The peace of God within his single breast!
FOOTNOTES:
[210] During Mary's reign, fully 800 of the English clergy and laity
sought refuge on the Continent, and they were hospitably received in
Switzerland, the Low Countries, and along the Rhine. Some of the best
known were Coverdale, Sandys, Jewel, Knox, Whittingham, and Foxe. They
lived in Basle, Zurich, Geneva, Strasburg, Worms, and Frankfort; and
it was in the latter town that the dissensions prevailed, referred to
in the sonnet. These were unfolded in a Tract entitled _The Troubles
of Frankfort_. The chief point in dispute was the use of the English
_Book of Common Prayer_. Knox and Whittingham, under the guidance of
Calvin, wished a modification of this book. The dispute ended in the
Frankfort magistrates requesting Knox to leave the city. He retired to
Geneva. On the accession of Elizabeth, the Frankfort exiles returned to
England.--ED.
[211] 1827.
With prurient speculations ... 1822.
XXXVIII
ELIZABETH
Hail, Virgin Queen! o'er many an envious bar
Triumphant, snatched from many a treacherous wile!
All hail, sage Lady, whom a grateful Isle
Hath blest, respiring from that dismal war
Stilled by thy voice! But quickly from afar 5
Defiance breathes with more malignant aim;
And alien storms with home-bred ferments claim
Portentous fellowship.[212] Her silver car,
By sleepless prudence[213] ruled, glides slowly on;
Unhurt by violence, from menaced taint 10
Emerging pure, and seemingly more bright:
Ah! wherefore yields it to a foul constraint[214]
Black as the clouds its beams dispersed, while shone,
By men and angels blest, the glorious light?[215]
FOOTNOTES:
[212] Alluding doubtless to the foreign conspiracies against Elizabeth,
the intrigues of Mary Queen of Scots, the Pope's excommunication,
and conspiracies in the North of England, etc. See _The White Doe of
Rylstone_.--ED.
[213] 1827.
Meanwhile, by prudence ... 1822.
[214] An allusion probably to the Court of High Commission, and perhaps
also to the execution of the Scottish Queen.--ED.
[215] 1845.
For, wheresoe'er she moves, the clouds anon
Disperse; or--under a Divine constraint--
Reflect some portion of her glorious light! 1822.
XXXIX
EMINENT REFORMERS
Methinks that I could trip o'er heaviest soil,
Light as a buoyant bark from wave to wave,
Were mine the trusty staff that JEWEL gave
To youthful HOOKER, in familiar style
The gift exalting, and with playful smile:[216] 5
For thus equipped, and bearing on his head
The Donor's farewell blessing, can[217] he dread
Tempest, or length of way, or weight of toil?--
More sweet than odours caught by him who sails
Near spicy shores of Araby the blest, 10
A thousand times more exquisitely sweet,
The freight of holy feeling which we meet,
In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales
From fields where good men walk, or bowers wherein they rest.
FOOTNOTES:
[216] "On foot they[218] went, and took Salisbury in their way,
purposely to see the good Bishop, who made Mr. Hooker sit at his own
table; which Mr. Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude when he
saw his mother and friends; and at the Bishop's parting with him, the
Bishop gave him good counsel and his benediction, but forgot to give
him money; which when the Bishop had considered, he sent a servant in
all haste to call Richard back to him, and at Richard's return, the
Bishop said to him, 'Richard, I sent for you back to lend you a horse
which hath carried me many a mile, and I thank God with much ease,'
and presently delivered into his hand a walking-staff, with which he
professed he had travelled through many parts of Germany; and he said,
'Richard, I do not give, but lend you my horse; be sure you be honest,
and bring my horse back to me, at your return this way to Oxford. And I
do now give you ten groats to bear your charges to Exeter; and here is
ten groats more, which I charge you to deliver to your mother, and tell
her I send her a Bishop's benediction with it, and beg the continuance
of her prayers for me. And if you bring my horse back to me, I will
give you ten groats more to carry you on foot to the college; and
so God bless you, good Richard.'" (See Walton's _Life of Richard
Hooker_.)--W. W. 1822.
[217] 1827.
... could ... 1822.
[218] _i.e._ Richard Hooker and a College companion.--ED.
XL
THE SAME
Holy and heavenly Spirits as they are,
Spotless in life, and eloquent as wise,
With what entire affection do they prize[219]
Their Church reformed![220] labouring with earnest care
To baffle all that may[221] her strength impair; 5
That Church, the unperverted Gospel's seat;
In their afflictions a divine retreat;
Source of their liveliest hope, and tenderest prayer!--
The truth exploring with an equal mind,
In doctrine and communion they have sought[222] 10
Firmly between the two extremes to steer;
But theirs the wise man's ordinary lot,
To trace right courses for the stubborn blind,
And prophesy to ears that will not hear.
FOOTNOTES:
[219] The reading, "Their new-born Church," printed in all editions
of the poems from 1822 till 1842, had been objected to by several
correspondents; and out of deference to their suggestions it was
altered to "Their Church reformed": but Wordsworth wrote to his
nephew and biographer, November 12, 1846, "I don't like the term
_reformed_; if taken in its literal sense as a _transformation_,
it is very objectionable" (see _Memoirs_, vol. ii. p. 113), and in
the "postscript" _to Yarrow Revisited_, _etc._, he says, "The great
Religious Reformation of the sixteenth century did not profess to be a
new construction, but a restoration of something fallen into decay, or
put out of sight."--ED.
[220] 1845.
... did they prize
Their new-born Church!... 1822.
... do they prize
Their new-born Church!... 1827.
[221] 1827.
... might ... 1822.
[222] 1827.
In polity and discipline they sought 1822.
XLI
DISTRACTIONS
Men, who have ceased to reverence, soon defy
Their forefathers; lo! sects are formed, and split
With morbid restlessness;[223]--the ecstatic fit
Spreads wide; though special mysteries multiply,
_The Saints must govern_ is their common cry; 5
And so they labour, deeming Holy Writ
Disgraced by aught that seems content to sit
Beneath the roof of settled Modesty.
The Romanist exults; fresh hope he draws
From the confusion, craftily incites 10
The overweening, personates the mad--[224]
To heap disgust upon the worthier Cause:
Totters the Throne;[225] the new-born Church[226] is sad
For every wave against her peace unites.
FOOTNOTES:
[223] The first nonconforming sect in England originated in 1556.
It broke off from the Church, on a question of vestments. The chief
divisions of English Nonconformity in the latter half of the sixteenth
century were (1) the _Brunists_, or _Barronists_. The disciples of
Brun quarrelled and divided amongst themselves. (2) The _Familists_,
an offshoot of the Dutch Anabaptists, a mystic sect which quarrelled
with the Puritans. (3) The _Anabaptists_, who were not only religious
sectaries, but who differed with the Church on sundry social and civil
matters. "They denied the sanctity of an oath, the binding power
of laws, the right of the magistrate to punish, and the rights of
property." (Perry's _History of the English Church_, p. 315.) See also
Hooker's Preface to his _Ecclesiastical Polity_, c. viii. 6-12; and the
"Life of Sir Matthew Hale," _Eccl. Biog._ iv. 533, on the "indigested
enthusiastical scheme called _The Kingdom of Christ_, or _of his
Saints_."--ED.
[224] A common device in religious and political conflicts. See
_Strype_, in support of this instance.--W. W. 1822.
Probably the reference is to the case of Cussin, a Dominican Friar. He
pretended to be a Puritan minister; and, in his devotions, assumed the
airs of madness. See in Strype's _The Life and Acts of Matthew Parker,_
_Archbishop of Canterbury_, vol. i. chaps, xiii. and xvi.--ED.
[225] 1827.
The Throne is plagued; ... 1822.
[226] See the note to the previous sonnet, No. XL.--ED.
XLII
GUNPOWDER PLOT[227]
Fear hath a hundred eyes that all agree
To plague her beating heart; and there is one
(Nor idlest that!) which holds communion
With things that were not, yet were _meant_ to be.
Aghast within its gloomy cavity 5
That eye (which sees as if fulfilled and done
Crimes that might stop the motion of the sun)
Beholds the horrible catastrophe
Of an assembled Senate unredeemed
From subterraneous Treason's darkling power: 10
Merciless act of sorrow infinite!
Worse than the product of that dismal night,
When gushing, copious as a thunder-shower,
The blood of Huguenots through Paris streamed.[228]
FOOTNOTES:
[227] Originated by Robert Catesby, the intention being to destroy
King, Lords, and Commons, by an explosion at Westminster, when James I.
went in person to open Parliament on the 5th November 1605.--ED.
[228] The massacre of St. Bartholomew, which occurred on August 24,
1572.--ED.
XLIII
ILLUSTRATION
THE JUNG-FRAU AND THE FALL OF THE RHINE NEAR SCHAFFHAUSEN
The Virgin Mountain,[229] wearing like a Queen
A brilliant crown of everlasting snow,
Sheds ruin from her sides; and men below
Wonder that aught of aspect so serene
Can link with desolation. Smooth and green,
And seeming, at a little distance, slow,
The waters of the Rhine; but on they go
Fretting and whitening, keener and more keen;
Till madness seizes on the whole wide Flood,
Turned to a fearful Thing whose nostrils breathe 10
Blasts of tempestuous smoke--wherewith he tries
To hide himself, but only magnifies;
And doth in more conspicuous torment writhe,
Deafening the region in his ireful mood.[230]
FOOTNOTES:
[229] The Jung-frau.--W. W. 1822.
[230] This Sonnet was included among the "Memorials of a Tour on the
Continent" (1822), and the following note was added:--"This Sonnet
belongs to another publication, but from its fitness for this place
is inserted here also, '_Voilà un énfer d'eau_,' cried out a German
Friend of Ramond, falling on his knees on the scaffold in front of this
Waterfall. See Ramond's Translation of Coxe."--W. W.
The following extracts from Mrs. Wordsworth's Journal of the
Continental Tour in 1820 illustrate it. "Aug. 9.--I am seated before
_Jung-frau_, in the green vale of Interlaken, 'green to the very
door,' with rich shade of walnut trees, the river behind the house....
Mountains and that majestic _Virgin_ closing up all.... By looking
across into a nook at the entrance of the Vale of Lauterbrunnen,
Jung-frau presses forward and seems to preside over and give a
character to the whole of the vale that belongs only to this one
spot," ... "Aug. 10th.-- ... Reached Grindelwald, by the pass close
to Jung-frau (at least separated from it by a deep cleft only), which
sent forth its avalanches,--one grand beyond all description. It was an
awful and a solemn sound." ... "Aug. 1st.-- ... Nothing could exceed
my delight when, through an opening between buildings at the skirts of
the town, we _unexpectedly_ hailed our old and side-by-side companion,
the Rhine, now roaring like a lion, along his rocky channel. Never
beheld so soft, so lovely a green, as is here given to the waters of
this lordly river; and then, how they glittered and heaved to meet the
sunshine."--ED.
XLIV
TROUBLES OF CHARLES THE FIRST
Even such the contrast that, where'er we move,[231]
To the mind's eye[232] Religion doth present;
Now with her own deep quietness content;
Then, like the mountain, thundering from above
Against the ancient pine-trees of the grove 5
And the Land's humblest comforts. Now her mood
Recals the transformation of the flood,
Whose rage the gentle skies in vain reprove,
Earth cannot check. O terrible excess
Of headstrong will! Can this be Piety? 10
No--some fierce Maniac hath usurped her name;
And scourges England struggling to be free:
Her peace destroyed! her hopes a wilderness!
Her blessings cursed--her glory turned to shame!
FOOTNOTES:
[231] 1832.
Such contrast, in whatever track we move, 1822.
Such is the contrast, which, where'er we move, 1827.
[232] Compare _Hamlet_, act I. scene i. l. 112.--ED.
XLV
LAUD[233]
Prejudged by foes determined not to spare,[234]
An old weak Man for vengeance thrown aside,
Laud,[235] "in the painful art of dying" tried,
(Like a poor bird entangled in a snare
Whose heart still flutters, though his wings forbear 5
To stir in useless struggle) hath relied
On hope that conscious innocence supplied,[236]
And in his prison breathes[237] celestial air.
Why tarries then thy chariot?[238] Wherefore stay,
O Death! the ensanguined yet triumphant wheels, 10
Which thou prepar'st, full often, to convey
(What time a State with madding faction reels)
The Saint or Patriot to the world that heals
All wounds, all perturbations doth allay?
FOOTNOTES:
[233] See the Fenwick note preceding the Series.--ED.
In this age a word cannot be said in praise of Laud, or even in
compassion for his fate, without incurring a charge of bigotry; but
fearless of such imputation, I concur with Hume, "that it is sufficient
for his vindication to observe that his errors were the most excusable
of all those which prevailed during that zealous period." A key to the
right understanding of those parts of his conduct that brought the most
odium upon him in his own time, may be found in the following passage
of his speech before the bar of the House of Peers:--"Ever since I came
in place, I have laboured nothing more than that the external publick
worship of God, so much slighted in divers parts of this kingdom, might
be preserved, and that with as much decency and uniformity as might
be. For I evidently saw that the public neglect of God's service in
the outward face of it, and the nasty lying of many places dedicated
to that service, _had almost cast a damp upon the true and inward
worship of God, which while we live in the body, needs external
helps, and all little enough to keep it in any vigour_."--W. W. 1827.
[234] 1827.
Pursued by Hate, debarred from friendly care; 1822.
[235] 1827.
Long ... 1822.
[236] 1827.
... Laud relied
Upon the strength which Innocence supplied, 1822.
[237] 1827.
... breathed ... 1822.
[238] In his address, before his execution, Archbishop Laud said, "I am
not in love with this passage through the Red Sea, and I have prayed
_ut transiret calix iste_, but if not, God's will be done."--ED.
XLVI
AFFLICTIONS OF ENGLAND
Harp! could'st thou venture, on thy boldest string,
The faintest note to echo which the blast
Caught from the hand of Moses as it pass'd
O'er Sinai's top, or from the Shepherd-king,
Early awake, by Siloa's brook, to sing 5
Of dread Jehovah; then, should wood and waste
Hear also of that name, and mercy cast
Off to the mountains, like a covering
Of which the Lord was weary. Weep, oh! weep,
Weep with the good,[239] beholding King and Priest 10
Despised by that stern God to whom they raise
Their suppliant hands; but holy is the feast
He keepeth; like the firmament his ways:
His statutes like the chambers of the deep.[240]
FOOTNOTES:
[239] 1827.
As good men wept, ... 1822.
[240] See Psalm xxxvi. 5, 6.--ED.
PART III
FROM THE RESTORATION TO THE PRESENT TIMES
[When I came to this part of the series I had the dream described in
this Sonnet.[241] The figure was that of my daughter, and the whole
passed exactly as here represented. The Sonnet was composed on the
middle road leading from Grasmere to Ambleside: it was begun as I left
the last house of the vale, and finished, word for word as it now
stands, before I came in view of Rydal. I wish I could say the same of
the five or six hundred I have written: most of them were frequently
retouched in the course of composition, and, not a few, laboriously.
I have only further to observe that the intended Church which
prompted these Sonnets was erected on Coleorton Moor towards the
centre of a very populous parish between three and four miles from
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, on the road to Loughborough, and has proved, I
believe, a great benefit to the neighbourhood.--I.F.]
FOOTNOTES:
[241] The first of Part III. p. 74.--ED.
I
"I SAW THE FIGURE OF A LOVELY MAID"
I saw the figure of a lovely Maid
Seated alone beneath a darksome tree,
Whose fondly-overhanging canopy
Set off her brightness with a pleasing shade.
No Spirit was she; _that_[242] my heart betrayed, 5
For she was one I loved exceedingly;
But while I gazed in tender reverie
(Or was it sleep that with my Fancy played?)
The bright corporeal presence--form and face--
Remaining still distinct grew thin and rare, 10
Like sunny mist;--at length the golden hair,
Shape, limbs, and heavenly features, keeping pace
Each with the other in a lingering race
Of dissolution, melted into air.
FOOTNOTES:
[242] 1837.
Substance she seem'd (and _that_ ... 1822.
II
PATRIOTIC SYMPATHIES
Last night, without a voice, that Vision spake
Fear to my Soul, and sadness which might seem[243]
Wholly[244] dissevered from our present theme;
Yet, my belovèd Country! I partake[245]
Of kindred agitations for thy sake; 5
Thou, too, dost visit oft[246] my midnight dream;
Thy[247] glory meets me with the earliest beam
Of light, which tells that Morning is awake.
If aught impair thy[248] beauty or destroy,
Or but forebode destruction, I deplore 10
With filial love the sad vicissitude;
If thou hast[249] fallen, and righteous Heaven restore
The prostrate, then my spring-time is renewed,
And sorrow bartered for exceeding joy.
FOOTNOTES:
[243] 1845.
... this Vision spake
Fear to my Spirit--passion that might seem 1822.
... this Vision spake
Fear to my Soul, and sadness that might seem 1837.
[244] 1827.
To lie ... 1822.
[245] 1832.
Yet do I love my Country--and partake 1822.
[246] 1832.
... for her sake;
She visits oftentimes ... 1822.
[247] 1832.
Her ... 1822.
[248] 1832.
... her ... 1822.
[249] 1832.
If she hath ... 1822.
III
CHARLES THE SECOND
Who comes--with rapture greeted, and caress'd
With frantic love--his kingdom to regain?[250]
Him Virtue's Nurse, Adversity, in vain
Received, and fostered in her iron breast:
For all she taught of hardiest and of best, 5
Or would have taught, by discipline of pain
And long privation, now dissolves amain,
Or is remembered only to give zest
To wantonness--Away, Circean revels![251]
But for what gain? if England soon must sink 10
Into a gulf which all distinction levels--
That bigotry may swallow the good name,[252][253]
And, with that draught, the life-blood: misery, shame,
By Poets loathed; from which Historians shrink!
FOOTNOTES:
[250] "No event ever marked a deeper or a more lasting change in the
temper of the English people, than the entry of Charles the Second into
Whitehall. With it modern England begins." (Green's _Short History of
the English People_, chap. ix. sec. 1.)--ED.
[251] "The Restoration brought Charles to Whitehall; and in an instant
the whole face of England was changed. All that was noblest and best in
Puritanism was whirled away." (Green, chap. ix. sec. I.) The excesses
of every kind that came in with the Restoration were notorious.--ED.
[252] 1837.
Already stands our Country on the brink
Of bigot rage, that all distinction levels
Of truth and falsehood, swallowing the good name, 1822.
[253] In 1672 the Duke of York was publicly received into the Church of
Rome.--ED.
IV
LATITUDINARIANISM
Yet Truth is keenly sought for, and the wind
Charged with rich words poured out in thought's defence;
Whether the Church inspire that eloquence,[254]
Or a Platonic Piety confined
To the sole temple of the inward mind;[255] 5
And One there is who builds immortal lays,
Though doomed to tread in solitary ways,[256]
Darkness before and danger's voice behind;
Yet not alone, nor helpless to repel
Sad thoughts; for from above the starry sphere 10
Come secrets, whispered nightly to his ear;
And the pure spirit of celestial light
Shines through his soul--"that he may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight."[257]
FOOTNOTES:
[254] As in the case of John Hales of Eton, William Chillingworth, who
wrote _The Religion of Protestants_, and Jeremy Taylor, author of _The_
_Liberty of Prophesying_.--ED.
[255] The Cambridge Platonists, Ralph Cudworth, John Smith, and Henry
More, are referred to.--ED.
[256] Milton.--ED.
[257] Compare _Paradise Lost_, book iii. ll. 54, 55.--ED.
V
WALTON'S BOOK OF LIVES[258]
There are no colours in the fairest sky
So fair as these. The feather, whence the pen
Was shaped that traced the lives of these good men,
Dropped from an Angel's wing.[259] With moistened eye
We read of faith and purest charity 5
In Statesman, Priest, and humble Citizen:
O could we copy their mild virtues, then
What joy to live, what blessedness to die!
Methinks their very names shine still and bright;
Apart--like glow-worms on a summer night; 10
Or lonely tapers when from far they fling
A guiding ray;[260] or seen--like stars on high,
Satellites burning in a lucid ring
Around meek Walton's heavenly memory.
FOOTNOTES:
[258] Izaak Walton, author of _The Complete Angler_, wrote also _The
Lives of_ John Donne, Sir Henry Wotton, Richard Hooker, George Herbert,
and Robert Sanderson.--ED.
[259] With those lines of Wordsworth compare the following: a Sonnet
addressed "to the King of Scots," in Henry Constable's _Diana_,
published in 1594--
The pen wherewith thou dost so heavenly singe,
Made of a quill pluck't from an Angell's winge.
A sonnet by Dorothy Berry, prefixed to Diana Primrose's _Chain of
Pearl, a memorial of the peerless graces, etc., of Queen Elizabeth_,
London, 1639--
Whose noble praise
Deserves a quill pluck't from an angel's wing.
Also John Evelyn, in his _Life of Mrs. Godolphin_, "It would become the
pen of an angel's wing to describe the life of a saint," etc.--ED.
[260] 1827.
... glow-worms in the woods of spring,
Or lonely tapers shooting far a light
That guides and cheers,-- ... 1822.
VI
CLERICAL INTEGRITY
Nor shall the eternal roll of praise reject
Those Unconforming; whom one rigorous day
Drives from their Cures, a voluntary prey
To poverty, and grief, and disrespect,[261]
And some to want--as if by tempests wrecked[262] 5
On a wild coast; how destitute! did They
Feel not that Conscience never can betray,
That peace of mind is Virtue's sure effect.
Their altars they forego, their homes they quit,
Fields which they love, and paths they daily trod, 10
And cast the future upon Providence;
As men the dictate of whose inward sense
Outweighs the world; whom self-deceiving wit
Lures not from what they deem the cause of God.
FOOTNOTES:
[261] By the Act of Uniformity (1662), nearly 2000 Presbyterian and
Independent Ministers, who had been admitted to benefices in the Church
of England during the Puritan Ascendency, were ejected from their
livings.--ED.
[262] 1827.
... tempest wreck'd 1822.
VII
PERSECUTION OF THE SCOTTISH COVENANTERS
Published 1827
When Alpine Vales threw forth a suppliant cry,
The majesty of England interposed[263]
And the sword stopped; the bleeding wounds were closed;
And Faith preserved her ancient purity.
How little boots that precedent of good, 5
Scorned or forgotten, Thou canst testify,
For England's shame, O Sister Realm! from wood,
Mountain, and moor, and crowded street, where lie[264]
The headless martyrs of the Covenant,
Slain by Compatriot-protestants that draw 10
From councils senseless as intolerant
Their warrant. Bodies fall by wild sword-law;
But who would force the Soul, tilts with a straw
Against a Champion cased in adamant.
FOOTNOTES:
[263] See Milton's Sonnet XVIII., _On the late Massacre in Piedmont_,
beginning--
Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, ...
This was in 1655. In the following year Cromwell, to whom the
persecuted Vaudois subjects of the Duke of Savoy had appealed,
interposed in their behalf. Nearly £40,000 were collected in England
for their relief.--ED.
[264] Compare _The Excursion_, book i. 11. 175, 176.--ED.
VIII
ACQUITTAL OF THE BISHOPS[265]
A voice, from long-expecting[266] thousands sent,
Shatters the air, and troubles tower and spire;
For Justice hath absolved the innocent,
And Tyranny is balked of her desire:
Up, down, the busy Thames--rapid as fire 5
Coursing a train of gunpowder--it went,
And transport finds in every street a vent,
Till the whole City rings like one vast quire.
The Fathers urge the People to be still, 9
With outstretched hands and earnest speech[267]--in vain!
Yea, many, haply wont to entertain
Small reverence for the mitre's offices,
And to Religion's self no friendly will,
A Prelate's blessing ask on bended knees.
FOOTNOTES:
[265] The Bishops who protested against James II.'s Declaration of
Indulgence and refused to read it. He ordered the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners, to deprive them of their Sees, and the Bishops were sent
to the Tower. "They passed to their prison amidst the shouts of a great
multitude, the sentinels knelt for their blessing as they entered the
gates, and the soldiers of the garrison drank their healths.... The
Bishops appeared as criminals at the bar of the King's Bench. The jury
had been packed, the judges were mere tools of the Crown, but judges
and jury were alike overawed by the indignation of the people at large.
No sooner had the foreman of the jury uttered the words 'Not guilty,'
than a roar of applause burst from the crowd, and horsemen spurred
along every road to carry over the country the news of the acquittal."
(Green.) See Wordsworth's note to the eleventh sonnet in Part I. (p.
12.)--ED.
[266] 1827.
... long-expectant ... 1822.
[267] 1827.
... voice ... 1822.
IX
WILLIAM THE THIRD
Calm as an under-current, strong to draw
Millions of waves into itself, and run,
From sea to sea, impervious to the sun
And ploughing storm, the spirit of Nassau[268]
(Swerves not, how blest if by religious awe[269] 5
Swayed, and thereby enabled to contend
With the wide world's commotions) from its end
Swerves not--diverted by a casual law.
Had mortal action e'er a nobler scope?
The Hero comes to liberate, not defy; 10
And, while he marches on with stedfast hope,[270]
Conqueror beloved! expected anxiously!
The vacillating Bondman of the Pope[271]
Shrinks from the verdict of his stedfast eye.
FOOTNOTES:
[268] William III. of Nassau, Prince of Orange, was invited over to
England by the nobles and commons who were disaffected towards James
II., and landed at Torbay in November 1688.--ED.
[269] 1845.
(By constant impulse of religious awe ... 1822.
[270] 1845.
... righteous hope, 1822.
[271] King James II., who fled to France in December 1688.--ED.
X
OBLIGATIONS OF CIVIL TO RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
Ungrateful Country, if thou e'er forget
The sons who for thy civil rights have bled!
How, like a Roman, Sidney bowed his head,[272]
And Russell's milder blood the scaffold wet;[273]
But these had fallen for profitless regret 5
Had not thy holy Church her champions bred,
And claims from other worlds inspirited
The star of Liberty to rise. Nor yet
(Grave this within thy heart!) if spiritual things
Be lost, through apathy, or scorn, or fear, 10
Shalt thou thy humbler franchises support,
However hardly won or justly dear:
What came from heaven to heaven by nature clings,
And, if dissevered thence, its course is short.
FOOTNOTES:
[272] Algernon Sidney, second son of the Earl of Leicester, equally
opposed to the tyranny of Charles and of Cromwell, was implicated
in the Rye House Plot, arraigned before the chief-justice Jeffries,
condemned illegally, and executed at Tower Hill in December 1683.--ED.
[273] Lord William Russell, third son of the Duke of Bedford, member
of the House of Commons like Sidney, and like him implicated in
the Rye House Plot, condemned at the Old Bailey, and beheaded at
Lincoln's-Inn-Fields in July 1683.--ED.
XI
SACHEVEREL[274]
Published 1827
A sudden conflict rises from the swell
Of a proud slavery met by tenets strained
In Liberty's behalf. Fears, true or feigned,
Spread through all ranks; and lo! the Sentinel
Who loudest rang his pulpit 'larum bell 5
Stands at the Bar, absolved by female eyes
Mingling their glances with grave flatteries[275]
Lavished on _Him_--that England may rebel
Against her ancient virtue. HIGH and LOW,
Watch-words of Party, on all tongues are rife; 10
As if a Church, though sprung from heaven, must owe
To opposites and fierce extremes her life,--
Not to the golden mean, and quiet flow
Of truths that soften hatred, temper strife.
FOOTNOTES:
[274] Henry Sacheverel, a high-church clergyman, preached two sermons
in 1709, one at Derby, and the other in St. Paul's, London, in which
he attacked the principles of the Revolution Settlement, taught the
doctrine of non-resistance, and decried the Act of Toleration. He was
impeached by the Commons, and tried before the House of Lords in 1710,
was found guilty, and suspended from office for three years. This made
him for the time the most popular man in England; and the general
election which followed was fatal to the Government which condemned
him. He was a weak and a vain man, who attained to notoriety without
fame.--ED.
[275] 1832.
... Light with graver flatteries, 1827.
XII[276]
"DOWN A SWIFT STREAM, THUS FAR, A BOLD DESIGN"
Published 1827
Down a swift Stream, thus far, a bold design
Have we pursued, with livelier stir of heart
Than his who sees, borne forward by the Rhine,
The living landscapes greet him, and depart;
Sees spires fast sinking--up again to start! 5
And strives the towers to number, that recline
O'er the dark steeps, or on the horizon line
Striding with shattered crests his[277] eye athwart.
So have we hurried on with troubled pleasure:
Henceforth, as on the bosom of a stream 10
That slackens, and spreads wide a watery gleam,
We, nothing loth a lingering course to measure,
May gather up our thoughts, and mark at leisure
How widely spread the interests of our theme.[278]
FOOTNOTES:
[276] Compare the extracts from Mary and Dorothy Wordsworth's Journals
in the "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent" (vol. vi. p. 300).--ED.
[277] 1845.
... the ... 1827.
[278] 1845.
Features that else had vanished like a dream. 1827.
... sound at leisure
The depths, and mark the compass of our theme. C.
XIII
ASPECTS OF CHRISTIANITY IN AMERICA[279]
I. THE PILGRIM FATHERS[280]
Published 1845
Well worthy to be magnified are they
Who, with sad hearts, of friends and country took
A last farewell, their loved abodes forsook,
And hallowed ground in which their fathers lay;
Then to the new-found World explored their way, 5
That so a Church, unforced, uncalled to brook
Ritual restraints, within some sheltering nook
Her Lord might worship and his word obey
In freedom. Men they were who could not bend;
Blest Pilgrims, surely, as they took for guide 10
A will by sovereign Conscience sanctified;
Blest while their Spirits from the woods ascend
Along a Galaxy that knows no end,
But in His glory who for Sinners died.
FOOTNOTES:
[279] In a letter to Professor Henry Reed, dated March 1, 1842,
Wordsworth wrote:--"I have sent you three sonnets upon certain 'Aspects
of Christianity in America,' having, as you will see, a reference to
the subject upon which you wished me to write. I wish they had been
more worthy of the subject: I hope, however, you will not disapprove of
the connection which I have thought myself warranted in tracing between
the Puritan fugitives and Episcopacy."--ED.
[280] American episcopacy, in union with the church in England,
strictly belongs to the general subject; and I here make my
acknowledgments to my American friends, Bishop Doane, and Mr. Henry
Reed of Philadelphia, for having suggested to me the propriety
of adverting to it, and pointed out the virtues and intellectual
qualities of Bishop White, which so eminently fitted him for the great
work he undertook. Bishop White was consecrated at Lambeth, Feb.
4, 1787, by Archbishop Moore; and before his long life was closed,
twenty-six bishops had been consecrated in America, by himself. For
his character and opinions, see his own numerous Works, and a "Sermon
in commemoration of him, by George Washington Doane, Bishop of New
Jersey."--W. W. 1845.
XIV
II. CONTINUED
Published 1845
From Rite and Ordinance abused they fled
To Wilds where both were utterly unknown;
But not to them had Providence foreshown
What benefits are missed, what evils bred,
In worship neither raised nor limited 5
Save by Self-will. Lo! from that distant shore,
For Rite and Ordinance, Piety is led
Back to the Land those Pilgrims left of yore,
Led by her own free choice.[281] So Truth and Love
By Conscience governed do their steps retrace.-- 10
Fathers! your Virtues, such the power of grace,
Their spirit, in your Children, thus approve.
Transcendent over time, unbound by place,
Concord and Charity in circles move.
FOOTNOTES:
[281] The Book of Common Prayer of the American Episcopal Church was
avowedly derived from that of England, and substantially agrees with
it.--ED.
XV
III. CONCLUDED.--AMERICAN EPISCOPACY
Published 1845
Patriots informed with Apostolic light
Were they, who, when their Country had been freed,
Bowing with reverence to the ancient creed,
Fixed on the frame of England's Church their sight,[282]
And strove in filial love to reunite 5
What force had severed. Thence they fetched the seed
Of Christian unity, and won a meed
Of praise from Heaven. To Thee, O saintly WHITE,[283]
Patriarch of a wide-spreading family,
Remotest lands and unborn times shall turn, 10
Whether they would restore or build--to Thee,
As one who rightly taught how zeal should burn,
As one who drew from out Faith's holiest urn
The purest stream of patient Energy.
FOOTNOTES:
[282] "I hope you will not disapprove of the connection which I have
thought myself warranted in tracing between the Puritan fugitives and
Episcopacy." (Wordsworth to Henry Reed, March 1, 1842.)--ED.
[283] Dr. Seabury was consecrated Bishop of Connecticut by Scottish
Bishops at Aberdeen, in November 1784. Dr. White was consecrated Bishop
of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Provoost, Bishop of New York, at Lambeth, in
February 1787. It was Wordsworth's intention, in 1841, to add a sonnet
to his "Ecclesiastical Series" "On the union of the two Episcopal
Churches of England and America."--ED.
XVI
"BISHOPS AND PRIESTS, BLESSÈD ARE YE, IF DEEP"
Published 1845
Bishops and Priests, blessèd are ye, if deep
(As yours above all offices is high)
Deep in your hearts the sense of duty lie;
Charged as ye are by Christ to feed and keep
From wolves your portion of his chosen sheep:
Labouring as ever in your Master's sight,
Making your hardest task your best delight,
What perfect glory ye in Heaven shall reap!--
But, in the solemn Office which ye sought
And undertook premonished, if unsound 10
Your practice prove, faithless though but in thought,
Bishops and Priests, think what a gulf profound
Awaits you then, if they were rightly taught
Who framed the Ordinance by your lives disowned!
XVII
PLACES OF WORSHIP
As star that shines dependent upon star
Is to the sky while we look up in love;
As to the deep fair ships which though they move
Seem fixed, to eyes that watch them from afar;
As to the sandy desert fountains are, 5
With palm-groves shaded at wide intervals,
Whose fruit around the sun-burnt Native falls
Of roving tired or desultory war--
Such to this British Isle her christian Fanes,
Each linked to each for kindred services; 10
Her Spires, her Steeple-towers with glittering vanes[284]
Far-kenned, her Chapels lurking among trees,
Where a few villagers on bended knees
Find solace which a busy world disdains.
FOOTNOTES:
[284] Compare _The Excursion_, book vi. ll. 17-29 (vol. v. p. 236).--ED.
XVIII
PASTORAL CHARACTER
A GENIAL hearth, a hospitable board,
And a refined rusticity, belong[285]
To the neat mansion, where, his flock among,
The learned Pastor dwells, their watchful Lord.[286]
Though meek and patient as a sheathèd sword; 5
Though pride's least lurking thought appear a wrong
To human kind; though peace be on his tongue,
Gentleness in his heart--can earth afford
Such genuine state, pre-eminence so free,
As when, arrayed in Christ's authority, 10
He from the pulpit lifts his awful hand;
Conjures, implores, and labours all he can
For re-subjecting to divine command
The stubborn spirit of rebellious man?
FOOTNOTES:
[285] Among the benefits arising, as Mr. Coleridge has well observed,
from a Church establishment of endowments corresponding with the wealth
of the country to which it belongs, may be reckoned as eminently
important, the examples of civility and refinement which the Clergy
stationed at intervals, afford to the whole people. The established
clergy in many parts of England have long been, as they continue to
be, the principal bulwark against barbarism, and the link which unites
the sequestered peasantry with the intellectual advancement of the
age. Nor is it below the dignity of the subject to observe, that their
taste, as acting upon rural residences and scenery, often furnishes
models which country gentlemen, who are more at liberty to follow the
caprices of fashion, might profit by. The precincts of an old residence
must be treated by ecclesiastics with respect, both from prudence and
necessity. I remember being much pleased, some years ago, at Rose
Castle, the rural seat of the See of Carlisle, with a style of garden
and architecture which, if the place had belonged to a wealthy layman,
would no doubt have been swept away. A parsonage-house generally stands
not far from the church; this proximity imposes favourable restraints,
and sometimes suggests an affecting union of the accommodations and
elegancies of life with the outward signs of piety and mortality. With
pleasure I recall to mind a happy instance of this in the residence
of an old and much-valued Friend in Oxfordshire. The house and church
stand parallel to each other, at a small distance; a circular lawn or
rather grass-plot, spreads between them; shrubs and trees curve from
each side of the dwelling, veiling, but not hiding, the church. From
the front of this dwelling, no part of the burial-ground is seen;
but as you wind by the side of the shrubs towards the steeple-end
of the church, the eye catches a single, small, low, monumental
headstone, moss-grown, sinking into, and gently inclining towards the
earth. Advance, and the churchyard, populous and gay with glittering
tombstones, opens upon the view. This humble, and beautiful parsonage
called forth a tribute which will not be out of its place here.--W. W.
1822.
He then quotes the seventh of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets," Part III.
(see vol. vi. p. 217).--ED.
[286] Compare the sonnet, _On the sight of a Manse in the South of
Scotland_, belonging to the Tour in the year 1831.--ED.
XIX
THE LITURGY
Yes, if the intensities of hope and fear
Attract us still, and passionate exercise
Of lofty thoughts, the way before us lies
Distinct with signs, through which in set career,[287]
As through a zodiac, moves the ritual year[288] 5
Of England's Church; stupendous mysteries!
Which whoso travels in her bosom eyes,
As he approaches them, with solemn cheer.
Upon that circle traced from sacred story
We only dare to cast a transient glance, 10
Trusting in hope that Others may advance
With mind intent upon the King of Glory,[289]
From his mild advent till his countenance
Shall dissipate the seas and mountains hoary.[290]
FOOTNOTES:
[287] 1837
... fixed career, 1822.
[288] Compare _The Christian Year_, by Keble, _passim_.--ED.
[289] 1845.
Enough for us to cast a transient glance
The circle through; relinquishing its story
For those whom Heaven hath fitted to advance
And, harp in hand, rehearse the King of Glory-- 1822.
Enough for us to cast no careless glance
Upon that circle, leaving Christian story
To those ... has ... C.
(Or)
Here let us cast a more than Transient glance,
And harp in hand endeavour to advance,
With mind intent ... C.
[290] See _The Revelation of St. John_, chapter xx. v. II.--ED.
XX
BAPTISM
Published 1827
Dear[291] be the Church, that, watching o'er the needs
Of Infancy, provides a timely shower
Whose virtue changes to a Christian Flower
A Growth from sinful Nature's bed of weeds!--[292]
Fitliest beneath the sacred roof proceeds 5
The ministration; while parental Love
Looks on, and Grace descendeth from above
As the high service pledges now, now pleads.
There, should vain thoughts outspread their wings and fly
To meet the coming hours of festal mirth, 10
The tombs--which hear and answer that brief cry,
The Infant's notice of his second birth--
Recal the wandering Soul to sympathy
With what man hopes from Heaven, yet fears from Earth.
FOOTNOTES:
[291] 1845.
Blest ... 1827.
[292] 1832.
The sinful product of a bed of Weeds! 1827.
XXI
SPONSORS
Published 1832
Father! to God himself we cannot give
A holier name! then lightly do not bear
Both names conjoined, but of thy spiritual care
Be duly mindful: still more sensitive
Do Thou, in truth a second Mother, strive[293] 5
Against disheartening custom, that by Thee
Watched, and with love and pious industry[294]
Tended at need, the adopted Plant may thrive
For everlasting bloom. Benign and pure[295]
This Ordinance, whether loss it would supply, 10
Prevent omission, help deficiency,
Or seek to make assurance doubly sure.[296][297]
Shame if the consecrated Vow be found
An idle form, the Word an empty sound![298][299]
FOOTNOTES:
[293] 1832.
... yet more sensitive,
More faithful, thou, a second Mother, MS.
W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.
[294] 1832.
Watched at all seasons, and with industry MS.
W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.
[295] 1832.
... Benign must be. MS.
W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.
[296] Compare _Macbeth_, act IV. scene i. l. 83.--ED.
[297] 1832.
... "Assurance doubly sure." MS.
W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.
[298] 1832.
... the Name an empty sound. MS.
W. W., Dec. 7, 1827.
[299] This Sonnet was sent by Wordsworth in holograph MS. to Orton Hall
in the form indicated in the footnotes, dated Dec. 7, 1827.--ED.
XXII
CATECHISING
From Little down to Least, in due degree,
Around the Pastor, each in new-wrought vest,
Each with a vernal posy at his breast,
We stood, a trembling, earnest Company!
With low soft murmur, like a distant bee, 5
Some spake, by thought-perplexing fears betrayed;
And some a bold unerring answer made:
How fluttered then thy anxious heart for me,
Belovèd Mother! Thou whose happy hand
Had bound the flowers I wore, with faithful tie:[300] 10
Sweet flowers! at whose inaudible command
Her countenance, phantom-like, doth re-appear:
O lost too early for the frequent tear,
And ill requited by this heartfelt sigh!
FOOTNOTES:
[300] See Wordsworth's reference to his Mother in his
_Autobiographical Memoranda_.--ED.
XXIII
CONFIRMATION
Published 1827
The Young-ones gathered in from hill and dale,
With holiday delight on every brow:
'Tis passed away; far other thoughts prevail;
For they are taking the baptismal Vow
Upon their conscious selves; their own lips speak 5
The solemn promise. Strongest sinews fail,
And many a blooming, many a lovely, cheek
Under the holy fear of God turns pale;
While on each head his lawn-robed servant lays
An apostolic hand, and with prayer seals 10
The Covenant. The Omnipotent will raise
Their feeble Souls; and bear with _his_ regrets,
Who, looking round the fair assemblage, feels
That ere the Sun goes down their childhood sets.
XXIV
CONFIRMATION CONTINUED
I saw a Mother's eye intensely bent
Upon a Maiden trembling as she knelt;
In and for whom the pious Mother felt
Things that we judge of by a light too faint:
Tell, if ye may, some star-crowned Muse, or Saint! 5
Tell what rushed in, from what she was relieved--
Then, when her Child the hallowing touch received,
And such vibration through[301] the Mother went
That tears burst forth amain. Did gleams appear?
Opened a vision of that blissful place 10
Where dwells a Sister-child? And was power given
Part of her lost One's glory back to trace
Even to this Rite? For thus _She_ knelt, and, ere
The summer-leaf had faded, passed to Heaven.[302]
FOOTNOTES:
[301] 1837.
... to ... 1827.
[302] Compare the tribute to a Daughter, who died within the year after
her confirmation, in _A Presbyterian Clergyman looking for the Church_,
by the Rev. Flavel S. Mines, p. 95.--ED.
XXV
SACRAMENT
Published 1827
By chain yet stronger must the Soul be tied:
One duty more, last stage of[303] this ascent,
Brings to thy food, mysterious[304] Sacrament!
The Offspring, haply at the Parent's side;
But not till They, with all that do abide 5
In Heaven, have lifted up their hearts to laud
And magnify the glorious name of God,
Fountain of Grace, whose Son for sinners died.
Ye, who have duly weighed the summons, pause
No longer; ye,[305] whom to the saving rite 10
The Altar calls; come early under laws
That can secure for you a path of light
Through gloomiest shade; put on (nor dread its weight)
Armour divine, and conquer in your cause!
FOOTNOTES:
[303] 1827.
... to ... Coleorton MS.
[304] 1845.
... memorial ... 1827.
[305] 1845.
Here must my Song in timid reverence pause:
But shrink not ye ... 1827.
XXVI
THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY[306]
Composed 1842.--Published 1845
The Vested Priest before the Altar stands;
Approach, come gladly, ye prepared, in sight
Of God and chosen friends, your troth to plight
With the symbolic ring, and willing hands[307]
Solemnly joined. Now sanctify the bands, 5
O Father!--to the Espoused thy blessing give,
That mutually assisted they may live
Obedient, as here taught, to thy commands.
So prays the Church, to consecrate a Vow
"The which would endless matrimony make";[308] 10
Union that shadows forth and doth partake
A mystery potent human love to endow
With heavenly, each more prized for the other's sake;
Weep not, meek Bride! uplift thy timid brow.
FOOTNOTES:
[306] In a letter to Professor Henry Reed, dated "Rydal Mount, Sept. 4,
1842," Wordsworth says: "A few days ago, after a very long interval, I
returned to poetical composition; and my first employment was to write
a couple of Sonnets upon subjects recommended by you to take place in
the Ecclesiastical Series. They are upon the Marriage Ceremony and the
Funeral Service. I have, about the same time, added two others, both
upon subjects taken from the Services of our Liturgy."--ED.
[307] 1842.
Together they kneel down who come in sight
Of God and chosen friends their troth to plight.
This have they done, by words, and prayers, and hands c.
XXVII
THANKSGIVING AFTER CHILDBIRTH
Composed 1842.--Published 1845
Woman! the Power who left his throne on high,
And deigned to wear the robe of flesh we wear,
The Power that thro' the straits of Infancy
Did pass dependent on maternal care,
His own humanity with Thee will share, 5
Pleased with the thanks that in his People's eye
Thou offerest up for safe Delivery
From Childbirth's perilous throes. And should the Heir
Of thy fond hopes hereafter walk inclined
To courses fit to make a mother rue 10
That ever he was born, a glance of mind
Cast upon this observance may renew
A better will; and, in the imagined view
Of thee thus kneeling, safety he may find.
FOOTNOTES:
[308] Compare Spenser's _Epithalamion_, stanza xl. ll. 216, 217--
The sacred ceremonies these partake,
The which do endlesse matrimony make;
Also, Southey's _All for Love, or a sinner well saved_, Part IV. stanza
46--
While they the sacred rites partake
Which endless matrimony make.--ED.
XXVIII
VISITATION OF THE SICK
Composed 1842.--Published 1845
The Sabbath bells renew the inviting peal;
Glad music! yet there be that, worn with pain
And sickness, listen where they long have lain,
In sadness listen. With maternal zeal
Inspired, the Church sends ministers to kneel 5
Beside the afflicted; to sustain with prayer,
And soothe the heart confession hath laid bare--
That pardon, from God's throne, may set its seal
On a true Penitent. When breath departs
From one disburthened so, so comforted, 10
His Spirit Angels greet; and ours be hope
That, if the Sufferer rise from his sick-bed,
Hence he will gain a firmer mind, to cope
With a bad world, and foil the Tempter's arts.
XXIX
THE COMMINATION SERVICE
Published 1845
Shun not this rite, neglected, yea abhorred,
By some of unreflecting mind, as calling
Man to curse man, (thought monstrous and appalling.)
Go thou and hear the threatenings of the _Lord_;[309]
Listening within his Temple see his sword 5
Unsheathed in wrath to strike the offender's head,
Thy own, if sorrow for thy sin be dead,
Guilt unrepented, pardon unimplored.
Two aspects bears Truth needful for salvation;
Who knows not _that_?--yet would this delicate age 10
Look only on the Gospel's brighter page:
Let light and dark duly our thoughts employ;
So shall the fearful words of Commination
Yield timely fruit of peace and love and joy.
FOOTNOTES:
[309] 1845.
... as dealing
With human curses, banish the false feeling.
Go thou ... terrors ... C.
XXX
FORMS OF PRAYER AT SEA
Published 1845
To kneeling Worshippers no earthly floor
Gives holier invitation than the deck
Of a storm-shattered Vessel saved from Wreck
(When all that Man could do avail'd no more)
By him who raised the Tempest and restrains: 5
Happy the crew who this have felt, and pour
Forth for his mercy, as the Church ordains,
Solemn thanksgiving. Nor will _they_ implore
In vain who, for a rightful cause, give breath
To words the Church prescribes aiding the lip 10
For the heart's sake, ere ship with hostile ship
Encounters, armed for work of pain and death.
Suppliants! the God to whom your cause ye trust
Will listen, and ye know that He is just.
XXXI
FUNERAL SERVICE
Composed 1842.--Published 1845
From the Baptismal hour, thro' weal and woe,
The Church extends her care to thought and deed;
Nor quits the Body when the Soul is freed,
The mortal weight cast off to be laid low.
Blest Rite for him who hears in faith, "I know 5
That my Redeemer liveth,"--hears each word
That follows--striking on some kindred chord
Deep in the thankful heart;--yet tears will flow.
Man is as grass that springeth up at morn,
Grows green, and is cut down and withereth 10
Ere nightfall--truth that well may claim a sigh,
Its natural echo; but hope comes reborn
At JESU'S bidding. We rejoice: "O Death
Where is thy Sting?--O Grave where is thy Victory?"
XXXII
RURAL CEREMONY[310]
Closing the sacred Book[311] which long has fed
Our meditations,[312] give we to a day
Of annual[313] joy one tributary lay;
This[314] day, when, forth by rustic music led,
The village Children, while the sky is red 5
With evening lights, advance in long array
Through the still church-yard, each with garland gay,
That, carried sceptre-like, o'ertops the head
Of the proud Bearer. To the wide church-door,
Charged with these offerings which their fathers bore 10
For decoration in the Papal time,
The innocent Procession softly moves:--
The spirit of Laud is pleased in heaven's pure clime,
And Hooker's voice the spectacle approves!
FOOTNOTES:
[310] This is still continued in many churches in Westmoreland.
It takes place in the month of July, when the floor of the
stalls is strewn with fresh rushes; and hence it is called the
"Rush-bearing."--W. W. 1822.
[311] 1822.
... precious Book ... C.
[312] 1845.
With smiles each happy face was overspread,
That trial ended ... 1822.
Content with calmer scenes around us spread
And humbler objects, ... 1827.
[313] 1827.
Of festal ... 1822.
[314] 1827.
That ... 1822.
XXXIII
REGRETS
Would that our scrupulous Sires had dared to leave
Less scanty measure of those graceful rites
And usages, whose due return invites
A stir of mind too natural to deceive;
Giving to[315] Memory help when she would weave 5
A crown for Hope!--I dread the boasted lights
That all too often are but fiery blights,
Killing the bud o'er which in vain we grieve.
Go, seek, when Christmas snows discomfort bring,
The counter Spirit found in some gay church 10
Green with fresh holly, every pew a perch
In which the linnet or the thrush might sing,
Merry and loud and safe from prying search,
Strains offered only to the genial Spring.
FOOTNOTES:
[315] 1845.
Giving the ... 1822.
XXXIV
MUTABILITY
From low to high doth dissolution climb,
And sink[316] from high to low, along a scale
Of awful notes, whose concord shall not fail;
A musical but melancholy chime,
Which they can hear who meddle not with crime, 5
Nor avarice, nor over-anxious care.
Truth fails not; but her outward forms that bear
The longest date do melt like frosty rime,
That in the morning whitened hill and plain
And is no more; drop like the tower sublime 10
Of yesterday, which royally did wear
His[317] crown of weeds, but could not even sustain
Some casual shout that broke the silent air,
Or the unimaginable touch of Time.
FOOTNOTES:
[316] 1840.
And sinks ... 1822.
[317] 1837.
Its ... 1822.
XXXV
OLD ABBEYS
Monastic Domes! following my downward way,
Untouched by due regret I marked your fall!
Now, ruin, beauty, ancient stillness, all
Dispose to judgments temperate as we lay
On our past selves in life's declining day: 5
For as, by discipline of Time made wise,
We learn to tolerate the infirmities
And faults of others--gently as he may,[318]
So with[319] our own the mild Instructor deals
Teaching us to forget them or forgive.[320] 10
Perversely curious, then, for hidden ill
Why should we break Time's charitable seals?
Once ye were holy, ye are holy still;
Your spirit freely let me drink, and live!
FOOTNOTES:
[318] 1822.
...--so, where'er he may 1837.
The edition of 1845 returns to the text of 1822.
[319] 1837.
Towards ... 1822.
[320] This is borrowed from an affecting passage in Mr. George Dyer's
History of Cambridge.--W. W. 1822.
XXXVI
EMIGRANT FRENCH CLERGY
Published 1827
Even while I speak, the sacred roofs of France
Are shattered into dust; and self-exiled
From altars threatened, levelled, or defiled,
Wander the Ministers of God, as chance
Opens a way for life, or consonance 5
Of faith invites. More welcome to no land
The fugitives than to the British strand,
Where priest and layman with the vigilance
Of true compassion greet them. Creed and test
Vanish before the unreserved embrace 10
Of catholic humanity:--distrest
They came,--and, while the moral tempest roars
Throughout the Country they have left, our shores
Give to their Faith a fearless[321] resting-place.
FOOTNOTES:
[321] 1837.
... dreadless ... 1827.
XXXVII
CONGRATULATION
Thus all things lead to Charity, secured
By THEM who blessed the soft and happy gale
That landward urged the great Deliverer's sail,[322]
Till in the sunny bay his fleet was moored!
Propitious hour! had we, like them, endured 5
Sore stress of apprehension,[323] with a mind
Sickened by injuries, dreading worse designed,
From month to month trembling and unassured,
How had we then rejoiced! But we have felt,
As a loved substance, their futurity: 10
Good, which they dared not hope for, we have seen;
A State whose generous will through earth is dealt;
A State--which, balancing herself between
Licence and slavish order, dares be free.
FOOTNOTES:
[322] The Statesmen of the Revolution, who hailed the arrival of
William of Orange from Holland.--ED.
[323] See Burnet, who is unusually animated on this subject; the east
wind, so anxiously expected and prayed for, was called the "Protestant
wind."--W. W. 1822.
XXXVIII
NEW CHURCHES
But liberty, and triumphs on the Main,
And laurelled armies, not to be withstood--
What serve they? if, on transitory good
Intent, and sedulous of abject gain,
The State (ah, surely not preserved in vain!) 5
Forbear to shape due channels which the Flood
Of sacred truth may enter--till it brood
O'er the wide realm, as o'er the Egyptian plain
The all-sustaining Nile. No more--the time
Is conscious of her want; through England's bounds,
In rival haste, the wished-for Temples rise![324] 11
I hear their sabbath bells' harmonious chime
Float on the breeze--the heavenliest of all sounds
That vale or hill[325] prolongs or multiplies!
FOOTNOTES:
[324] In 1818, under the ministry of Lord Liverpool, £1,000,000 was
voted by Parliament to build new churches in England.--ED.
[325] 1837.
That hill or vale ... 1822.
XXXIX
CHURCH TO BE ERECTED[326]
Be this the chosen site; the virgin sod,
Moistened from age to age by dewy eve,
Shall disappear, and grateful earth receive
The corner-stone from hands that build to God.
Yon reverend hawthorns, hardened to the rod 5
Of winter storms, yet budding cheerfully;
Those forest oaks of Druid memory,
Shall long survive, to shelter the Abode
Of genuine Faith. Where, haply, 'mid this band
Of daisies, shepherds sate of yore and wove 10
May-garlands, there let[327] the holy altar stand
For kneeling adoration;--while--above,
Broods, visibly portrayed, the mystic Dove,
That shall protect from blasphemy the Land.
FOOTNOTES:
[326] This, and the two following sonnets, were probably the first
composed of these "Ecclesiastical Sketches." The "church to be erected"
was a new one built on Coleorton Moor by Sir George Beaumont. (See
Prefatory note to the series, p. 1.)--ED.
[327] 1840.
May-garlands, let ... 1822.
XL
CONTINUED
Mine ear has rung, my spirit[328] sunk subdued,
Sharing the strong emotion of the crowd,
When each pale brow to dread hosannas bowed
While clouds of incense mounting veiled the rood,
That glimmered like a pine-tree dimly viewed 5
Through Alpine vapours. Such appalling rite
Our Church prepares not, trusting to the might
Of simple truth with grace divine imbued;
Yet will we not conceal the precious Cross,
Like men ashamed:[329] the Sun with his first smile
Shall greet that symbol crowning the low Pile: 11
And the fresh air of incense-breathing morn[330]
Shall wooingly embrace it; and green moss
Creep round its arms through centuries unborn.
FOOTNOTES:
[328] 1827.
... spirits ... 1822.
[329] The Lutherans have retained the Cross within their churches: it
is to be regretted that we have not done the same.--W. W. 1822.
It has always been retained _without_, and is now scarcely less common
_within_ the churches of England. Did the poet confound the Cross with
the Crucifix?--ED.
[330] Compare Gray's _Elegy_, stanza v.--
The breezy call of incense-breathing morn.--ED.
XLI
NEW CHURCH-YARD
The encircling ground, in native turf arrayed,
Is now by solemn consecration given
To social interests, and to favouring Heaven,
And where the rugged colts their gambols played,
And wild deer bounded through the forest glade, 5
Unchecked as when by merry Outlaw driven,
Shall hymns of praise resound at morn and even;
And soon, full soon, the lonely Sexton's spade
Shall wound the tender sod. Encincture small,
But infinite its grasp of weal and woe![331] 10
Hopes, fears, in never-ending ebb and flow;--
The spousal trembling, and the "dust to dust,"
The prayers, the contrite struggle, and the trust
That to the Almighty Father looks through all.
FOOTNOTES:
[331] 1837.
... its grasp of joy and woe! 1822.
... in grasp of weal and woe! 1832.
XLII
CATHEDRALS, ETC.
Open your gates, ye everlasting Piles!
Types of the spiritual Church which God hath reared;
Not loth we quit the newly-hallowed sward
And humble altar, 'mid your sumptuous aisles
To kneel, or thrid your intricate defiles, 5
Or down the nave to pace in motion slow;
Watching, with upward eye,[332] the tall tower grow
And mount, at every step, with living wiles
Instinct--to rouse the heart and lead the will
By a bright ladder to the world above. 10
Open your gates, ye Monuments of love
Divine! thou Lincoln, on thy sovereign hill!
Thou, stately York! and Ye, whose splendours cheer
Isis and Cam, to patient Science dear![333]
FOOTNOTES:
[332] 1827.
... eyes, ... 1822.
[333] This Sonnet was published in _Time's Telescope_, September 1823,
p. 260.--ED.
XLIII
INSIDE OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE
Tax not the royal Saint[334] with vain expense,
With ill-matched aims the Architect who planned--
Albeit labouring for a scanty band
Of white-robed Scholars only--this immense
And glorious Work of fine intelligence! 5
Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely-calculated less or more;
So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense
These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof
Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells, 10
Where light and shade repose, where music dwells
Lingering--and wandering on as loth to die;
Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof
That they were born for immortality.
FOOTNOTES:
[334] King Henry VI., who founded King's College, Cambridge.--ED.
XLIV
THE SAME
What awful pérspective! while from our sight
With gradual stealth the lateral windows hide
Their Portraitures, their stone-work glimmers, dyed
In[335] the soft chequerings of a sleepy light.
Martyr, or King, or sainted Eremite, 5
Whoe'er ye be, that thus, yourselves unseen,
Imbue your prison-bars with solemn sheen,
Shine on, until ye fade with coming Night!--
But, from the arms of silence--list! O list!
The music bursteth into second life; 5
The notes luxuriate, every stone is kissed
By sound, or ghost of sound, in mazy strife;
Heart-thrilling strains, that cast, before the eye
Of the devout, a veil of ecstasy!
FOOTNOTES:
[335] 1827.
Their portraiture the lateral windows hide,
Glimmers their corresponding stone-work, dyed
With ... 1822.
XLV
CONTINUED
They dreamt not of a perishable home
Who thus could build.[336] Be mine, in hours of fear
Or grovelling thought, to seek a refuge here;
Or through the aisles of Westminster to roam;
Where bubbles burst, and folly's dancing foam 5
Melts, if it cross the threshold; where the wreath
Of awe-struck wisdom droops: or let my path
Lead to that younger Pile, whose sky-like dome[337]
Hath typified by reach of daring art
Infinity's embrace; whose guardian crest, 10
The silent Cross, among the stars shall spread
As now, when She hath also seen her breast
Filled with mementos, satiate with its part
Of grateful England's overflowing Dead.
FOOTNOTES:
[336] Compare _The Excursion_, book v. l. 145--
Not raised in nice proportions was the pile;
But large and massy; for duration built.
[337] St. Paul's Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren
(1675-1710).--ED.
XLVI
EJACULATION
Glory to God! and to the Power who came
In filial duty, clothed with love divine,
That made his human tabernacle shine
Like Ocean burning with purpureal flame;
Or like the Alpine Mount, that takes its name 5
From roseate hues,[338] far kenned at morn and even,
In hours of peace, or when the storm is driven
Along the nether region's rugged frame!
Earth prompts--Heaven urges; let us seek the light,
Studious of that pure intercourse begun 10
When first our infant brows their lustre won;
So, like the Mountain, may we grow more bright
From unimpeded commerce with the Sun,
At the approach of all-involving night.
FOOTNOTES:
[338] Some say that Monte Rosa takes its name from a belt of rock at
its summit--a very unpoetical and scarcely a probable supposition.--W.
W. 1822.
XLVII
CONCLUSION
Why sleeps the future, as a snake enrolled,
Coil within coil, at noon-tide? For the WORD
Yields, if with unpresumptuous faith explored,
Power at whose touch the sluggard shall unfold
His drowsy rings. Look forth!--that Stream behold,
THAT STREAM upon whose bosom we have passed 6
Floating at ease while nations have effaced
Nations, and Death has gathered to his fold
Long lines of mighty Kings--look forth, my Soul!
(Nor in this[339] vision be thou slow to trust) 10
The living Waters, less and less by guilt
Stained and polluted, brighten as they roll,
Till they have reached the eternal City--built
For the perfected Spirits of the just!
FOOTNOTES:
[339] 1827.
... that ... 1822.
TO THE LADY FLEMING,[340]
ON SEEING THE FOUNDATION PREPARING FOR THE ERECTION OF RYDAL
CHAPEL,[341] WESTMORELAND
Composed 1822.--Published 1827
[After thanking Lady Fleming in prose for the service she had done
to her neighbourhood by erecting this Chapel, I have nothing to say
beyond the expression of regret that the architect did not furnish an
elevation better suited to the site in a narrow mountain-pass, and,
what is of more consequence, better constructed in the interior for
the purposes of worship. It has no chancel; the altar is unbecomingly
confined; the pews are so narrow as to preclude the possibility of
kneeling with comfort; there is no vestry; and what ought to have been
first mentioned, the font, instead of standing at its proper place
at the entrance, is thrust into the farther end of a pew. When these
defects shall be pointed out to the munificent Patroness, they will, it
is hoped, be corrected.--I. F.[342]]
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection," from the edition of
1827 to that of 1843; but transferred, in 1845, to the "Miscellaneous
Poems." From 1827 to 1836 the title was "To the Lady ----, on
seeing the foundation preparing for the erection of ---- Chapel,
Westmoreland."--ED.
I
Blest is this Isle--our native Land;
Where battlement and moated gate
Are objects only for the hand
Of hoary Time to decorate;
Where shady hamlet, town that breathes 5
Its busy smoke in social wreaths,
No rampart's stern defence require,
Nought but the heaven-directed spire,
And[343] steeple tower (with pealing bells
Far-heard)--our only citadels. 10
II
O Lady! from a noble line
Of chieftains sprung,[344] who stoutly bore
The spear, yet gave to works divine
A bounteous help in days of yore,
(As records mouldering in the Dell 15
Of Nightshade[345] haply yet may tell;)
Thee kindred aspirations moved
To build, within a vale beloved,
For Him upon whose high behests
All peace depends, all safety rests. 20
III[346]
How fondly will the woods embrace
This daughter of thy pious care,
Lifting her[347] front with modest grace
To make a fair recess more fair;
And to exalt the passing hour; 25
Or soothe it with a healing power
Drawn from the Sacrifice fulfilled,
Before this rugged soil was tilled,
Or human habitation rose
To interrupt the deep repose![348] 30
IV
Well may the villagers rejoice!
Nor heat, nor cold, nor weary ways,
Will be[349] a hindrance to the voice
That would unite in prayer and praise;
More duly shall wild wandering Youth 35
Receive the curb of sacred truth,
Shall tottering Age, bent earthward, hear
The Promise, with uplifted ear;[350]
And all shall welcome the new ray
Imparted to their sabbath-day. 40
V
Nor deem the Poet's hope misplaced,
His fancy cheated--that can see
A shade upon the future cast,
Of time's pathetic sanctity;
Can hear the monitory clock 45
Sound o'er the lake with gentle shock[351]
At evening,[352] when the ground beneath
Is ruffled o'er with cells of death;
Where happy generations lie,
Here tutored for eternity. 50
VI
Lives there a man whose sole delights
Are trivial pomp and city noise,
Hardening a heart that loathes or slights
What every natural heart enjoys?
Who never caught a noon-tide dream 55
From murmur of a running stream;
Could strip, for aught the prospect yields
To him, their verdure from the fields;
And take the radiance from the clouds
In which the sun his setting shrouds.[353] 60
VII
A soul so pitiably forlorn,
If such do on this earth abide,
May season apathy with scorn,
May turn indifference to pride;
And still be not unblest--compared 65
With him who grovels, self-debarred[354]
From all that lies within the scope
Of holy faith and christian hope;
Or, shipwreck'd, kindles on the coast
False fires, that others may be lost.[355] 70
VIII
Alas! that such perverted zeal
Should spread on Britain's favoured ground![356]
That public order, private weal,
Should e'er have felt or feared a wound
From champions of the desperate law 75
Which from their own blind hearts they draw;[357]
Who tempt their reason to deny
God, whom their passions dare defy,[358]
And boast that they alone are free
Who reach this dire extremity! 80
IX
But turn we from these "bold bad" men;[359]
The way, mild Lady! that hath led
Down to their "dark opprobrious den,"[360]
Is all too rough for Thee to tread.
Softly as morning vapours glide 85
Down Rydal-cove from Fairfield's side,[361]
Should move the tenor of _his_ song
Who means to charity no wrong;
Whose offering gladly would accord
With this day's work, in thought and word. 90
X
Heaven prosper it! may peace, and love,
And hope, and consolation, fall,
Through its meek influence, from above,
And penetrate the hearts of all;
All who, around the hallowed Fane, 95
Shall sojourn in this fair domain;
Grateful to Thee, while service pure,
And ancient ordinance, shall endure,
For opportunity bestowed
To kneel together, and adore their God![362] 100
FOOTNOTES:
[340] 1840.
To the Lady ---- ... 1827.
[341] 1840.
Of ---- Chapel ... 1827.
[342] Rydal Chapel remained in the state mentioned in the Fenwick note
till the year 1884.--ED.
[343] 1827.
Or ... MS. sent to Lady Beaumont.
[344] The Fleming family is descended from Sir Michael le Fleming,
a relative of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, brother-in-law to William
the Conqueror. This Sir Michael le Fleming, who came over with the
Conqueror, was sent into Cumberland against the Scots, and was
rewarded for his services by the gift of several manors in _Copeland_,
Cumberland.--ED.
[345] Bekangs Ghyll--or the dell of Nightshade--in which stands St.
Mary's Abbey in Low Furness.--W. W. 1827.
[346] In the edition of 1827, stanzas iii. and iv. are numbered iv. and
iii. respectively.--ED.
[347] 1832.
Even Strangers, slackening here their pace,
Shall hail this work of pious care,
Lifting its ... 1827.
[348] Compare _Glen-Almain_ (vol. ii. p. 394)--
A convent, even a hermit's cell,
Would break the silence of this Dell.--ED.
[349] 1827.
Nor storms henceforth, nor weary ways,
Shall be ...
MS. sent to Lord Lonsdale.
[350] 1827.
The Aged shall be free to hear
The Promise, caught with steadfast ear.
MS. sent to Lord Lonsdale.
[351] 1832.
Not yet the corner stone is laid
With solemn rite; but Fancy sees
The tower time-stricken, and in shade
Embosomed of coeval trees;
Hears, o'er the lake, the warning clock
As it shall sound with gentle shock 1827.
[352] Compare the last stanza of _The Wishing Gate_.--ED.
[353] Compare the _Ode, Intimations of Immortality_, stanza xi.--ED.
[354] 1827.
With one who fosters disregard
MS. sent to Lady Beaumont.
[355] 1827.
Yea, strives for others to bedim
The glorious Light too pure for him. 1832.
The text of 1845 returns to that of 1827.
[356] 1827.
... happy ground.
MS. to Lady Beaumont.
[357] 1827.
From Scoffers leagued in desperate plot
To make their own the general lot;
MS. to Lady Beaumont.
[358] 1827.
... do defy,
MS. to Lady Beaumont.
[359] See _The Faërie Queene_, book I. canto i. stanza 37. Also
Shakespeare's _Henry VIII._, act II. scene ii. l. 44.--ED.
[360] See _Paradise Lost_, book ii. l. 58.--ED.
[361] 1832.
Through Rydal Cove from Fairfield's side,
MS. to Lady Beaumont.
Through Mosedale-Cove from Carrock's side, 1827.
[362] Dorothy Wordsworth wrote to Henry Crabb Robinson (December 21,
1822), "William has just written a poem upon the Foundation of a
Church, which Lady Fleming is about to erect at Rydal. It is about 80
lines. I like it much." This letter was obviously written before the
poem reached its final form.--ED.
ON THE SAME OCCASION
Composed 1822.--Published 1827
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection" from the edition of 1827
to that of 1843. In 1835 transferred to the "Miscellaneous Poems."--ED.
Oh! gather whencesoe'er ye safely may
The help which slackening Piety requires;
Nor deem that he perforce must go astray
Who treads upon the footmarks of his sires.
Our churches, invariably perhaps, stand east and west, but _why_ is by
few persons _exactly_ known; nor, that the degree of deviation from
_due_ east often noticeable in the ancient ones was determined, in each
particular case, by the point in the horizon, at which the sun rose
upon the day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated.[363] These
observances of our ancestors, and the causes of them, are the subject
of the following stanzas.
When in the antique age of bow and spear
And feudal rapine clothed with iron mail,
Came ministers of peace, intent to rear
The Mother Church in yon sequestered vale;[364]
Then, to her Patron Saint a previous rite 5
Resounded with deep swell and solemn close,
Through unremitting vigils of the night,
Till from his couch the wished-for Sun uprose.
He rose, and straight--as by divine command,
They, who had waited for that sign to trace 10
Their work's foundation, gave with careful hand
To the high altar its determined place;
Mindful of Him who in the Orient born
There lived, and on the cross his life resigned,
And who, from out the regions of the morn, 15
Issuing in pomp, shall come to judge mankind.
So taught _their_ creed;--nor failed the eastern sky,
'Mid these more awful feelings, to infuse
The sweet and natural hopes that shall not die,
Long as the sun his gladsome course renews. 20
For us hath such prelusive vigil ceased;
Yet still we plant, like men of elder days,
Our christian altar faithful to the east,
Whence the tall window drinks the morning rays;
That obvious emblem giving to the eye 25
Of meek devotion, which erewhile it gave,
That symbol of the day-spring from on high,
Triumphant o'er the darkness of the grave.[365]
FOOTNOTES:
[363] St. Oswald's Day is the 8th of August in the Calendar.--ED.
[364] Doubtless Grasmere Church (itself originally a chapelry under
Kendal), the advowson of which was sold in 1573 to the Le Flemings of
Rydal. The date of the foundation is prehistoric. There is a thirteenth
century window in it, but the tower is older. The church is dedicated
to St. Oswald, King of Northumbria.--ED.
[365] Compare _Ode, Intimations of Immortality_, l. 117--
In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave.--ED.
1823
Only one poem and two sonnets were written in 1823.--ED.
MEMORY
Composed 1823.--Published 1827
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection." See the Fenwick note to
the lines _Written in a Blank Leaf of Macpherson's Ossian_ (p. 373
of this volume), where Wordsworth says that the poem was "suggested
from apprehensions of the fate of his friend, H. C." (Hartley
Coleridge).--ED.
A pen--to register; a key--
That winds through secret wards;
Are well assigned to Memory
By allegoric Bards.
As aptly, also, might be given 5
A Pencil to her hand;
That, softening objects, sometimes even
Outstrips the heart's demand;
That smooths foregone distress, the lines
Of lingering care subdues, 10
Long-vanished happiness refines,
And clothes in brighter hues;
Yet, like a tool of Fancy, works
Those Spectres to dilate
That startle Conscience, as she lurks 15
Within her lonely seat.
O! that our lives, which flee so fast,
In purity were such,
That not an image of the past
Should fear that pencil's touch! 20
Retirement then might hourly look
Upon a soothing scene,
Age steal to his allotted nook
Contented and serene;
With heart as calm as lakes that sleep, 25
In frosty moonlight glistening;
Or mountain rivers, where they creep
Along a channel smooth and deep,
To their own far-off murmurs listening.
"NOT LOVE, NOT WAR, NOR THE TUMULTUOUS SWELL"
Composed 1823.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Not Love, not[366] War, nor the tumultuous swell
Of civil conflict, nor the wrecks of change,
Nor[367] Duty struggling with afflictions strange--
Not these _alone_ inspire the tuneful shell;
But where untroubled peace and concord dwell, 5
There also is the Muse not loth to range,
Watching the twilight smoke of cot or grange,[368]
Skyward ascending from a woody dell.[369][370]
Meek aspirations please her, lone endeavour,
And sage content, and placid melancholy; 10
She loves to gaze upon a crystal river--
Diaphanous because it travels slowly;[371]
Soft is the music that would charm for ever;[372]
The flower of sweetest smell is shy and lowly.
FOOTNOTES:
[366] 1832.
... nor ... 1823.
[367] 1827.
And ... 1823.[373]
[368] 1837.
Watching the blue smoke of the elmy grange, 1823.
[369] 1837.
... from the twilight dell, 1823.
[370] Compare _Tintern Abbey_, II. 17, 18.--ED.
[371] _e. g._ The Rothay, or the Duddon.--ED.
[372] 1827.
... please for ever, 1823.
[373] See the same reading in _The Poetical Album_, 1829, vol. i. p.
43, edited by Alaric Watts.--ED.
"A VOLANT TRIBE OF BARDS ON EARTH ARE FOUND"
Composed 1823.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
A volant Tribe of Bards on earth are found,
Who, while the flattering Zephyrs round them play,
On "coignes of vantage"[374] hang their nests of clay;
How quickly from that aery hold unbound,
Dust for oblivion! To the solid ground 5
Of nature trusts the Mind that builds for aye;
Convinced that there, there only, she can lay
Secure foundations. As the year runs round,
Apart she toils within the chosen ring;
While the stars shine,[375] or while day's purple eye 10
Is gently closing with the flowers of spring;
Where even the motion of an Angel's wing
Would interrupt the intense tranquillity
Of silent hills, and more than silent sky.[376]
FOOTNOTES:
[374] _Macbeth_, act I. scene vi. l. 7.--ED.
[375] 1827.
... nests of clay,
Work cunningly devised, and seeming sound;
But quickly from its airy hold unbound
By its own weight, or washed, or blown away
With silent imperceptible decay.
If man must build, admit him to thy ground,
O Truth! to work within the eternal ring,
Where the stars shine, ... 1823.
[376] Compare Alexander Hume's _Day's Estival_ (1599). This and the
preceding sonnet were first published in 1823 in _A Collection of
Poems, chiefly manuscript, and from living authors, edited for the
benefit of a Friend_, by Joanna Baillie. The collection includes Sir
Walter Scott's _Macduff's Cross_, and Southey's _The Cataract of
Lodore_.--ED.
1824
The poems written in 1824 were few. They include two addressed to
Mrs. Wordsworth, two or three composed at Coleorton, and a couple of
memorial sonnets suggested during a tour in North Wales.--ED.
TO ----
Composed 1824.--Published 1827
[Written at Rydal Mount. On Mrs. Wordsworth.--I.F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."--ED.
Let other bards of angels sing,
Bright suns without a spot;
But thou art no such perfect thing:
Rejoice that thou art not!
[377]
Heed not tho' none should call thee fair;[378] 5
So, Mary, let it be
If nought in loveliness compare
With what thou art to me.
True beauty dwells in deep retreats,
Whose veil is unremoved 10
Till heart with heart in concord beats,
And the lover is beloved.
FOOTNOTES:
[377]
Such if thou wert in all men's view,
A universal show,
What would my Fancy have to do,
My Feelings to bestow?
A second (additional) stanza in the editions of 1827-43.
[378] 1832.
The world denies that Thou art fair; 1827.
TO ----
Composed 1824.--Published 1827
[Written at Rydal Mount. To Mrs. W.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."--ED.
O dearer far than light and life are dear,
Full oft our human foresight I deplore;
Trembling, through my unworthiness, with fear
That friends, by death disjoined, may meet no more!
Misgivings, hard to vanquish or control, 5
Mix with the day, and cross the hour of rest;
While all the future, for thy purer soul,
With "sober certainties" of love is blest.[379]
That sigh of thine,[380] not meant for human ear,
Tells[381] that these words thy humbleness offend; 10
Yet bear me up[382]--else faltering in the rear
Of a steep march: support[383] me to the end.
Peace settles where the intellect is meek,
And Love is dutiful in thought and deed;
Through Thee communion with that Love I seek: 15
The faith Heaven strengthens where _he_ moulds the Creed.
FOOTNOTES:
[379] See _Comus_, l. 263.--ED.
[380] 1836.
If a faint sigh, ... 1827.
[381] 1836.
Tell ... 1827.
[382] 1836.
Cherish me still-- ... 1827.
[383] 1836.
... uphold ... 1827.
"HOW RICH THAT FOREHEAD'S CALM EXPANSE!"
Composed 1824.--Published 1827
[Written at Rydal Mount. Mrs. Wordsworth's impression is that the Poem
was written at Coleorton: it was certainly suggested by a Print at
Coleorton Hall.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."--ED.
How rich that forehead's calm expanse!
How bright that heaven-directed glance!
--Waft her to glory, wingèd Powers,
Ere sorrow be renewed,
And intercourse with mortal hours 5
Bring back a humbler mood!
So looked Cecilia when she drew
An Angel from his station;[384]
So looked; not ceasing to pursue
Her tuneful adoration! 10
But hand and voice alike are still;
No sound _here_ sweeps away the will
That gave it birth: in service meek
One upright arm sustains the cheek,
And one across the bosom lies-- 15
That rose, and now forgets to rise,
Subdued by breathless harmonies
Of meditative feeling;
Mute strains from worlds beyond the skies,
Through the pure light of female eyes, 20
Their sanctity revealing!
FOOTNOTES:
[384] Compare Dryden's _Alexander's Feast_, an Ode in honour of St.
Cecilia's Day--
_Timotheus._ He raised a mortal to the skies.
_Cecilia._ She drew an angel down.--ED.
TO ----
Composed 1824.--Published 1827
[Written at Rydal Mount. Prompted by the undue importance attached to
personal beauty by some dear friends of mine.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."--ED.
Look at the fate of summer flowers,
Which blow at daybreak, droop ere even-song;[385]
And, grieved for their brief date, confess that ours,
Measured by what we are and ought to be,
Measured by all that, trembling, we foresee, 5
Is not so long!
If human Life do pass away,
Perishing yet more swiftly than the flower,
If we are creatures of a _winter's_ day;[386]
What space hath Virgin's beauty to disclose 10
Her sweets, and triumph o'er the breathing rose?
Not even an hour!
The deepest grove whose foliage hid
The happiest lovers Arcady might boast
Could not the entrance of this thought forbid: 15
O be thou wise as they, soul-gifted Maid!
Nor rate too high what must so quickly fade,
So soon be lost.
Then shall love teach some virtuous Youth
"To draw, out of the object of his eyes,"[387] 20
The while[388] on thee they gaze in simple truth,
Hues more exalted, "a refinèd Form,"
That dreads not age, nor suffers from the worm,
And never dies.
FOOTNOTES:
[385] Compare Robert Herrick's poem _To Daffodils_--
Fair daffodils, we weep to see
You haste away so soon;
As yet the early rising sun
Has not attain'd his noon.
Stay, stay,
Until the hasting day
Has run
But to the even-song, etc.
See also his poem _To Blossoms_.--ED.
[386] 1836.
Whose frail existence is but of a day; 1827.
[387] Compare Lyly's _Endymion_, v. 3--
To have him in the object of mine eyes.--ED.
[388] 1836.
The whilst ... 1827.
A FLOWER GARDEN,
AT COLEORTON HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE[389]
Composed 1824.--Published 1827
[Planned by my friend, Lady Beaumont, in connection with the garden at
Coleorton.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Fancy."--ED.
Tell me, ye Zephyrs! that unfold,
While fluttering o'er this gay Recess,[390]
Pinions that fanned the teeming mould
Of Eden's blissful wilderness,
Did only softly-stealing hours 5
There close the peaceful lives of flowers?
Say, when the _moving_ creatures saw
All kinds commingled without fear,
Prevailed a like indulgent law
For the still growths that prosper here? 10
Did wanton fawn and kid forbear
The half-blown rose, the lily spare?
Or peeped they often from their beds
And prematurely disappeared,
Devoured like pleasure ere it spreads 15
A bosom to the sun endeared?
If such their harsh untimely doom,
It falls not _here_ on bud or bloom.
All summer-long the happy Eve
Of this fair Spot her flowers may bind, 20
Nor e'er, with ruffled fancy, grieve,
From the next glance she casts, to find
That love for little things by Fate
Is rendered vain as love for great.
Yet, where the guardian fence is wound, 25
So subtly are our eyes beguiled
We see not nor suspect a bound,[391]
No more than in some forest wild;
The sight is free as air--or crost[392]
Only by art in nature lost. 30
And, though[393] the jealous turf refuse
By random footsteps to be prest,
And feed[394] on never-sullied dews,
_Ye_, gentle breezes from the west,
With all the ministers of hope 35
Are tempted to this sunny slope!
And hither throngs of birds resort;
Some, inmates lodged in shady nests,
Some, perched on stems of stately port
That nod to welcome transient guests; 40
While hare and leveret, seen at play,
_Appear_ not more shut out than they.
Apt emblem (for reproof of pride)
This delicate Enclosure shows
Of modest kindness, that would hide 45
The firm protection she bestows;
Of manners, like its viewless fence,
Ensuring peace to innocence.
Thus spake the moral Muse--her wing
Abruptly spreading to depart, 50
She left that[395] farewell offering,
Memento for some docile heart;
That may respect the good old age
When Fancy was Truth's willing Page;
And Truth would skim the flowery glade, 55
Though entering but as Fancy's Shade.
In a letter from Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont, dated "Rydal Mount,
Feb. 28" (1824), the following occurs:--
"This garden is made out of Lady Caroline Price's, and your own,
combining the recommendations of both. Like you, I enjoy the beauty of
flowers, but do not carry my admiration so far as my sister, not to
feel how very troublesome they are. I have more pleasure in clearing
away thickets, and making such arrangements as produced the Winter
Garden, and those sweet glades behind Coleorton Church."--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[389] 1836.
A FLOWER GARDEN. 1827.
[390] The flower garden was constructed below the terrace to the east
of the Hall.--ED.
[391] 1836.
So subtly is the eye beguiled
It sees not nor suspects a Bound, 1827.
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
[392] 1836.
Free as the light in semblance--crost. 1827.
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
[393] 1827.
What though ...
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
[394] 1836.
And feeds ... 1827.
[395] 1827.
... this ...
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
TO THE LADY E. B. AND THE HON. MISS P.
Composed in the Grounds of Plass Newidd,[396] near
Llangollen, 1824.
Composed 1824.--Published 1827
[In this Vale of Meditation my friend Jones resided, having been
allowed by his diocesan to fix himself there without resigning his
Living in Oxfordshire. He was with my wife and daughter and me when
we visited these celebrated ladies who had retired, as one may say,
into notice in this vale. Their cottage lay directly in the road
between London and Dublin, and they were of course visited by their
Irish friends as well as innumerable strangers. They took much delight
in passing jokes on our friend Jones's plumpness, ruddy cheeks and
smiling countenance, as little suited to a hermit living in the Vale
of Meditation. We all thought there was ample room for retort on his
part, so curious was the appearance of these ladies, so elaborately
sentimental about themselves and their _Caro Albergo_ as they named it
in an inscription on a tree that stood opposite, the endearing epithet
being preceded by the word Ecco! calling upon the saunterer to look
about him. So oddly was one of these ladies attired that we took her,
at a little distance, for a Roman Catholic priest, with a crucifix and
relics hung at his neck. They were without caps, their hair bushy and
white as snow, which contributed to the mistake.--I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
A STREAM, to mingle with your favourite Dee,
Along the VALE OF MEDITATION[397] flows;
So styled by those fierce Britons, pleased to see
In Nature's face the expression of repose;
Or haply there some pious hermit chose 5
To live and die, the peace of heaven his aim;
To whom the wild sequestered region owes,
At this late day, its sanctifying name.
GLYN CAFAILLGAROCH, in the Cambrian tongue,
In ours, the VALE OF FRIENDSHIP, let _this_ spot 10
Be named; where, faithful to a low-roofed Cot,
On Deva's banks, ye have abode so long;
Sisters in love, a love allowed to climb,
Even on this earth, above the reach of Time!
FOOTNOTES:
[396] Plass Newidd is close to Llangollen, a small cottage a quarter
of a mile to the south of the town. The ladies referred to in the
Fenwick note, Lady Eleanor Butler and the Hon. Miss Ponsonby, formed a
romantic attachment; and, having an extreme love of independence, they
withdrew from society, and settled in this remote and secluded cottage.
Lady Butler died in 1829, aged ninety, and Miss Ponsonby in 1831, aged
seventy-six, their faithful servant, Mary Caroll, having predeceased
them. The three are buried in the same grave in Llangollen Churchyard,
and an inscription to the memory of each is carved on a triangular
pillar beside their tomb.
In a letter to Sir George Beaumont from Hindwell, Radnorshire,
Wordsworth gives an account of this tour in North Wales.... "We
turned from the high-road three or four miles to visit the 'Valley of
Meditation' (Glyn Myvyr), where Mr. Jones has, at present, a curacy
with a comfortable parsonage. We slept at Corwen, and went down the Dee
to Llangollen, which you and dear Lady B. know well. Called upon the
celebrated Recluses, who hoped that you and Lady B. had not forgotten
them.... Next day I sent them the following sonnet from Ruthin, which
was conceived, and in a great measure composed, in their grounds."
Compare Sir Walter Scott's account of his visit to these Ladies in 1825
(Lockhart's _Life of Scott_, vol. viii. pp. 48, 49).--ED.
[397] Glyn Myvyr.--W. W. The word is misspelt in most of the
editions.--ED.
TO THE TORRENT AT THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE,[398] NORTH WALES, 1824
Composed 1824.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
How art thou named? In search of what strange land,
From what huge height, descending? Can such force
Of waters issue from a British source,[399]
Or hath not Pindus fed thee,[400] where the band
Of Patriots scoop their freedom out, with hand 5
Desperate as thine? Or come the incessant shocks
From that young Stream,[401] that smites the throbbing rocks
Of Viamala? There I seem to stand,
As in life's morn; permitted to behold,
From the dread chasm, woods climbing above woods, 10
In pomp that fades not; everlasting snows;
And skies that ne'er relinquish their repose;
Such power possess the family of floods
Over the minds of Poets, young or old!
FOOTNOTES:
[398] The Devil's Bridge in North Wales is at Hafod, near Aberystwyth,
in Cardiganshire. Like the Teufelsbrücke, on the road from Göschenen to
Airola, over the St. Gotthard in Switzerland, which spans the Reuss,
the Devil's Bridge in Wales is double; _i.e._ an upper and an under
bridge span the river Mynach. This _Pont-y-Mynach_ was built either by
the monks of Strata Florida, or by the Knights Hospitallers.
In the letter to Sir George Beaumont, referred to in a previous note,
Wordsworth writes: "We went up the Rhydiol to the Devil's Bridge, where
we passed the following day in exploring these two rivers, and Hafod
in the neighbourhood. I had seen these things long ago, but either my
memory or my powers of observation had not done them justice. It rained
heavily in the night, and we saw the waterfalls in perfection. While
Dora was attempting to make a sketch from the chasm in the rain, I
composed by her side the following address to the torrent,
How art thou named? etc."--ED.
[399] There are several consecutive falls on the river Mynach, at the
Devil's Bridge, the longest being one of 114 feet, and the whole taken
together amounting to 314 feet.--ED.
[400] The lofty ridge of mountains in northern Greece between Thessaly
and Epirus, which, like the Apennines in Italy, form the back-bone of
the country.--ED.
[401] The Rhine. The Via Mala is the gorge between Thusis and Zillis,
near the source of the Rhine. Compare _Descriptive Sketches_ (vol. i.
p. 46)--
Or, led where Via Mala's chasms confine
The indignant waters of the infant Rhine.--ED.
COMPOSED AMONG THE RUINS OF A CASTLE IN NORTH WALES
Composed 1824.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Through shattered galleries, 'mid roofless halls,
Wandering with timid footsteps[402] oft betrayed,
The Stranger sighs, nor scruples to upbraid
Old Time, though he, gentlest among the Thralls
Of Destiny, upon these wounds hath laid 5
His lenient touches, soft as light that falls,
From the wan Moon, upon the towers and walls,
Light deepening the profoundest sleep of shade.
Relic of Kings! Wreck of forgotten wars,
To winds abandoned and the prying stars, 10
Time _loves_ Thee! at his call the Seasons twine
Luxuriant wreaths around thy forehead hoar;
And, though past pomp no changes can restore,
A soothing recompense, his gift, is thine![403]
FOOTNOTES:
[402] 1837.
... footstep ... 1827.
[403] Compare _The White Doe of Rylstone_, canto i. ll. 118, 119 (vol.
iv. p. 110)--
Nature, softening and concealing,
And busy with a hand of healing.
This was doubtless Carnarvon Castle, which Wordsworth visited in
September 1824, at the close of his three weeks' ramble in North Wales,
of which he wrote to Sir George Beaumont, "We employed several hours
in exploring the interior of the noble castle, and looking at it from
different points of view in the neighbourhood."--ED.
ELEGIAC STANZAS
(ADDRESSED TO SIR G.H.B. UPON THE DEATH OF
HIS SISTER-IN-LAW)
1824[404]
Composed 1824.--Published 1827
[On Mrs. Fermor. This lady had been a widow long before I knew her. Her
husband was of the family of the lady celebrated in the _Rape of the
Lock_, and was, I believe, a Roman Catholic. The sorrow which his death
caused her was fearful in its character as described in this poem, but
was subdued in course of time by the strength of her religious faith.
I have been for many weeks at a time, an inmate with her at Coleorton
Hall, as were also Mrs. Wordsworth and my sister. The truth in the
sketch of her character here given was acknowledged with gratitude by
her nearest relatives. She was eloquent in conversation, energetic upon
public matters, open in respect to those, but slow to communicate her
personal feelings; upon these she never touched in her intercourse with
me, so that I could not regard myself as her confidential friend, and
was accordingly surprised when I learnt she had left me a legacy of
£100, as a token of her esteem. See in further illustration the second
stanza inscribed upon her cenotaph in Coleorton church.--I.F.]
One of the "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces." In 1827 the title was simply,
_Elegiac Stanzas, 1824_, and the title of the group was then, and in
1832, "Epitaphs and Elegiac Poems."--ED.
O for a dirge! But why complain?
Ask rather a triumphal strain
When FERMOR'S race is run;
A garland of immortal boughs
To twine[405] around the Christian's brows, 5
Whose glorious work is done.
We pay a high and holy debt;
No tears of passionate regret
Shall stain this votive lay;
Ill-worthy, Beaumont! were the grief 10
That flings itself on wild relief
When Saints have passed away.
Sad doom, at Sorrow's shrine to kneel,
For ever covetous to feel,
And impotent to bear! 15
Such once was hers--to think and think
On severed love, and only sink
From anguish to despair!
But nature to its inmost part
Faith had[406] refined; and to her heart 20
A peaceful cradle given:
Calm as the dew-drop's, free to rest
Within a breeze-fanned rose's breast
Till it exhales to Heaven.
Was ever Spirit that could bend: 25
So graciously?[407]--that could descend,
Another's need to suit,
So promptly from her lofty throne?--
In works of love, in these alone,
How restless, how minute! 30
Pale was her hue; yet mortal cheek[408]
Ne'er kindled with a livelier streak
When aught had suffered wrong,--
When aught that breathes had felt a wound;
Such look the Oppressor might confound, 35
However proud and strong.
But hushed be every thought that springs
From out the bitterness of things;
Her quiet is secure;
No thorns can pierce her tender feet, 40
Whose life was, like the violet, sweet,
As climbing jasmine, pure--
As snowdrop on an infant's grave,
Or lily heaving with the wave
That feeds it and defends; 45
As Vesper, ere the star hath kissed
The mountain top, or breathed the mist
That from the vale ascends.
Thou takest not away, O Death!
Thou strikest[409]--absence perisheth, 50
Indifference is no more;
The future brightens on our sight;
For on the past hath fallen a light
That tempts us to adore.
In a letter from Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont, dated "Rydal Mount,
Feb. 25, 1825," she says:--
"We are all much moved by the manner in which Miss Willes has received
the verses,--particularly Wm., who feels himself more than rewarded
for the _labour_ I cannot call it of the composition--for the tribute
was poured forth with a deep stream of fervour that was something
beyond labour, and it has required very little correction. In one
instance a single word in the '_Address to Sir George_' is changed
since we sent the copy, viz.: 'graciously' for 'courteously,' as being
a word of more dignity."
The following inscription was "copied from the Churchyard of Claines,
Sept. 14, 1826," by Dorothy Wordsworth, in a MS. book, containing
numerous epitaphs on tombstones, and inscriptions on rural monuments in
Cathedrals and Churches, in various parts of the country.
Sacred
To the memory of Frances Fermor,
Relict of Henry Fermor, Esqre.,
Of Fritwell, in the County of Oxford,
And eldest Daughter of the late
John Willes, Esqre., of Astrop, in the county
_Of Northamptonshire_, who departed this life,
Dec. 5th, 1824, aged 68 years.
I am the way, the truth, and
The life. Whoso cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out.--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[404] 1837.
ELEGIAC STANZAS, 1824. 1827.
[405] 1845.
To bind ... 1827.
[406] 1837.
Had Faith ... 1827.
[407] 1827.
So courteously ...
In a MS. copy sent to Coleorton.
[408] 1827.
Pale was her hue, but mortal cheek
In MS. from Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
[409] 1840.
Thou strik'st--and ... 1827.
CENOTAPH
In affectionate remembrance of Frances Fermor, whose remains are
deposited in the church of Claines, near Worcester, this stone is
erected by her sister, Dame Margaret, wife of Sir George Beaumont,
Bart., who, feeling not less than the love of a brother for the
deceased, commends this memorial to the care of his heirs and
successors in the possession of this place.
Composed 1824.--Published 1842
[See "Elegiac Stanzas. (Addressed to Sir G.H.B., upon the death of his
sister-in-law.)"--I.F.]
One of the "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."--ED.
By vain affections unenthralled,
Though resolute when duty called
To meet the world's broad eye,
Pure as the holiest cloistered nun
That ever feared the tempting sun, 5
Did Fermor live and die.
This Tablet, hallowed by her name,[410]
One heart-relieving tear may claim;
But if the pensive gloom
Of fond regret be still thy choice, 10
Exalt thy spirit, hear the voice
Of Jesus from her tomb!
"I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE."
In the letter to Lady Beaumont, referred to in the notes, the title of
this poem is "Inscription in the Church of Coleorton," and a footnote
is added, "Say, to the left of the vista, within the thicket, below the
churchyard wall.--M. W."
Mrs. Wordsworth also says, "To fit the lines, intended for an urn, for
a Monument, W. has altered the closing stanza, which (though they are
not what he would have produced had he first cast them with a view to
the Church) he hopes you will not disapprove."--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[410] 1842.
This cenotaph that bears her name,
MS. Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
This sacred stone that bears her name,
MS. Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
1825
Three Poems were written in 1825, _The Pillar of Trajan_, _The
Contrast: The Parrot and the Wren_, and the lines _To a Skylark_.--ED.
THE PILLAR OF TRAJAN
Composed 1825.--Published 1827
[These verses perhaps had better be transferred to the class of
"Italian Poems." I had observed in the newspaper, that the Pillar
of Trajan was given as a subject for a prize-poem in English verse.
I had a wish perhaps that my son, who was then an undergraduate at
Oxford, should try his fortune, and I told him so; but he, not having
been accustomed to write verse, wisely declined to enter on the task;
whereupon I showed him these lines as a proof of what might, without
difficulty, be done on such a subject.--I.F.]
From 1827 to 1842 one of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection"; in
1845 one of the "Memorials of a Tour in Italy."--ED.
Where towers are crushed, and unforbidden weeds
O'er mutilated arches shed their seeds;
And temples, doomed to milder change, unfold
A new magnificence that vies with old;
Firm in its pristine majesty hath stood 5
A votive Column, spared by fire and flood:--
And, though the passions of man's fretful race
Have never ceased to eddy round its base,
Not injured more by touch of meddling hands
Than a lone obelisk, 'mid Nubian sands, 10
Or aught in Syrian deserts left to save
From death the memory of the good and brave.
Historic figures round the shaft embost
Ascend, with lineaments in air not lost:
Still as he turns, the charmed spectator sees 15
Group winding after group with dream-like ease;
Triumphs in sunbright gratitude displayed,[411]
Or softly stealing into modest shade.
--So, pleased with purple clusters to entwine
Some lofty elm-tree, mounts the daring vine; 20
The woodbine so, with spiral grace, and breathes
Wide-spreading odours from her flowery wreaths.
Borne by the Muse from rills in shepherds' ears
Murmuring but one smooth story for all years,
I gladly commune with the mind and heart 25
Of him who thus survives by classic art,
His actions witness, venerate his mien,
And study Trajan as by Pliny seen;
Behold how fought the Chief whose conquering sword
Stretched far as earth might own a single lord; 30
In the delight of moral prudence schooled,
How feelingly at home the Sovereign ruled;
Best of the good--in pagan faith allied
To more than Man, by virtue deified.
Memorial Pillar! 'mid the wrecks of Time 35
Preserve thy charge with confidence sublime--
The exultations, pomps, and cares of Rome,
Whence half the breathing world received its doom;
Things that recoil from language; that, if shown
By apter pencil, from the light had flown. 40
A Pontiff, Trajan _here_ the Gods implores,
_There_ greets an Embassy from Indian shores;
Lo! he harangues his cohorts--_there_ the storm
Of battle meets him in authentic form!
Unharnessed, naked, troops of Moorish horse 45
Sweep to the charge;[412] more high, the Dacian force,
To hoof and finger mailed;[413]--yet, high or low,
None bleed, and none lie prostrate but the foe;[414]
In every Roman, through all turns of fate,
Is Roman dignity inviolate; 50
Spirit in him pre-eminent, who guides,[415]
Supports, adorns, and over all presides;
Distinguished only by inherent state
From honoured Instruments that round him wait;[416]
Rise as he may, his grandeur scorns the test 55
Of outward symbol, nor will deign to rest
On aught by which another is deprest.
--Alas! that One thus disciplined could toil
To enslave whole nations on their native soil;
So emulous of Macedonian fame, 60
That, when his age was measured with his aim,
He drooped, 'mid else unclouded victories,
And turned his eagles back with deep-drawn sighs.
O weakness of the Great! O folly of the Wise!
Where now the haughty Empire that was spread 65
With such fond hope? her very speech is dead;
Yet glorious Art the power of Time defies,
And Trajan still, through various enterprise,
Mounts, in this fine illusion, toward the skies:
Still are we present with the imperial Chief, 70
Nor cease to gaze upon the bold Relief
Till Rome, to silent marble unconfined,
Becomes with all her years a vision of the Mind.
Trajan's Column was set up by the Senate and people of Rome, in honour
of the Emperor, about A.D. 114. It is one of the most remarkable
pillars in the world; and still stands, little injured by time, in
the centre of the _Forum Trajanum_ (now a ruin); its height--132
feet--marking the height of the earth removed when the Forum was made.
On the pedestal bas-reliefs were carved in series showing the arms
and armour of the Romans; and round the shaft of the column similar
reliefs, exhibiting pictorially the whole story of the Decian campaign
of the Emperor. These are of great value as illustrating the history
of the period, the costume of the Roman soldiers and the barbarians. A
colossal statue of Trajan crowned the column; and, when it fell, Pope
Sixtus V. replaced it by a figure of St. Peter. It is referred to by
Pausanias (v. 12. 6), and by all the ancient topographers. See a minute
account of it, with excellent illustrations, in Hertzberg's _Geschichte
des Römischen Kaiserreiches_, pp. 330-345 (Berlin: 1880); also
Müller's _Denkmäler der alten Kunst_, p. 51. The book, however, from
which Wordsworth gained his information of this pillar was evidently
Joseph Forsyth's _Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters, during
an Excursion in Italy in 1802-3_ (London: 1813). It is thus that Dean
Merivale speaks of it:--
"Amid this profusion of splendour" (_i.e._ in the _Forum Trajanum_)
"the great object to which the eye was principally directed was the
column, which rose majestically in the centre of the forum to the
height of 126 feet, sculptured from the base of the shaft to the
summit with the story of the Decian wars, shining in every volute and
moulding, with gold and pigments, and crowned with the colossal effigy
of the august conqueror.... The proportions of the Trajan column are
peculiarly graceful; the compact masses of stone, nineteen in number,
of which the whole shaft is composed, may lead us to admire the skill
employed in its construction; but the most interesting feature of
this historic monument is the spiral band of figures which throughout
enriches it. To the subjects of Trajan himself, this record of his
exploits in bold relief must have given a vivid and sufficient idea of
the people, the places, and the actions indicated; even to us, after
so many centuries, they furnish a correct type of the arms, the arts,
and the costume both of the Romans and barbarians which we should
vainly seek for elsewhere. The Trajan column forms a notable chapter
in the pictorial history of Rome." (_History of the Romans under the
Empire_, vol. viii. pp. 46, 47.)
In the Fenwick note, Wordsworth mentions that, what gave rise to this
poem was, his observing in the newspapers that "the Pillar of Trajan"
was prescribed as a subject for a prize poem at Oxford. This determines
the date of composition. _The Pillar of Trajan_ was the Newdigate prize
poem, won by W. W. Tireman, Wadham Coll., in 1826. We may therefore
assume that the subject was proposed about the summer of 1825.--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[411] As Wordsworth says, in his note of 1827, "See Forsyth," it may
be interesting to add Forsyth's account of the Pillar, in footnotes.
"Trajan's Column, considered as a long historical record to be read
round and round a long convex surface, made perspective impossible.
Every perspective has one fixed point of view, but here are ten
thousand. The eye, like the relievos of the column, must describe a
spiral round them, widening over the whole piazza. Hence, to be legible
the figures must be lengthened as they rise. This licence is necessary
here; but in architecture it may be contested against Vitruvius
himself." (Forsyth's _Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters,
during an Excursion in Italy in 1802-3_, pp. 250, 251.)--ED.
[412] "In detailing the two wars, this column sets each nation in
contrast: here the Moorish horse, all naked and unharnessed" (Forsyth's
_Remarks_, _etc._, p. 251.)--ED.
[413] See Forsyth.--W. W. 1827.
"There the Taranatians, in complete mail down to the fingers and the
hoofs. It exhibits without embellishment all the tactics of that age,
and forms grand commentary on Vegetius and Frontinus." (_Remarks_,
_etc._, p. 252.)--ED.
[414] "How unlike the modern relievos, where dress appears in all its
distinctions, and prostration in all its angles! none kneel here but
priests and captives; no Roman appears in a fallen state: none are
wounded or slain but the foe.
"No monument gives the complete and real costume of its kind so
correctly as this column.... On this column we can see parts of the
_subarmalia_; we can see real drawers falling down to the officers'
legs; and some figures have _focalia_, like invalids, round the neck."
(_Remarks_, _etc._, p. 251-2.)--ED.
[415] "This column is an immense field of antiquities, where the
emperor appears in a hundred different points, as sovereign, as
general, as priest." (_Remarks_, _etc._, p. 251.)--ED.
[416] "His dignity he derives from himself or his duties; not from the
trappings of power, for he is dressed like any of his officers, not
from the debasement of others, for the Romans stand bold and erect
before him." (_Remarks_, _etc._, p. 251.)--ED.
THE CONTRAST
THE PARROT AND THE WREN[417]
Composed 1825.--Published 1827
[The Parrot belonged to Mrs. Luff while living at Fox-Ghyll. The Wren
was one that haunted for many years the summerhouse between the two
terraces at Rydal Mount.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Fancy."--ED.
I
Within her gilded cage confined,
I saw a dazzling Belle,
A Parrot of that famous kind
Whose name is NON-PAREIL.
Like beads of glossy jet her eyes; 5
And, smoothed by Nature's skill,
With pearl or gleaming agate vies
Her finely-curvèd bill.
Her plumy mantle's living hues
In mass opposed to mass, 10
Outshine the splendour that imbues
The robes of pictured glass.
And, sooth to say, an apter Mate
Did never tempt the choice
Of feathered Thing most delicate 15
In figure and in voice.
But, exiled from Australian bowers,
And singleness her lot,
She trills her song with tutored powers,
Or mocks each casual note. 20
No more of pity for regrets
With which she may have striven!
Now but in wantonness she frets,
Or spite, if cause be given;
Arch, volatile, a sportive bird 25
By social glee inspired;
Ambitious to be seen or heard
And pleased to be admired!
II
This Moss-Lined shed, green, soft, and dry,
Harbours a self-contented Wren, 30
Not shunning man's abode, though shy,
Almost as thought itself, of human ken.
Strange places, coverts unendeared,
She never tried; the very nest
In which this Child of Spring was reared, 35
Is warmed, thro' winter, by her feathery breast.
To the bleak winds she sometimes gives
A slender unexpected strain;
Proof that[418] the hermitess still lives,
Though she appear not, and be sought in vain. 40
Say, Dora! tell me, by yon placid moon,
If called to choose between the favoured pair,
Which would you be,--the bird of the saloon,
By lady-fingers tended with nice care,
Caressed, applauded, upon dainties fed, 45
Or Nature's DARKLING of this mossy shed?
The "moss-lined shed, green, soft, and dry," still remains at Rydal
Mount, as it was in the poet's time.--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[417] 1832.
The Contrast. 1827.
[418] 1836.
That tells ... 1827.
TO A SKY-LARK
Composed 1825.--Published 1827
[Written at Rydal Mount, where there are no skylarks, but the Poet is
everywhere.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.
Ethereal minstrel! pilgrim of the sky!
Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound?
Or, while the[419] wings aspire, are heart and eye
Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground?
Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will, 5
Those quivering wings composed, that music still!
Leave to the nightingale her[421] shady wood;
A privacy of glorious light is thine;
Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood
Of harmony, with instinct[422] more divine; 10
Type of the wise who soar, but never roam;
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!
Compare this with the earlier poem _To a Skylark_, written in 1805, and
both poems with Shelley's still finer lyric to the same bird, written
in 1820. See also the _Morning Exercise_ (1828), stanzas v.-x. The
eighth stanza of that poem was, from 1827 to 1842, the second stanza
of this one. The poem was published in the _Poetical Album_, for 1829,
edited by Alaric Watts, vol. ii. p. 30.--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[419] 1827.
... thy ...
_Poetical Album_, 1829.
[420] The following second stanza occurs only in the editions 1827-43--
To the last point of vision, and beyond,
Mount, daring Warbler! that love-prompted strain,
('Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond)
Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain:
Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege! to sing
All independent of the leafy spring.
[421] 1827.
... the ...
_Poetical Album_, 1829.
[422] 1832.
... rapture ... 1827.
1826
The poems composed in 1826 were six. They include two referring to the
month of May, and two descriptive of places near Rydal Mount.--ED.
"ERE WITH COLD BEADS OF MIDNIGHT DEW"
Composed 1826.--Published 1827
[Written at Rydal Mount. Suggested by the condition of a friend.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."--ED.
Ere with cold beads of midnight dew
Had mingled tears of thine,
I grieved, fond Youth! that thou shouldst sue
To haughty Geraldine.
Immoveable by generous sighs, 5
She glories in a train
Who drag, beneath our native skies,
An oriental chain.
Pine not like them with arms across,
Forgetting in thy care 10
How the fast-rooted trees can toss
Their branches in mid air.
The humblest rivulet will take
Its own wild liberties;
And, every day, the imprisoned lake 15
Is flowing in the breeze.
Then, crouch no more on suppliant knee,
But scorn with scorn outbrave;
A Briton, even in love, should be
A subject, not a slave! 20
ODE
COMPOSED ON MAY MORNING
Composed 1826.--Published 1835
[This and the following poem originated in the lines, "How delicate
the leafy veil," etc. My daughter and I left Rydal Mount upon a tour
through our mountains, with Mr. and Mrs. Carr,[423] in the month of
May, 1826, and as we were going up the Vale of Newlands I was struck
with the appearance of the little chapel gleaming through the veil
of half-opened leaves; and the feeling which was then conveyed to my
mind was expressed in the stanza referred to above. As in the case of
_Liberty_ and _Humanity_, my first intention was to write only one
poem, but subsequently I broke it into two, making additions to each
part so as to produce a consistent and appropriate whole.--I. F.]
In 1835, included in the Poems on _Yarrow Revisited_, etc. In
1837, one of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.
While from the purpling east departs
The star that led the dawn,
Blithe Flora from her couch upstarts,
For May is on the lawn,[424]
A quickening hope, a freshening glee, 5
Foreran the expected Power,
Whose first-drawn breath, from bush and tree,
Shakes off that pearly shower.
All Nature welcomes Her whose sway
Tempers the year's extremes; 10
Who scattereth lustres o'er noon-day,
Like morning's dewy gleams;
While mellow warble, sprightly trill,
The tremulous heart excite;
And hums the balmy air to still 15
The balance of delight.
Time was, blest Power! when youths and maids
At peep of dawn would rise,
And wander forth in forest glades
Thy birth to solemnize. 20
Though mute the song--to grace the rite
Untouched the hawthorn bough,
Thy Spirit triumphs o'er the slight;
Man changes, but not Thou!
Thy feathered Lieges bill and wings 25
In love's disport employ;
Warmed by thy influence, creeping things
Awake to silent joy:
Queen art thou still for each gay plant
Where the slim wild deer roves; 30
And served in depths where fishes haunt
Their own mysterious groves.
Cloud-piercing peak, and trackless heath,
Instinctive homage pay;
Nor wants the dim-lit cave a wreath 35
To honour thee, sweet May!
Where cities fanned by thy brisk airs
Behold a smokeless sky,
Their puniest flower-pot-nursling dares
To open a bright eye. 40
And if, on this thy natal morn,
The pole, from which thy name
Hath not departed, stands forlorn
Of song and dance and game;
Still from the village-green a vow 45
Aspires to thee addrest,
Wherever peace is on the brow,
Or love within the breast.
Yes! where Love nestles thou canst teach
The soul to love the more; 50
Hearts also shall thy lessons reach
That never loved before.
Stript is the haughty one of pride,
The bashful freed from fear,
While rising, like the ocean-tide, 55
In flows the joyous year.
Hush, feeble lyre! weak words refuse
The service to prolong!
To yon exulting thrush the Muse
Entrusts the imperfect song; 60
His voice shall chant, in accents clear,
Throughout the live-long day,
Till the first silver star appear,
The sovereignty of May.
FOOTNOTES:
[423] Doubtless the Rev. Mr. Carr, of Bolton Abbey, and his wife.--ED.
[424] Compare _Thoughts on the Seasons_, written in 1829.--ED.
TO MAY[425]
Composed 1826-34.--Published 1835
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.
Though many suns have risen and set
Since thou, blithe May, wert born,
And Bards, who hailed thee, may forget
Thy gifts, thy beauty scorn;
There are who to a birthday strain 5
Confine not harp and voice,
But evermore throughout thy reign
Are grateful and rejoice!
Delicious odours! music sweet,
Too sweet to pass away! 10
Oh for a deathless song to meet
The soul's desire--a lay
That, when a thousand years are told,
Should praise thee, genial Power!
Through summer heat, autumnal cold, 15
And winter's dreariest hour.
Earth, sea, thy presence feel--nor less,
If yon ethereal blue
With its soft smile the truth express,
The heavens have felt it too. 20
The inmost heart of man if glad
Partakes a livelier cheer;
And eyes that cannot but be sad
Let fall a brightened tear.
Since thy return, through days and weeks 25
Of hope that grew by stealth,
How many wan and faded cheeks
Have kindled into health!
The Old, by thee revived, have said,
"Another year is ours;" 30
And wayworn Wanderers, poorly fed,
Have smiled upon thy flowers.
Who tripping lisps a merry song
Amid his playful peers?
The tender Infant who was long 35
A prisoner of fond fears;
But now, when every sharp-edged blast
Is quiet in its sheath,
His Mother leaves him free to taste
Earth's sweetness in thy breath. 40
Thy help is with the weed that creeps
Along the humblest ground;
No cliff so bare but on its steeps
Thy favours may be found;
But most on some peculiar nook 45
That our own hands have drest,
Thou and thy train are proud to look,
And seem to love it best.
And yet how pleased we wander forth
When May is whispering, "Come! 50
"Choose from the bowers of virgin earth
"The happiest for your home;
"Heaven's bounteous love through me is spread
"From sunshine, clouds, winds, waves,
"Drops on the mouldering turret's head, 55
"And on your turf-clad graves!"
Such greeting heard, away with sighs
For lilies that must fade,
Or "the rathe primrose as it dies
Forsaken"[426] in the shade! 60
Vernal fruitions and desires
Are linked in endless chase;
While, as one kindly growth retires,
Another takes its place.
And what if thou, sweet May, hast known 65
Mishap by worm and blight;
If expectations newly blown
Have perished in thy sight;
If loves and joys, while up they sprung,
Were caught as in a snare; 70
Such is the lot of all the young,
However bright and fair.
Lo! Streams that April could not check
Are patient of thy rule;
Gurgling in foamy water-break, 75
Loitering in glassy pool:
By thee, thee only, could be sent
Such gentle mists as glide,
Curling with unconfirmed intent,
On that green mountain's side. 80
How delicate the leafy veil
Through which yon house of God
Gleams 'mid the peace of this deep dale[427]
By few but shepherds trod!
And lowly huts, near beaten ways, 85
No sooner stand attired
In thy fresh wreaths, than they for praise
Peep forth, and are admired.
Season of fancy and of hope,
Permit not for one hour, 90
A blossom from thy crown to drop,
Nor add to it a flower!
Keep, lovely May, as if by touch
Of self-restraining art,
This modest charm of not too much, 95
Part seen, imagined part!
FOOTNOTES:
[425] Some of the stanzas of this poem were composed in Nov. 1830,
on the way from Rydal to Cambridge. See Wordsworth's letter to W. R.
Hamilton, Nov. 26, 1830.--ED.
[426] Compare _Lycidas_, l. 142.--ED.
[427] Newlands. See the Fenwick note, p. 146.--ED.
"ONCE I COULD HAIL (HOWE'ER SERENE THE SKY)"
Composed 1826.--Published 1827
"Late, late yestreen I saw the new moone
Wi' the auld moone in hir arme."
_Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence_, _Percy's Reliques_.--W. W.
["No faculty yet given me to espy
The dusky Shape within her arms imbound."
Afterwards, when I could not avoid seeing it, I wondered at this, and
the more so because, like most children, I had been in the habit of
watching the moon through all her changes, and had often continued to
gaze at it when at the full till half blinded.--I. F.]
From 1827 to 1842, one of the "Epitaphs and Elegiac Poems." In
1845 transferred to the "Miscellaneous Poems."--ED.
Once I could hail (howe'er serene the sky)
The Moon re-entering her monthly round,
No faculty yet given me to espy
The dusky Shape within her arms imbound,
That thin memento of effulgence lost 5
Which some have named her Predecessor's ghost.
Young, like the Crescent that above me shone,
Nought I perceived within it dull or dim;
All that appeared was suitable to One
Whose fancy had a thousand fields to skim; 10
To expectations spreading with wild growth,
And hope that kept with me her plighted troth.
I saw (ambition quickening at the view)
A silver boat launched on a boundless flood;
A pearly crest, like Dian's when it threw 15
Its brightest splendour round a leafy wood;
But not a hint from under-ground, no sign
Fit for the glimmering brow of Proserpine.[428]
Or was it Dian's self[428] that seemed to move
Before me?--nothing blemished the fair sight; 20
On her I looked whom jocund Fairies love,
Cynthia,[428] who puts the _little_ stars to flight,
And by that thinning magnifies the great,
For exaltation of her sovereign state.
And when I learned to mark the spectral Shape 25
As each new Moon obeyed the call of Time,
If gloom fell on me, swift was my escape;
Such happy privilege hath life's gay Prime,
To see or not to see, as best may please
A buoyant Spirit, and a heart at ease. 30
Now, dazzling Stranger! when thou meet'st my glance,
Thy dark Associate ever I discern;
Emblem of thoughts too eager to advance
While I salute my joys, thoughts sad or stern;
Shades of past bliss, or phantoms that, to gain 35
Their fill of promised lustre, wait in vain.
So changes mortal Life with fleeting years;
A mournful change, should Reason fail to bring
The timely insight that can temper fears,
And from vicissitude remove its sting; 40
While Faith aspires to seats in that domain
Where joys are perfect--neither wax nor wane.
FOOTNOTES:
[428]
Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana;
Ima, suprema, feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagitta.--ED.
"THE MASSY WAYS, CARRIED ACROSS THESE HEIGHTS"
Composed 1826.--Published 1835[429]
[The walk is what we call the _Far-terrace_, beyond the summerhouse
at Rydal Mount. The lines were written when we were afraid of being
obliged to quit the place to which we were so much attached.--I.F.]
One of the "Inscriptions."--ED.
The massy Ways, carried across these heights[430]
By Roman perseverance,[431] are destroyed,
Or hidden under ground, like sleeping worms.
How venture then to hope that Time will spare[432]
This humble Walk? Yet on the mountain's side 5
A POET'S hand first shaped it; and the steps
Of that same Bard--repeated to and fro
At morn, at noon,[433] and under moonlight skies
Through the vicissitudes of many a year--
Forbade the weeds to creep o'er its grey line. 10
No longer, scattering to the heedless winds
The vocal raptures of fresh poesy,
Shall he frequent these precincts; locked no more
In earnest converse with beloved Friends,
Here will he gather stores of ready bliss, 15
As from the beds and borders of a garden
Choice flowers are gathered! But, if Power may spring
Out of a farewell yearning--favoured more
Than kindred wishes mated suitably
With vain regrets--the Exile would consign 20
This Walk, his loved possession, to the care
Of those pure Minds that reverence the Muse.[434]
FOOTNOTES:
[429] The title of these lines in the edition of 1835 was
_Inscription_.--ED.
[430] 1835.
... once carried o'er these hills MS.
[431] Referring to the Roman Way, fragments of which are to be seen on
High Street. Ambleside was a Roman station. "At the upper corner of
Windermere lieth the dead carcase of an ancient city, with great ruins
of walls, and many heaps of rubbish, one from another, remaining of
building without the walls, yet to be seen. The fortress thereof was
somewhat long, fenced with a ditch and rampire, took up in length 132
ells, and breadth 80. That it had been the Romans' work is evident by
the British bricks, by the mortar tempered with little pieces of brick
among it, by small earthen pots or pitchers, by small cruets or phials
of glass, by pieces of Roman money oftentimes found, and by round
stones as big as millstones or quernstones, of which laid and couched
together they framed in old times their columns, and by the paved ways
leading to it. Now the ancient name is gone, unless a man would guess
at it, and think it were that Amboglana, whereof the book of notices
maketh mention, seeing at this day it is called Ambleside."--See
Camden's _Britannia_, 645 (edition 1590).--ED.
[432] 1835.
... to hope that private claims
Will from the injuries of time protect MS.
[433] 1835.
... and the foot
Of that same Bard, by pacing to and fro
At morn, and noon, ... MS.
[434] 1835.
... its gray line.
Murmuring his unambitious verse alone,
Or in sweet converse with beloved Friends.
No more must he frequent it. Yet might power
Follow the yearnings of the spirit, he
Reluctantly departing, would consign
This walk, his heart's possession, to the care
Of those pure Minds that reverence the Muse. MS.
FAREWELL LINES[435]
Composed 1826.--Published 1842
[These lines were designed as a farewell to Charles Lamb and his
sister, who had retired from the throngs of London to comparative
solitude in the village of Enfield--I.F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."--ED.
"High bliss is only for a higher state,"[436]
But, surely, if severe afflictions borne
With patience merit the reward of peace,
Peace ye deserve; and may the solid good,
Sought by a wise though late exchange, and here 5
With bounteous hand beneath a cottage-roof
To you accorded, never be withdrawn,
Nor for the world's best promises renounced.
Most soothing was it for a welcome Friend,
Fresh from the crowded city, to behold 10
That lonely union, privacy so deep,
Such calm employments, such entire content.
So when the rain is over, the storm laid,
A pair of herons oft-times have I seen,
Upon a rocky islet, side by side, 15
Drying their feathers in the sun, at ease;
And so, when night with grateful gloom had fallen,
Two glow-worms in such nearness that they shared,
As seemed, their soft self-satisfying light,
Each with the other, on the dewy ground, 20
Where He that made them blesses their repose.--
When wandering among lakes and hills I note,
Once more, those creatures thus by nature paired,
And guarded in their tranquil state of life,
Even, as your happy presence to my mind 25
Their union brought, will they repay the debt,
And send a thankful spirit back to you,
With hope that we, dear Friends! shall meet again.
FOOTNOTES:
[435] As Charles Lamb retired to Enfield in 1826, these lines cannot
have been composed much later than that year, although they were
not published till 1842. Lamb wrote thus to Wordsworth on the 6th
of April 1825: "I came home FOR EVER on Tuesday in last week. The
incomprehensibleness of my condition overwhelmed me. It was like
passing from life into eternity. ... I wandered about, thinking I was
happy, but feeling I was not. But that tumultuousness is passing off,
and I begin to understand the nature of the gift. Holidays, even the
annual month, were always uneasy joys: their conscious fugitiveness;
the craving after making the most of them. Now, when all is holiday,
there are no holidays. I can sit at home, in rain or shine, without a
restless impulse for walkings. I am daily steadying, and shall soon
find it as natural to me to be my own master, as it has been irksome
to have had a master. Mary wakes every morning with an obscure feeling
that some good has happened to us."--ED.
[436] See Thomson's lines _To the Reverend Patrick Murdoch_, Rector of
Stradishall, in Suffolk, 1738, l. 10.--ED.
1827
The poems composed in 1827 were for the most part sonnets. But several
of those first published in 1827 evidently belong to an earlier year,
the date of which it is impossible to discover.--ED.
ON SEEING A NEEDLECASE IN THE FORM OF A HARP
THE WORK OF E. M. S.[437]
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Poems of the Fancy."--ED.
Frowns are on every Muse's face,
Reproaches from their lips are sent,
That mimicry should thus disgrace
The noble Instrument.
A very Harp in all but size! 5
Needles for strings in apt gradation!
Minerva's self would stigmatize
The unclassic profanation.
Even her _own_ needle that subdued
Arachne's rival spirit,[438] 10
Though wrought in Vulcan's happiest mood,
Such honour[439] could not merit.
And this, too, from the Laureate's Child,
A living lord of melody!
How will her Sire be reconciled 15
To the refined indignity?
I spake, when whispered a low voice,
"Bard! moderate your ire;
Spirits of all degrees rejoice
In presence of the lyre. 20
The Minstrels of Pygmean bands,[440]
Dwarf Genii, moonlight-loving Fays,
Have shells to fit their tiny hands
And suit their slender lays.
Some, still more delicate of ear, 25
Have lutes (believe my words)
Whose framework is of gossamer,
While sunbeams are the chords.
Gay Sylphs[B] this miniature will court,
Made vocal by their brushing wings, 30
And sullen Gnomes[441] will learn to sport
Around its polished strings;
Whence strains to love-sick maiden dear,
While in her lonely bower she tries
To cheat the thought she cannot cheer, 35
By fanciful embroideries.
Trust, angry Bard! a knowing Sprite,
Nor think the Harp her lot deplores;
Though 'mid the stars the Lyre shine[442] bright,
Love _stoops_ as fondly as he soars."[443] 40
FOOTNOTES:
[437] Edith May Southey.--ED.
[438] Arachne, daughter of a dyer of Colophon, skilful with her needle,
challenged Minerva to a trial of skill. Minerva defeated her, and
committing suicide, she was changed by the goddess into a spider.--ED.
[439] 1845.
Like station ... 1827.
[440] Pygmæi, the nation of Lilliputian dwarfs, fabled to dwell in
India, or Ethiopia. (See Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, vi. 90; Aristotle, _De
Anima_, viii. 12.)--ED.
[441] According to mediæval belief, the Sylphs were elemental
spirits of the air; the Gnomes the elemental spirits of the earth.
"The Gnomes or Dæmons of Earth delight in mischief; but the Sylphs,
whose habitation is in the Air, are the best-condition'd creatures
imaginable."--(See Pope, _Rape of the Lock_, Preface.)--ED.
[442] 1832.
... shines ... 1827.
[443] 1827.
... as she soars." MS.
MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS
DEDICATION
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
[In the cottage, Town-end, Grasmere, one afternoon in 1801, my Sister
read to me the Sonnets of Milton. I had long been well acquainted with
them, but I was particularly struck on that occasion by the dignified
simplicity and majestic harmony that runs through most of them,--in
character so totally different from the Italian, and still more so from
Shakespeare's fine Sonnets. I took fire, if I may be allowed to say
so, and produced three Sonnets the same afternoon, the first I ever
wrote except an irregular one at school. Of these three, the only one
I distinctly remember is "I grieved for Buonaparté." One was never
written down: the third, which was, I believe, preserved, I cannot
particularise.--I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
TO ----[444]
Happy the feeling from the bosom thrown
In perfect shape (whose beauty Time shall spare
Though a breath made it) like a bubble blown
For summer pastime into wanton air;
Happy the thought best likened to a stone 5
Of the sea-beach, when, polished with nice care,
Veins it discovers exquisite and rare,
Which for the loss of that moist gleam atone
That tempted first to gather it. That here,
O chief of Friends![445] such feelings I present, 10
To thy regard, with thoughts so fortunate,
Were a vain notion; but the hope is dear,[446]
That thou, if not with partial joy elate,
Wilt smile upon this gift with[447] more than mild content![448]
FOOTNOTES:
[444] This dedicatory sonnet may possibly have been inscribed to his
sister, whose reading of Milton's sonnets in 1801 first led him (as the
Fenwick note tells us) to write sonnets.--ED.
[445] See the note on the previous page.--ED.
[446] 1837.
... gather it. O chief
Of Friends! such feelings if I here present,
Such thoughts, with others mixed less fortunate;
Then smile into my heart a fond belief
That Thou, ... 1827.
[447] 1837.
Receiv'st the gift for ... 1827.
[448]
"_Something less than joy, but more than dull content._"
COUNTESS OF WINCHELSEA.--W. W. 1837.
"HER ONLY PILOT THE SOFT BREEZE, THE BOAT"
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Her only pilot the soft breeze, the boat
Lingers, but Fancy is well satisfied;
With keen-eyed Hope, with Memory, at her side,
And the glad Muse at liberty to note
All that to each is precious, as we float 5
Gently along; regardless who shall chide
If the heavens smile, and leave us free to glide,
Happy Associates breathing air remote
From trivial cares. But, Fancy and the Muse,
Why have I crowded this small bark with you 10
And others of your kind, ideal crew!
While here sits One whose brightness owes its hues
To flesh and blood; no Goddess from above,
No fleeting Spirit, but my own true Love?[449]
FOOTNOTES:
[449] The reminiscence of a day spent on Grasmere Lake with Mrs.
Wordsworth.
Compare Robert Browning's lines--
No angel, but a dearer being
All dipt in angel instincts.--ED.
"WHY, MINSTREL, THESE UNTUNEFUL MURMURINGS"
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
"Why, Minstrel, these untuneful murmurings--
Dull, flagging notes that with each other jar?"
"Think, gentle Lady, of a Harp so far
From its own country, and forgive the strings."
A simple answer! but even so forth springs, 5
From the Castalian fountain of the heart,[450]
The Poetry of Life, and all _that_ Art
Divine of words quickening insensate things.
From the submissive necks of guiltless men
Stretched on the block, the glittering axe recoils; 10
Sun, moon, and stars, all struggle in the toils
Of mortal sympathy; what wonder then
That[451] the poor Harp distempered music yields
To its sad Lord, far from his native fields?
FOOTNOTES:
[450] Castaly (Castalius fons), a fountain near Parnassus sacred to the
Muses. See Virgil, _Georgics_, iii. 293.--ED.
[451] 1837.
If ... 1827.
TO S. H.[452]
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Excuse is needless when with love sincere
Of occupation, not by fashion led,
Thou turn'st the Wheel that slept with dust o'erspread;
_My_ nerves from no such murmur shrink,--tho' near,
Soft as the Dorhawk's to a distant ear, 5
When twilight shades darken[453] the mountain's head.[454]
Even She who toils to spin[455] our vital thread[456]
Might smile on work, O Lady, once so dear[457]
To household virtues. Venerable Art,
Torn from the Poor![458] yet shall kind Heaven protect 10
Its own; though Rulers, with undue respect,
Trusting to crowded factory and mart[459]
And[460] proud discoveries of the intellect,
Heed not[461] the pillage of man's ancient heart.
FOOTNOTES:
[452] Sarah Hutchinson, Mrs. Wordsworth's sister.--ED.
[453] 1837.
... bedim ... 1827.
[454] Either Wansfell, or Loughrigg.--ED.
[455] 1840.
She who was feigned to spin ... 1827.
She who even toils to spin ... C.
[456] Lachesis, the second of the three Parcæ, who was supposed to spin
out the actions of our life.
Clotho colum retinet, Lachesis net, et Atropos occat.--ED.
[457] 1837.
Might smile, O Lady! on a task once dear 1827.
[458] Referring to the introduction of steam-looms, which displaced the
hand-loom spinning of a previous generation.--ED.
[459] Compare _The Excursion_, book viii. ll. 165-185.--ED.
[460] 1837.
... yet will kind Heaven protect
Its own, not left without a guiding chart,
If Rulers, trusting with undue respect
To ... 1827.
[461] 1837.
Sanction ... 1827.
DECAY OF PIETY
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
[Attendance at church on prayer-days, Wednesdays and Fridays and
Holidays, received a shock at the Revolution. It is now, however,
happily reviving. The ancient people described in this Sonnet were
among the last of that pious class. May we hope that the practice, now
in some degree renewed, will continue to spread.--I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Oft have I seen, ere Time had ploughed my cheek,
Matrons and Sires--who, punctual to the call
Of their loved Church, on fast or festival
Through the long year the House of Prayer would seek:
By Christmas snows, by visitation bleak 5
Of Easter winds, unscared, from hut or hall
They came to lowly bench or sculptured stall,
But with one fervour of devotion meek.
I see the places where they once were known,
And ask, surrounded even by kneeling crowds, 10
Is ancient Piety for ever flown?
Alas! even then they seemed like fleecy clouds
That, struggling through the western sky, have won
Their pensive light from a departed sun!
"SCORN NOT THE SONNET; CRITIC, YOU HAVE FROWNED"
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
[Composed, almost extempore, in a short walk on the western side of
Rydal Lake.--I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned,
Mindless of its just honours; with this key
Shakspeare unlocked his heart;[462] the melody
Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound;[463]
A thousand times this pipe did Tasso sound;[464] 5
With it Camöens soothed[465] an exile's grief;[466]
The Sonnet glittered a gay myrtle leaf
Amid the cypress with which Dante[467] crowned
His visionary brow: a glow-worm lamp,
It cheered mild Spenser, called from Faery-land 10
To struggle through dark ways;[468] and, when a damp
Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand
The Thing became a trumpet;[469] whence he blew
Soul-animating strains--alas, too few![470]
FOOTNOTES:
[462] Shakespeare's sonnets are autobiographical: compare Nos. 24, 30,
39, 105, 116.--ED.
[463] Petrarch's were all inspired by his devotion to Laura.--ED.
[464] Tasso's works include two volumes of sonnets, first published in
1581 and 1592.--ED.
[465] 1837.
Camöens soothed with it ... 1827.
[466] For his satire _Disparates na India_, Camöens was banished to
Macao in 1556, where he wrote the _Os Lusiadas_, also many sonnets and
lyric poems.--ED.
[467] Compare the _Vita Nuova_, _passim_.--ED.
[468] Spenser wrote ninety-two sonnets. From the eightieth sonnet it
would seem that the writing of them was a relaxation, after the labour
spent upon the _Faërie Queene_. It is to this sonnet that Wordsworth
alludes.
After so long a race as I have run
Through Faery land, which these six books compile,
Give leave to rest me, being half foredone,
And gather to myself new breath awhile.--ED.
[469] Milton's twenty-three sonnets were written partly in English,
partly in Italian. Compare Wordsworth's sonnet, addressed to him in
1802, beginning:--
Milton, thou should'st be living at this hour.--ED.
[470] Compare the sonnet beginning--
Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room.--ED.
"FAIR PRIME OF LIFE! WERE IT ENOUGH TO GILD"
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
[Suggested by observation of the way in which a young friend, whom I do
not choose to name, misspent his time and misapplied his talents. He
took afterwards a better course, and became a useful member of society,
respected, I believe, wherever he has been known.--I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Fair Prime of life! were it enough to gild
With ready sunbeams every straggling shower;
And, if an unexpected cloud should lower,
Swiftly thereon a rainbow arch to build
For Fancy's errands,--then, from fields half-tilled 5
Gathering green weeds to mix with poppy flower,
Thee might thy Minions crown, and chant thy power,
Unpitied by the wise, all censure stilled.
Ah! show that worthier honours are thy due;
Fair Prime of life! arouse the deeper heart; 10
Confirm the Spirit glorying to pursue
Some path of steep ascent and lofty aim;
And, if there be a joy that slights the claim
Of grateful memory, bid that joy depart.
RETIREMENT
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
If the whole weight of what we think and feel,
Save only far as thought and feeling blend
With action, were as nothing, patriot Friend!
From thy remonstrance would be no appeal;
But to promote and fortify the weal 5
Of our own Being is her paramount end;
A truth which they alone shall comprehend
Who shun the mischief which they cannot heal.
Peace in these feverish times is sovereign bliss:
Here, with no thirst but what the stream can slake, 10
And startled only by the rustling brake,
Cool air I breathe; while the unincumbered Mind,
By some weak aims at services assigned
To gentle Natures, thanks not Heaven amiss.
"_THERE IS A PLEASURE IN POETIC PAINS_"
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
_There is a pleasure in poetic pains_
_Which only Poets know_;[471]--'twas rightly said;
Whom could the Muses else allure to tread
Their smoothest paths, to wear their lightest chains?
When happiest Fancy has inspired the strains, 5
How oft the malice of one luckless word
Pursues the Enthusiast to the social board,
Haunts him belated on the silent plains!
Yet he repines not, if his thought stand clear,
At last, of hindrance and obscurity, 10
Fresh as the star that crowns the brow of morn;
Bright, speckless, as a softly-moulded tear
The moment it has left the virgin's eye,
Or rain-drop lingering on the pointed thorn.
FOOTNOTES:
[471] See Cowper's _Task_, book ii. l. 285.--ED.
RECOLLECTION OF THE PORTRAIT OF KING HENRY EIGHTH, TRINITY LODGE,
CAMBRIDGE[472]
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
The imperial Stature, the colossal stride,
Are yet before me; yet do I behold
The broad full visage, chest of amplest mould,
The vestments 'broidered with barbaric pride:
And lo! a poniard, at the Monarch's side, 5
Hangs ready to be grasped in sympathy
With the keen threatenings of that fulgent eye,
Below the white-rimmed bonnet, far-descried.
Who trembles now at thy capricious mood?
'Mid those surrounding Worthies, haughty King, 10
We rather think, with grateful mind sedate,
How Providence educeth, from the spring
Of lawless will, unlooked-for streams of good,
Which neither force shall check nor time abate!
FOOTNOTES:
[472] Trinity College, Cambridge, was founded by King Henry VIII. in
1546, on the site of King's Hall, founded by Edward III. in 1337. Two
of the gateways of the latter remain, as parts of the great court of
Trinity. Over one of these--the King's or entrance gate way--the statue
of Henry VIII. is erected. The portrait, described in the sonnet, is in
the Hall of the College.--ED.
"WHEN PHILOCTETES IN THE LEMNIAN ISLE"
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
When Philoctetes in the Lemnian isle[473]
Like a Form sculptured on a monument
Lay couched; on him or his dread bow unbent[474]
Some wild Bird oft might settle and beguile
The rigid features of a transient smile, 5
Disperse the tear, or to the sigh give vent,
Slackening the pains of ruthless banishment
From his lov'd home, and from heroic toil.
And trust[475] that spiritual Creatures round us move,
Griefs to allay which[476] Reason cannot heal; 10
Yea, veriest[477] reptiles have sufficed to prove
To fettered wretchedness, that no Bastile[478]
Is deep enough to exclude the light of love,
Though man for brother man has ceased to feel.
FOOTNOTES:
[473] The original title of this sonnet in MS. was _Suggested by the
same Incident_ (referring to the previous sonnet); and its original
form, with one line awanting, was as follows:--
When Philoctetes, in the Lemnian Isle
Reclined with shaggy forehead earthward bent,
Lay silent like a weed-grown Monument,
Such Friend, for such brief moment as a smile
Asks to be born and die in, might beguile
The wounded Chief of pining discontent
From home affections, and heroic toil.
Seen, or unseen, beneath us, or above,
Are Powers that soften anguish, if not heal;
And toads and spiders have sufficed to prove
To fettered wretchedness that no Bastile
Is deep enough to exclude the light of Love,
Though man for Brother man have ceased to feel.
Philoctetes, one of the Argonauts, received from the dying Hercules his
arrows. Called by Menelaus to go with the Greeks to the Trojan war, he
was sent to the island of Lemnos, owing to a wound in his foot. There
he remained for ten years, till the oracle informed the Greeks that
Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules. The sonnet
refers to the legend of his life in Lemnos.--ED.
[474] 1837.
... isle
Lay couched; upon that breathless Monument,
On him, or on his fearful bow unbent, 1827.
[475] 1837.
From home affections, and heroic toil.
Nor doubt ... 1827.
[476] 1837.
... that ... 1827.
[477] 1837.
And very ... 1827.
[478] Compare the sonnet _To Toussaint l'Ouverture_ (vol. ii. p.
339).--ED.
"WHILE ANNA'S PEERS AND EARLY PLAYMATES TREAD"
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
[This is taken from the account given by Miss Jewsbury of the pleasure
she derived, when long confined to her bed by sickness, from the
inanimate object on which this sonnet turns.--I.F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
While Anna's peers[479] and early playmates tread,
In freedom, mountain-turf and river's marge;[480]
Or float with music in the festal barge;
Rein the proud steed, or through the dance are led;
Her doom it is[481] to press a weary bed-- 5
Till oft her guardian Angel, to some charge
More urgent called, will stretch his wings at large,
And friends too rarely prop the languid head.
Yet, helped by Genius--untired comforter,[482]
The presence even of a stuffed Owl for her 10
Can cheat the time; sending her fancy out
To ivied castles and to moonlight skies,
Though he can neither stir a plume, nor shout;
Nor veil, with restless film, his staring eyes.
FOOTNOTES:
[479] Anna Jewsbury, afterwards Mrs. William Fletcher. Compare
_Liberty_, in this volume, stanza 1, and the note (p. 222).--ED.
[480] 1837.
While they, her Playmates once, light-hearted tread
The mountain turf and river's flowery marge; 1827.
While they, who once were Anna's Playmates, tread
The mountain turf and river's flowery marge; 1832.
[481] 1832.
Is Anna doomed ... 1827.
[482] 1837.
Yet Genius is no feeble comforter: 1827.
TO THE CUCKOO
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Not the whole warbling grove in concert heard
When sunshine follows shower, the breast can thrill
Like the first summons, Cuckoo! of thy bill,
With its twin notes inseparably paired.[483]
The captive 'mid damp vaults unsunned, unaired, 5
Measuring the periods of his lonely doom,
That cry can reach; and to the sick man's room
Sends gladness, by no languid smile declared.
The lordly eagle-race through hostile search
May perish; time may come when never more 10
The wilderness shall hear the lion roar;
But, long as cock shall crow from household perch
To rouse the dawn, soft gales shall speed thy wing,
And thy erratic voice[484] be faithful to the Spring!
FOOTNOTES:
[483] Compare _To the Cuckoo_--1802 (vol. ii. p. 290)--
Thy twofold shout I hear.
Also Robert Browning's _A Lovers' Quarrel_, stanza 18--
... that minor third
There is none but the cuckoo knows.--ED.
[484] Compare (vol. ii. p. 289)--
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?--ED.
THE INFANT M---- M----
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
[The infant was Mary Monkhouse,[485] the only daughter of my friend and
cousin, Thomas Monkhouse.--I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Unquiet Childhood here by special grace
Forgets her nature, opening like a flower
That neither feeds nor wastes its vital power
In painful struggles. Months each other chase,
And nought untunes that Infant's voice; no trace[486] 5
Of fretful temper sullies her pure cheek;[487]
Prompt, lively, self-sufficing, yet so meek
That one enrapt with gazing on her face
(Which even the placid innocence of death
Could scarcely make more placid, heaven more bright)
Might learn to picture, for the eye of faith, 11
The Virgin, as she shone with kindred light;
A nursling couched upon her mother's knee,
Beneath some shady palm of Galilee.
FOOTNOTES:
[485] Afterwards Mrs. Henry Dew of Whitney Rectory, Herefordshire.--ED.
[486] 1837.
... a trace 1827.
[487] 1837.
... sullies not her cheek; 1827.
TO ROTHA Q----
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
[Rotha, the daughter of my son-in-law, Mr. Quillinan.--I. F.]
Rotha, my Spiritual Child! this head was grey
When at the sacred font for thee I stood;
Pledged till thou reach the verge of womanhood,
And shalt become thy own sufficient stay:
Too late, I feel, sweet Orphan, was the day 5
For stedfast hope the contract to fulfil;
Yet shall my blessing hover o'er thee still,
Embodied in the music of this Lay,
Breathed forth beside the peaceful mountain Stream[488]
Whose murmur soothed thy languid Mother's ear 10
After her throes, this Stream of name more dear
Since thou dost bear it,--a memorial theme[489]
For others; for thy future self, a spell
To summon fancies out of Time's dark cell.[490]
FOOTNOTES:
[488] The river Rotha, which flows into Windermere from the lakes of
Grasmere and Rydal.--ED.
[489] 1827.
... whose name is thine to bear
Hanging around thee a memorial theme MS.
[490] Compare the poem on the Borrowdale _Yew Trees_.--ED.
TO ----, IN HER SEVENTIETH YEAR[491]
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
[Lady Fitzgerald, as described to me by Lady Beaumont.--I.F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Such age how beautiful! O Lady bright,
Whose mortal lineaments seem all refined
By favouring Nature and a saintly Mind
To something purer and more exquisite
Than flesh and blood; whene'er thou meet'st my sight,
When I behold thy blanched unwithered cheek, 6
Thy temples fringed with locks of gleaming white,
And head that droops because the soul is meek,
Thee with the welcome Snowdrop I compare;
That child of winter, prompting thoughts that climb 10
From desolation toward[492] the genial prime;
Or with the Moon conquering earth's misty air,
And filling more and more with crystal light
As pensive Evening deepens into night.[493]
FOOTNOTES:
[491] 1832.
To ----, 1827.
[492] 1832.
... tow'rds ... 1827.
[493] Another version of this sonnet is given in a letter from Mrs.
Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont:--
Lady, what delicate graces may unite
In age--so often comfortless and bleak!
Though from thy unenfeebled eye-balls break
Those saintly emanations of delight,
A snow-drop let me name thee; pure, chaste, white,
Too pure for flesh and blood; with smooth, blanch'd cheek,
And head that droops because the soul is meek,
And not that Time presses with weary weight.
Hope, Love, and Joy are with thee fresh as fair;
A Child of Winter prompting thoughts that climb
From desolation towards the genial prime:
Or, like the moon, conquering the misty air
And filling more and more with chrystal light,
As pensive evening deepens into night.--ED.
"IN MY MIND'S EYE A TEMPLE, LIKE A CLOUD"
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
In my mind's eye a Temple, like a cloud
Slowly surmounting some invidious hill,
Rose out of darkness: the bright Work stood still;
And might of its own beauty have been proud,
But it was fashioned and to God was vowed 5
By Virtues that diffused, in every part,
Spirit divine through forms of human art:
Faith had her arch--her arch, when winds blow loud,
Into the consciousness of safety thrilled;
And Love her towers of dread foundation laid 10
Under the grave of things; Hope had her spire
Star-high, and pointing still to something higher;
Trembling I gazed, but heard a voice--it said,
"Hell-gates are powerless Phantoms when _we_ build."
"GO BACK TO ANTIQUE AGES, IF THINE EYES"
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty."--ED.
Go back to antique ages, if thine eyes
The genuine mien and character would trace
Of the rash Spirit that still holds her place,
Prompting the world's audacious vanities!
Go back, and see[494] the Tower of Babel rise; 5
The pyramid extend its monstrous base,
For some Aspirant of our short-lived race,
Anxious an aery name to immortalize.
There, too, ere wiles and politic dispute
Gave specious colouring to aim and act, 10
See the first mighty Hunter leave the brute--
To chase mankind, with men in armies packed
For his field-pastime high and absolute,
While, to dislodge his game, cities are sacked!
FOOTNOTES:
[494] 1837.
See, at her call, ... 1827.
"IF THOU INDEED DERIVE THY LIGHT FROM HEAVEN"
Published 1827
[These verses were written some time after we had become residents at
Rydal Mount, and I will take occasion from them to observe upon the
beauty of that situation, as being backed and flanked by lofty fells,
which bring the heavenly bodies to touch, as it were, the earth upon
the mountain-tops, while the prospect in front lies open to a length
of level valley, the extended lake, and a terminating ridge of low
hills; so that it gives an opportunity to the inhabitants of the place
of noticing the stars in both the positions here alluded to, namely, on
the tops of the mountains, and as winter-lamps at a distance among the
leafless trees.--I. F.]
If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven,
Then, to the measure of that heaven-born light,
Shine, Poet![495] in thy place, and be content:--
The stars pre-eminent in magnitude,
And they that from the zenith dart their beams,[496] 5
(Visible though they[497] be to half the earth,
Though half a sphere be conscious of their brightness)
Are[498] yet of no diviner origin,
No purer essence, than the one that burns,
Like an untended watch-fire, on the ridge 10
Of some dark mountain; or than those which seem
Humbly to hang, like twinkling winter lamps,
Among the branches of the leafless trees;
All are the undying offspring of one Sire:
Then, to the measure of the light vouchsafed, 15
Shine, Poet! in thy place, and be content.[499]
These lines, first published in 1827, found a place in the edition of
that year, amongst the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection." In the
edition of 1845 they appeared as a Preface to the entire volume of
Poems.--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[495] 1837.
... from Heaven,
Shine, Poet, ... 1827.
[496] 1837.
The Star that from the zenith darts its beams, 1827.
[497] 1837.
... it ... 1827.
[498] 1837.
... its brightness,
Is ... 1827.
[499] The last three lines were added in 1837.--ED.
IN THE WOODS OF RYDAL[500]
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Wild Redbreast![501] hadst them at Jemima's lip[502]
Pecked, as at mine, thus boldly, Love might say[503]
A half-blown rose had tempted thee to sip
Its glistening dews: but hallowed is the clay
Which the Muse warms; and I, whose head is grey,[504] 5
Am not unworthy of thy fellowship;
Nor could I let one thought--one motion--slip
That might thy sylvan confidence betray.
For are we not all His without whose care
Vouchsafed no sparrow falleth to the ground?[505] 10
Who gives his Angels wings to speed through air,
And rolls the planets through the blue profound;
Then peck or perch, fond Flutterer! nor forbear
To trust a Poet in still musings bound.[506]
FOOTNOTES:
[500] The original title (in MS.) was "To a Redbreast." _In the Woods
of Rydal_ was added in 1836.--ED.
[501] This Sonnet, as Poetry, explains itself, yet the scene of the
incident having been a wild wood, it may be doubted, as a point of
natural history, whether the bird was aware that his attentions were
bestowed upon a human, or even a living creature. But a Redbreast will
perch upon the foot of a gardener at work, and alight on the handle of
the spade when his hand is half upon it,--this I have seen. And under
my own roof I have witnessed affecting instances of the creature's
friendly visits to the chambers of sick persons, as described in the
verses to the Redbreast. One of these welcome intruders used frequently
to roost upon a nail in the wall, from which a picture had hung, and
was ready, as morning came, to pipe his song in the hearing of the
Invalid, who had been long confined to her room. These attachments to
a particular person, when marked and continued, used to be reckoned
ominous; but the superstition is passing away.--W. W. 1827.
[502] Jemima Quillinan.--ED.
[503] 1837.
Strange visitation! at _Jemima's_ lip
Thus hadst thou pecked, wild Redbreast! Love might say, 1827.
[504] 1827.
That the Muse warms; and I, though old and grey, MS.
[505] Compare _The Ancient Mariner_, Part vii., stanza 23.--ED.
[506] 1837.
... vision bound. 1827.
CONCLUSION
TO ----[507]
Composed 1827.--Published 1827
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
If these brief Records, by the Muses' art
Produced as lonely Nature or the strife
That animates the scenes of public life[508]
Inspired, may in thy leisure claim a part;
And if these Transcripts of the private heart 5
Have gained a sanction from thy falling tears;
Then I repent not. But my soul hath fears
Breathed from eternity; for as a dart
Cleaves the blank air, Life flies: now every day
Is but a glimmering spoke in the swift wheel 10
Of the revolving week. Away, away,
All fitful cares, all transitory zeal!
So timely Grace the immortal wing may heal,
And honour rest upon the senseless clay.
FOOTNOTES:
[507] I have been unable to discover to whom this _Conclusion_ was
addressed. It may have been to his daughter.--ED.
[508] This line alludes to Sonnets which will be found in another
Class.--W. W. 1837.
He refers to the sonnets on Liberty, etc.--ED.
1828
The poems belonging to 1828 include _A Morning Exercise_, _The Triad_,
two on _The Wishing-Gate_, _The Gleaner_, a sonnet, two short pieces
suggested during the fortnight which Wordsworth spent on the Rhine with
his daughter and S. T. Coleridge in that year, and the ode on _The
Power of Sound_.--ED.
A MORNING EXERCISE
Composed 1828.--Published 1832
[Written at Rydal Mount. I could wish the last five stanzas of this to
be read with the poem addressed to the skylark.--I.F.]
One of the "Poems of the Fancy."--ED.
Fancy, who leads the pastimes of the glad,
Full oft is pleased a wayward dart to throw;
Sending sad shadows after things not sad,
Peopling the harmless fields with signs of woe:
Beneath her sway, a simple forest cry 5
Becomes an echo of man's misery.
Blithe ravens croak of death; and when the owl
Tries his two voices for a favourite strain--
_Tu-whit--Tu-whoo!_ the unsuspecting fowl
Forebodes mishap or seems but to complain; 10
Fancy, intent to harass and annoy,
Can thus pervert the evidence of joy.
Through border wilds where naked Indians stray,
Myriads of notes attest her subtle skill;
A feathered task-master cries, "WORK AWAY!" 15
And, in thy iteration, "WHIP POOR WILL!"[509]
Is heard the spirit of a toil-worn slave,
Lashed out of life, not quiet in the grave.
What wonder? at her bidding, ancient lays
Steeped in dire grief the voice of Philomel; 20
And that fleet messenger of summer days,
The Swallow, twittered subject to like spell;
But ne'er could Fancy bend the buoyant Lark
To melancholy service--hark! O hark!
The daisy sleeps upon the dewy lawn, 25
Not lifting yet the head that evening bowed;
But _He_ is risen, a later star of dawn,
Glittering and twinkling near yon rosy cloud;
Bright gem instinct with music, vocal spark;
The happiest bird that sprang out of the Ark! 30
Hail, blest above all kinds!--Supremely skilled
Restless with fixed to balance, high with low,
Thou leav'st the halcyon free her hopes to build
On such forbearance as the deep may show;
Perpetual flight, unchecked by earthly ties, 35
Leav'st to the wandering bird of paradise.
Faithful, though swift as lightning, the meek dove;
Yet more hath Nature reconciled in thee;
So constant with thy downward eye of love,
Yet, in aërial singleness, so free;[510] 40
So humble, yet so ready to rejoice
In power of wing and never-wearied voice.[511]
To the last point of vision, and beyond,
Mount, daring warbler!--that love-prompted strain,
('Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond) 45
Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain:
Yet might'st thou seem, proud privilege! to sing
All independent of the leafy spring.[512]
How would it please old Ocean to partake,
With sailors longing for a breeze in vain, 50
The harmony thy notes most gladly make[513]
Where earth resembles most his own domain![514]
Urania's self[515] might welcome with pleased ear
These matins mounting towards her native sphere.
Chanter by heaven attracted, whom no bars 55
To daylight known deter from that pursuit,
'Tis well that some sage instinct, when the stars
Come forth at evening, keeps Thee still and mute;
For not an eyelid could to sleep incline
Wert thou among them, singing as they shine![516] 60
FOOTNOTES:
[509] See Waterton's _Wanderings in South America_.--W. W. 1832.
Compare the reference to the "Melancholy Muccawiss" in _The Excursion_,
book iii. l. 947 (vol. v. p. 140), and the note [dagger] in that page,
with the appendix note C, p. 393.--ED.
[510] Compare the two last lines of the poem _To a Skylark_, 1825--
Type of the wise who soar, but never roam;
True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home!--ED.
[511] Compare in Shelley's _Ode to the Skylark_, stanza ii.--
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.--ED.
[512] This stanza was included in the _Morning Exercise_, for the first
time, in 1845. It had been previously the second stanza of the poem _To
a Skylark_, composed in 1825, and first published in 1827.--ED.
[513] 1836.
The harmony that thou best lovest to make 1832.
[514] 1836.
... his blank domain! 1832.
[515] The muse who presided over astronomy.--ED.
[516] Compare, in Addison's hymn in _The Spectator_, No. 465 (August
23), stanza iii. l. 7--
For ever singing as they shine.--ED.
THE TRIAD[517]
Composed 1828.--Published 1829 (in _The Keepsake_)
[Written at Rydal Mount. The girls, Edith Southey, my daughter Dora,
and Sara Coleridge.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.
Show me the noblest Youth of present time,
Whose trembling fancy would to love give birth;
Some God or Hero, from the Olympian clime
Returned, to seek a Consort upon earth;
Or, in no doubtful prospect, let me see 5
The brightest star of ages yet to be,
And I will mate and match him blissfully.
I will not fetch a Naiad from a flood
Pure as herself--(song lacks not mightier power)
Nor leaf-crowned Dryad from a pathless wood, 10
Nor Sea-nymph glistening from her coral bower;
Mere Mortals bodied forth in vision still,
Shall with Mount Ida's triple lustre fill[518]
The chaster coverts of a British hill.
"Appear!--obey my lyre's command! 15
Come, like the Graces, hand in hand![519]
For ye, though not by birth allied,
Are Sisters in the bond of love;
Nor shall the tongue of envious pride
Presume those interweavings to reprove 20
In you, which that fair progeny of Jove,
Learned[520] from the tuneful spheres that glide
In endless union, earth and sea above."
--I sing[521] in vain;--the pines have hushed their waving:
A peerless Youth expectant at my side, 25
Breathless as they, with unabated craving
Looks to the earth, and to the vacant air;
And, with a wandering eye that seems to chide,
Asks of the clouds what occupants they hide:--
But why solicit more than sight could bear, 30
By casting on a moment all we dare?
Invoke we those bright Beings one by one;
And what was boldly promised, truly shall be done.
"Fear not a constraining measure!
--Yielding to this gentle spell,[522] 35
Lucida![523] from domes of pleasure,
Or from cottage-sprinkled dell,
Come to regions solitary,
Where the eagle builds her aery,
Above the hermit's long-forsaken cell!" 40
--She comes!--behold
That Figure, like a ship with snow-white sail![524]
Nearer she draws; a breeze uplifts her veil;
Upon her coming wait
As pure a sunshine and as soft a gale 45
As e'er, on herbage covering earthly mold,
Tempted the bird of Juno[525] to unfold
His richest splendour--when his veering gait
And every motion of his starry train
Seem governed by a strain 50
Of music, audible to him alone.
"O Lady, worthy of earth's proudest throne!
Nor less, by excellence of nature, fit
Beside an unambitious hearth to sit
Domestic queen, where grandeur is unknown; 55
What living man could fear
The worst of Fortune's malice, wert Thou near,
Humbling that lily-stem, thy sceptre meek,
That its fair flowers may from his cheek
Brush the too happy tear?[526] 60
---- Queen, and handmaid lowly!
Whose skill can speed the day with lively cares,
And banish melancholy
By all that mind invents or hand prepares;
O Thou, against whose lip, without its smile 65
And in its silence even, no heart is proof;
Whose goodness, sinking deep, would reconcile
The softest Nursling of a gorgeous palace
To the bare life beneath the hawthorn-roof
Of Sherwood's Archer,[527] or in caves of Wallace--
Who that hath seen thy beauty could content 71
His soul with but a _glimpse_ of heavenly day?
Who that hath loved thee, but would lay
His strong hand on the wind, if it were bent
To take thee in thy majesty away? 75
--Pass onward (even the glancing deer
Till we depart intrude not here;)
That mossy slope, o'er which the woodbine throws
A canopy, is smoothed for thy repose!"
Glad moment is it[528] when the throng 80
Of warblers in full concert strong
Strive, and not vainly strive, to rout
The lagging shower, and force coy Phoebus out,
Met by the rainbow's form divine,
Issuing from her cloudy shrine;-- 85
So may the thrillings of the lyre
Prevail to further our desire,
While to these shades a sister Nymph I call.
"Come, if the notes thine ear may pierce,
Come, youngest of the lovely Three,[529] 90
Submissive to the might of verse
And the dear voice of harmony,
By none[530] more deeply felt than Thee!"
--I sang; and lo! from pastimes virginal
She hastens to the tents 95
Of nature, and the lonely elements.
Air sparkles round her with a dazzling sheen;
But[531] mark her glowing cheek, her vesture green!
And, as if wishful to disarm
Or to repay the potent Charm, 100
She bears the stringèd lute of old romance,
That cheered the trellised arbour's privacy,
And soothed war-wearied knights in raftered hall.
How vivid, yet[532] how delicate, her glee!
So tripped the Muse, inventress of the dance; 105
So, truant in waste woods, the blithe Euphrosyne![533]
But the ringlets of that head
Why are they ungarlanded?
Why bedeck her temples less
Than the simplest shepherdess? 110
Is it not a brow inviting
Choicest flowers[534] that ever breathed,
Which the myrtle would delight in
With Idalian rose enwreathed?
But her humility is well content 115
With _one_ wild floweret (call it not forlorn)
FLOWER OF THE WINDS,[535] beneath her bosom worn--
Yet[536] more for love than ornament.
Open, ye thickets! let her fly,
Swift as a Thracian Nymph o'er field and height! 120
For She, to all but those who love her, shy,
Would gladly vanish from a Stranger's sight;
Though where she is beloved and loves,
Light as the wheeling butterfly she moves;
Her happy spirit as a bird is free, 125
That rifles blossoms on a tree,[537]
Turning them inside out with arch audacity.
Alas! how little can a moment show
Of an eye where feeling plays
In ten thousand dewy rays; 130
A face o'er which a thousand shadows go!
--She stops--is fastened to that rivulet's side;
And there (while, with sedater mien,
O'er timid waters that have scarcely left
Their birth-place in the rocky cleft 135
She bends) at leisure may be seen
Features to old ideal grace allied,[538]
Amid their smiles and dimples dignified--
Fit countenance for the soul of primal truth;
The bland composure of eternal youth! 140
What more changeful than the sea?
But over his great tides
Fidelity presides;
And this light-hearted Maiden constant is as he.
High is her aim as heaven above, 145
And wide as ether her good-will;
And, like the lowly reed, her love
Can drink its nurture from the scantiest rill:
Insight as keen as frosty star
Is to _her_ charity no bar, 150
Nor interrupts her frolic graces
When she is, far from these wild places,
Encircled by familiar faces.
O the charm that manners draw,
Nature, from thy genuine law![539] 155
If from what her hand would do,
Her voice would utter, aught ensue
Untoward[540] or unfit;
She, in benign affections pure,
In self-forgetfulness secure, 160
Sheds round the transient harm or vague mischance
A light unknown to tutored elegance:[541]
Her's is not a cheek shame-stricken,
But her blushes are joy-flushes;
And the fault (if fault it be) 165
Only ministers to quicken
Laughter-loving gaiety,
And kindle sportive wit---
Leaving this Daughter of the mountains free[542]
As if she knew that Oberon king of Faery[543] 170
Had crossed her purpose with some quaint vagary,
And heard his viewless bands
Over their mirthful triumph clapping hands.
"Last of the Three, though eldest born,[544]
Reveal thyself, like pensive Morn 175
Touched by the skylark's earliest note,
Ere humbler gladness be afloat.
But whether in the semblance drest
Of Dawn--or Eve, fair vision of the west,
Come with each anxious hope subdued 180
By woman's gentle fortitude,
Each grief, through meekness, settling into rest.
--Or I would hail thee when some high-wrought page
Of a closed volume lingering in thy hand
Has raised thy spirit to a peaceful stand 185
Among the glories of a happier age."
Her brow hath opened on me--see it there,
Brightening the umbrage of her hair;
So gleams the crescent moon, that loves
To be descried through shady groves. 190
Tenderest bloom is on her cheek;
Wish not for a richer streak;
Nor dread the depth of meditative eye;
But let thy love, upon that azure field
Of thoughtfulness and beauty, yield 195
Its homage offered up in purity.
What would'st thou more? In sunny glade,
Or under leaves of thickest shade,
Was such a stillness e'er diffused
Since earth grew calm while angels mused? 200
Softly she treads, as if her foot were loth
To crush the mountain dew-drops--soon to melt
On the flower's breast; as if she felt
That flowers themselves, whate'er their hue,
With all their fragrance, all their glistening, 205
Call to the heart for inward listening--
And though for bridal wreaths and tokens true
Welcomed wisely; though a growth
Which the careless shepherd sleeps on,
As fitly spring from turf the mourner weeps on--
And without wrong are cropped the marble tomb to strew. 211
The Charm is over;[545] the mute Phantoms gone,
Nor will return--but droop not, favoured Youth;
The apparition that before thee shone
Obeyed a summons covetous of truth. 215
From these wild rocks thy footsteps I will guide
To bowers in which thy fortune may be tried,
And one of the bright Three become thy happy Bride.
The Triad was first published in _The Keepsake_, in 1829, and next in
the 1832 edition of the Poems. See the criticism passed upon it by one
of the three described, viz., Sara Coleridge, in her _Memoirs_, vol.
ii. pp. 409-10. Of this poem Mr. Aubrey de Vere writes, "perhaps the
most _accomplished_ of Wordsworth's works, and the most unlike his
earlier manner."--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[517] This poem is called _The Promise_, in a letter written upon its
publication in _The Keepsake_.--ED.
[518] The Phrygian Ida was a many-branched range of mountains; two
subordinate ranges, parting from the principal summit, enclosed Troy
as with a crescent. The Cretan Ida terminated in three snowy peaks.
There may be a reference to Skiddaw's triple summit in the "British
hill."--ED.
[519] The Charites--Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne--were usually
represented with hands joined, as a token of graciousness and
friendship.--ED.
[520] 1836.
And not the boldest tongue of envious pride
In you those interweavings could reprove
Which They, the progeny of Jove,
Learnt ... 1829.
[521] 1836.
--I speak ... 1829.
[522] 1836.
... this constraining measure!
Drawn by a poetic spell, 1829.
[523] Edith Southey.--ED.
[524] 1845.
... with silver sail! 1832.
[525] The peacock.--ED.
[526] 1845.
... may brush from off his cheek
The too, too happy tear! 1832.
[527] Robin Hood.--ED.
[528] The following version of ll. 80-101, is given in a MS. letter:--
Like notes of birds that after showers
In April concert try their powers,
And with a tumult and a rout
Of warbling, force coy Phoebus out;
Or bid some dark cloud's bosom show
That form divine, the many-coloured Bow.
E'en so the thrillings of the Lyre
Prevail to further our desire,
While to these shades a Nymph I call.
The youngest of the lovely three;
With glowing cheeks from pastimes virginal
Behold her hastening to the tents
Of Nature, and the lonely elements!
And as if wishful to disarm
Or to repay the tuneful charm
She bears the stringed lute of old Romance,--ED.
[529] Dora Wordsworth.--ED.
[530] 1836.
... a Nymph I call,
The youngest of the lovely Three.--
"Come, if the notes thine ear may pierce,
Submissive to the might of verse,
By none ... 1820.
[531] 1836.
And ... 1829.
[532] 1836.
How light her air!... 1829.
[533] Compare _L'Allegro_, ll. 11-13--
Thou Goddess fair and free
In heaven yclept Euphrosyne,
And by men heart-easing Mirth.--ED.
[534] 1832.
Choicest flower ... 1829.
[535] The wild anemone.--ED.
[536] 1836.
Yet is it ... 1829.
[537] 1836.
Though where she is beloved and loves, as free
As bird that rifles blossoms on a tree, 1829.
[538] According to Sara Coleridge this was an allusion to a likeness
supposed to have been found in the poet's daughter's countenance to the
Memnon Head in the British Museum. See Sara Coleridge's _Memoirs_, vol.
ii. p. 410.--ED.
[539] 1840.
... the genuine law. 1836.
[540] 1845.
... there ensue
Aught untoward ... 1832.
[541] 1832.
Nature, from thy perfect law!
Through benign affections pure
In the light of self secure,
If from what her hand would do
Or tongue utter, there ensue
Aught untoward or unfit,
Transient mischief, vague mischance
Shunned by guarded elegance. 1829.
[542] 1829.
Only minister to quicken
Sallies of instinctive wit;
Unchecked in laughter-loving gaiety
In all the motions of her spirit free. MS.
[543] 1832.
... that Oberon the fairy 1829.
[544] Sara Coleridge.--ED.
[545] Compare in _The Wishing-Gate Destroyed_, stanza 4--
... the charm is fled.--ED.
THE WISHING-GATE
Composed 1828.--Published 1829
[Written at Rydal Mount. See also _Wishing-gate Destroyed_.--I. F.]
In the vale of Grasmere, by the side of the old high-way leading to
Ambleside, is a gate, which, time out of mind, has been called the
Wishing-gate, from a belief that wishes formed or indulged there have a
favourable issue.--W. W. 1828.[546]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.
Hope rules a land for ever green:
All powers that serve the bright-eyed Queen
Are confident and gay;
Clouds at her bidding disappear;
Points she to aught?--the bliss draws near, 5
And Fancy smooths the way.
Not such the land of Wishes--there
Dwell fruitless day-dreams, lawless prayer,
And thoughts with things at strife;
Yet how forlorn, should _ye_ depart, 10
Ye superstitions of the _heart_,
How poor, were human life!
When magic lore abjured its might,
Ye did not forfeit one dear right,
One tender claim abate; 15
Witness this symbol of your sway,
Surviving near the public way,
The rustic Wishing-gate!
Inquire not if the faery race
Shed kindly influence on the place, 20
Ere northward they retired;
If here a warrior left a spell,
Panting for glory as he fell;
Or here a saint expired.
Enough that all around is fair, 25
Composed with Nature's finest care,
And in her fondest love--
Peace to embosom and content--
To overawe the turbulent,
The selfish to reprove. 30
Yea![547] even the Stranger from afar,
Reclining on this moss-grown bar,
Unknowing, and unknown,
The infection of the ground partakes,
Longing for his Belov'd--who makes 35
All happiness her own.
Then why should conscious Spirits fear
The mystic stirrings that are here,
The ancient faith disclaim?
The local Genius ne'er befriends 40
Desires whose course in folly ends,
Whose just reward is shame.
Smile if thou wilt, but not in scorn,
If some, by ceaseless pains outworn,
Here crave an easier lot; 45
If some have thirsted to renew
A broken vow, or bind a true,
With firmer, holier knot.
And not in vain, when thoughts are cast
Upon the irrevocable past, 50
Some Penitent sincere
May for a worthier future sigh,
While trickles from his downcast eye
No unavailing tear.
The Worldling, pining to be freed 55
From turmoil, who would turn or speed
The current of his fate,
Might stop before this favoured scene,
At Nature's call, nor blush to lean
Upon the Wishing-gate. 60
The Sage, who feels how blind, how weak
Is man, though loth such help to _seek_,
Yet, passing, here might pause,
And thirst[548] for insight to allay
Misgiving, while the crimson day 65
In quietness withdraws;
Or when the church-clock's knell profound[549]
To Time's first step across the bound
Of midnight makes reply;
Time pressing on with starry crest, 70
To filial sleep upon the breast
Of dread eternity.
_The Wishing-gate_ was first published in _The Keepsake_ in 1829, and
next in the 1832 edition of the Poems.--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[546] Having been told, upon what I thought good authority, that this
gate had been destroyed, and the opening where it hung walled up, I
gave vent immediately to my feelings in these stanzas. But going to the
place some time after, I found, with much delight, my old favourite
unmolested.--W. W. 1832.
"The same triumphant power attributed to the Wishing-gate is fancifully
attributed to an image of St. Bridget in the ruined Franciscan convent
at Adare." (Mr. Aubrey de Vere.)
[547] 1832.
Yes! even ... 1829.
[548] 1836.
And yearn ... 1829.
[549] Grasmere Church.--ED.
THE WISHING-GATE DESTROYED
Composed 1828.--Published 1842
One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.
'Tis gone--with old belief and dream
That round it clung, and tempting scheme
Released from fear and doubt;
And the bright landscape too must lie,
By this blank wall, from every eye, 5
Relentlessly shut out.
Bear witness ye who seldom passed
That opening--but a look ye cast
Upon the lake below,
What spirit-stirring power it gained 10
From faith which here was entertained,
Though reason might say no.
Blest is that ground, where, o'er the springs
Of history, Glory claps her wings,
Fame sheds the exulting tear; 15
Yet earth is wide, and many a nook
Unheard of is, like this, a book
For modest meanings dear.
It was in sooth a happy thought
That grafted, on so fair a spot, 20
So confident a token
Of coming good;--the charm is fled;
Indulgent centuries spun a thread,
Which one harsh day has broken.
Alas! for him who gave the word; 25
Could he no sympathy afford,
Derived from earth or heaven,
To hearts so oft by hope betrayed;
Their very wishes wanted aid
Which here was freely given? 30
Where, for the love-lorn maiden's wound,
Will now so readily be found
A balm of expectation?
Anxious for far-off children, where
Shall mothers breathe a like sweet air 35
Of home-felt consolation?
And not unfelt will prove the loss
'Mid trivial care and petty cross
And each day's shallow grief;
Though the most easily beguiled 40
Were oft among the first that smiled
At their own fond belief.
If still the reckless change we mourn,
A reconciling thought may turn
To harm that might lurk here, 45
Ere judgment prompted from within
Fit aims, with courage to begin,
And strength to persevere.
Not Fortune's slave is Man: our state
Enjoins, while firm resolves await 50
On wishes just and wise,
That strenuous action follow both,
And life be one perpetual growth
Of heaven-ward enterprise.
So taught, so trained, we boldly face 55
All accidents of time and place;
Whatever props may fail,
Trust in that sovereign law can spread
New glory o'er the mountain's head,
Fresh beauty through the vale. 60
That truth informing mind and heart,
The simplest cottager may part,
Ungrieved, with charm and spell;
And yet, lost Wishing-gate, to thee
The voice of grateful memory 65
Shall bid a kind farewell!
Agate--though not the "moss-grown bar" of 1828--still stands at the old
place, where Wordsworth tells us one had stood "time out of mind;" so
that a "blank wall" does not now shut out the "bright landscape," at
the old, and classic, spot. Long may this gate stand, defying wind and
weather!--ED.
A JEWISH FAMILY
(IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR, UPON THE RHINE)
Composed 1828.--Published 1835
[Coleridge, my daughter, and I, in 1828, passed a fortnight upon the
banks of the Rhine, principally under the hospitable roof of Mr. Aders
of Gotesburg, but two days of the time we spent at St. Goar in rambles
among the neighbouring valleys. It was at St. Goar that I saw the
Jewish family here described. Though exceedingly poor, and in rags,
they were not less beautiful than I have endeavoured to make them
appear. We had taken a little dinner with us in a basket, and invited
them to partake of it, which the mother refused to do, both for herself
and children, saying it was with them a fast-day; adding, diffidently,
that whether such observances were right or wrong, she felt it her
duty to keep them strictly. The Jews, who are numerous on this part
of the Rhine, greatly surpass the German peasantry in the beauty of
their features and in the intelligence of their countenances. But the
lower classes of the German peasantry have, here at least, the air of
people grievously opprest. Nursing mothers, at the age of seven or
eight-and-twenty, often look haggard and far more decayed and withered
than women of Cumberland and Westmoreland twice their age. This comes
from being under-fed and over-worked in their vineyards in a hot and
glaring sun.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.
Genius of Raphael! if thy wings
Might bear thee to this glen,
With faithful memory left of things[550]
To pencil dear and pen,
Thou would'st forego the neighbouring Rhine, 5
And all his majesty--
A studious forehead to incline
O'er[551] this poor family.
The Mother--her thou must have seen,
In spirit, ere she came 10
To dwell these rifted rocks between,
Or found on earth a name;
An image, too, of that sweet Boy,[552]
Thy inspirations give--
Of playfulness,[553] and love, and joy, 15
Predestined here to live.
Downcast, or shooting glances far,
How beautiful his eyes,
That blend the nature of the star
With that of summer skies! 20
I speak as if of sense beguiled;
Uncounted months are gone,
Yet am I with the Jewish Child,
That exquisite Saint John.
I see the dark-brown curls, the brow, 25
The smooth transparent skin,
Refined, as with intent to show
The holiness within;[554]
The grace of parting Infancy
By blushes yet untamed; 30
Age faithful to the mother's knee,
Nor of her arms ashamed.
Two lovely Sisters, still and sweet
As flowers, stand side by side;
Their soul-subduing looks[555] might cheat 35
The Christian of his pride:
Such beauty hath the Eternal poured
Upon them not forlorn,[556]
Though of a lineage once abhorred,
Nor yet redeemed from scorn. 40
Mysterious safeguard, that, in spite
Of poverty and wrong,
Doth here preserve a living light,
From Hebrew fountains sprung;
That gives this ragged group to cast 45
Around the dell a gleam
Of Palestine, of glory past,
And proud Jerusalem!
The title given to this poem by Dorothy Wordsworth, in the letter
to Lady Beaumont in which the different MS. readings occur, is "A
Jewish Family, met with in a Dingle near the Rhine." During the
Continental Tour of 1820,--in which Wordsworth was accompanied by
his wife and sister and other friends,--they went up the Rhine (see
the notes to the poems recording that Tour). An extract from Mrs.
Wordsworth's Journal, referring to the road from St. Goar to Bingen,
may illustrate this poem, written in 1828. "From St. Goar to Bingen,
castles commanding innumerable small fortified villages. Nothing could
exceed the delightful variety, and at first the postilions whisked us
too fast through these scenes; and afterwards, the same variety so
often repeated, we became quite exhausted, at least D. and I were;
and, beautiful as the road continued to be, we could scarcely keep our
eyes open; but, on my being roused from one of these slumbers, no
eye wide-awake ever beheld such celestial pictures as gleamed before
mine, like visions belonging to dreams. The castles seemed now almost
_stationary_, a continued succession always in sight, rarely without
two or three before us at once. There they rose from the craggy cliffs,
out of the centre of the stately river, from a green island, or a
craggy rock, etc., etc."
In Dorothy Wordsworth's record of the same Tour, the following
occurs:--"July 24.--We looked down into one of the vales tributary to
the Rhine, which, in memory of the mountain recesses of Ullswater, I
named Deep-dale, a green quiet place, spotted with villages and single
houses, and enlivened by a sinuous brook." ... "A lovely dell runs
behind one of these hills. At its opening, where it pours out its
stream into the Rhine, we espied a one-arched Borrowdale bridge; and,
behind the bridge, a village almost buried between the abruptly rising
steeps."--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[550] 1835.
With memory left of shapes and things
MS. written by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[551] 1835.
On ...
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[552] 1835.
... this sweet Boy,
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[553] 1835.
In playfulness, ...
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[554] Compare _The Russian Fugitive_, ll. 1-4.--ED.
[555] 1835.
Fair Creatures, in this lone retreat
By happy chance espied,
Your soul-subduing looks ...
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[556] 1835.
Upon you--not forlorn,
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
INCIDENT AT BRUGÈS
Composed 1828.--Published 1835
[This occurred at Brugès in 1828. Mr. Coleridge, my daughter, and I
made a tour together in Flanders, upon the Rhine, and returned by
Holland. Dora and I, while taking a walk along a retired part of the
town, heard the voice as here described, and were afterwards informed
it was a convent in which were many English. We were both much touched,
I might say affected, and Dora moved as appears in the verses.--I. F.]
One of the "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent."--ED.
In Brugès town is many a street
Whence busy life hath fled;[557]
Where, without hurry, noiseless feet,
The grass-grown pavement tread.
There heard we, halting in the shade 5
Flung from a Convent-tower,
A harp that tuneful prelude made
To a voice of thrilling power.[558]
The measure, simple truth to tell,
Was fit for some gay throng; 10
Though from the same grim turret fell
The shadow and the song.
When silent were both voice and chords,
The strain seemed doubly dear,
Yet sad as sweet,--for _English_ words 15
Had fallen upon the ear.[559]
It was a breezy hour of eve;
And[560] pinnacle and spire
Quivered and seemed almost to heave,
Clothed with innocuous fire; 20
But, where we stood, the setting sun
Showed little of his state;
And, if the glory reached the Nun,
'Twas through an iron grate.[561]
Not always is the heart unwise,[562] 25
Nor pity idly born,
If even[563] a passing Stranger sighs
For them who do not mourn.
Sad is thy doom, self-solaced dove,
Captive, whoe'er thou be![564] 30
Oh! what is beauty, what is love,
And opening life to thee?
Such feeling pressed upon my soul,
A feeling sanctified
By one soft trickling tear that stole 35
From the Maiden at my side;
Less tribute could she pay than this,
Borne gaily o'er the sea,
Fresh from the beauty and the bliss
Of English liberty? 40
In the final arrangement of the poems, this one was published amongst
the _Memorials of a Tour on the Continent_ (1820), where it followed
the two sonnets on Brugès. The poems suggested by the shorter Tour of
1828 are here published together, in their chronological order.
In an undated letter of Dorothy Wordsworth's to Lady Beaumont, before
copying out this poem and _A Jewish Family_, she says, "The two
following poems were taken from incidents recorded in Dora's journal of
her tour with her father and S. T. Coleridge. As I well recollect, she
has related the incidents very pleasingly, and I hope you will agree
with me in thinking that the poet has made good use of them."--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[557] 1835.
... is fled,
MS. written by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[558] 1835.
To a voice like bird in bower.
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
... birds ...
MS. by Mrs. Wordsworth.
[559] 1835.
Like them who _think_ they hear,
We listened still; for _English_ words
Had dropped upon the ear.
MS. by Mrs. Wordsworth.
The strain seemed doubly dear,
Yea passing sweet--for English words
Had dropt upon the ear.
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[560] 1835.
When ...
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[561] Compare the Sonnet--
It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun.--ED.
[562] 1835.
The restless heart is not unwise,
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[563] 1835.
When even ...
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[564] 1835.
Sad is thy doom, imprisoned dove,
Whoe'er thou mayest be.
MS. by Dorothy Wordsworth.
A GRAVE-STONE UPON THE FLOOR IN THE CLOISTERS OF WORCESTER CATHEDRAL
Composed 1828.[565]--Published 1829 (in _The Keepsake_)
["Miserrimus." Many conjectures have been formed as to the person who
lies under this stone. Nothing appears to be known for a certainty.
Query--The Rev. Mr. Morris, a non-conformist, a sufferer for
conscience-sake; a worthy man who, having been deprived of his benefice
after the accession of William III., lived to an old age in extreme
destitution, on the alms of charitable Jacobites.--I.F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
"_Miserrimus!_" and neither name nor date,
Prayer, text, or symbol, graven upon the stone;[566]
Nought but that word assigned to the unknown,
That solitary word--to separate
From all, and cast a cloud around the fate 5
Of him who lies beneath. Most wretched one,
_Who_ chose his epitaph?--Himself alone
Could thus have dared the grave to agitate,
And claim, among the dead, this awful crown;
Nor doubt that He marked also for his own 10
Close to these cloistral steps a burial-place,
That every foot might fall with heavier tread,
Trampling upon his vileness. Stranger, pass
Softly!--To save the contrite, Jesus bled.
FOOTNOTES:
[565] This, and the following sonnet on the tradition of Oker Hill,
first published in _The Keepsake_ of 1829, appeared in the 1832 edition
of the Poetical Works.--ED.
[566] The stone is in the cloisters of Worcester Cathedral, at the
north-west corner of the quadrangle, just below the doorway leading
into the nave of the cathedral. It is a small stone, two feet, by one
and a half. The Reverend Thomas Maurice (or Morris)--a minor canon of
Worcester, and vicar of Clains--refused to take the oath of allegiance
at the Revolution Settlement, and was accordingly deprived of his
benefice. He lived to the age of 88, on the generosity of the richer
non-jurors, and died 1748. (See Murray's _Guide to Warwickshire_, and
Richard King's _Handbook to the Cathedral of Worcester_.)--ED.
THE GLEANER
(SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE)
Composed 1828.--Published 1829
[This poem was first printed in the annual called _The Keepsake_. The
painter's name I am not sure of, but I think it was Holmes.[567]--I.F.]
In 1832 one of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection." Transferred in
1845 to "Miscellaneous Poems."--ED.
That happy gleam of vernal eyes,
Those locks from summer's golden skies,
That o'er thy brow are shed;
That cheek--a kindling of the morn,
That lip--a rose-bud from the thorn, 5
I saw; and Fancy sped
To scenes Arcadian, whispering, through soft air,
Of bliss that grows without a care,
And[568] happiness that never flies--
(How can it where love never dies?) 10
Whispering of promise,[569] where no blight
Can reach the innocent delight;
Where pity, to the mind conveyed
In pleasure, is the darkest shade
That Time, unwrinkled grandsire, flings 15
From his smoothly gliding wings.
What mortal form, what earthly face
Inspired the pencil, lines to trace,
And mingle colours, that should breed
Such rapture, nor want power to feed; 20
For had thy charge been idle flowers,
Fair Damsel! o'er my captive mind,
To truth and sober reason blind,
'Mid that soft air, those long-lost bowers,
The sweet illusion might have hung, for hours. 25
Thanks to this tell-tale sheaf of corn,
That touchingly bespeaks thee born
Life's daily tasks with them to share
Who, whether from their lowly bed
They rise, or rest the weary head, 30
Ponder the blessing[570] they entreat
From Heaven, and _feel_ what they repeat,
While they give utterance to the prayer
That asks for daily bread.
The year of the publication of this poem in _The Keepsake_ was 1829.
It then appeared under the title of _The Country Girl_, and it was
afterwards included in the 1832 edition of the poems.--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[567] The painter was J. Holmes, and his picture was engraved by C.
Heath.--ED.
[568] 1837.
Of ... 1829.
[569] 1837.
Of promise whispering, ... 1832.
[570] 1832.
Do _weigh_ the blessing ... 1829.
ON[571] THE POWER OF SOUND
Composed December 1828.--Published 1835
[Written at Rydal Mount. I have often regretted that my tour in
Ireland, chiefly performed in the short days of October in a
carriage-and-four (I was with Mr. Marshall), supplied my memory with so
few images that were new, and with so little motive to write. The lines
however in this poem, "Thou too be heard, lone eagle!" were suggested
near the Giants' Causeway, or rather at the promontory of Fairhead,
where a pair of eagles wheeled above our heads and darted off as if to
hide themselves in a blaze of sky made by the setting sun.--I.F.]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination."-ED.
ARGUMENT
_The Ear addressed, as occupied by a spiritual functionary,
in communion with sounds, individual, or combined in
studied harmony.--Sources and effects of those sounds
(to the close of 6th Stanza).--The power of music,
whence proceeding, exemplified in the idiot.--Origin
of music, and its effect in early ages--how produced
(to the middle of 10th Stanza).--The mind recalled to
sounds acting casually and severally.--Wish uttered
(11th Stanza) that these could be united into a
scheme or system for moral interests and intellectual_
_contemplation.--(Stanza 12th.) The Pythagorean theory_
_of numbers and music, with their supposed power over the_
_motions of the universe--imaginations consonant with such_
_a theory.--Wish expressed (in 11th Stanza) realised, in_
_some degree, by the representation of all sounds under
the form of thanksgiving to the Creator.--(Last Stanza)
the destruction of earth and the planetary system--the
survival of audible harmony, and its support in the
Divine Nature, as revealed in Holy Writ._
I
Thy functions are ethereal,
As if within thee dwelt a glancing mind,
Organ of vision! And a Spirit aërial
Informs the cell of Hearing, dark and blind;
Intricate labyrinth, more dread for thought 5
To enter than oracular cave;
Strict passage, through which sighs are brought,
And whispers for the heart, their slave;
And shrieks, that revel in abuse
Of shivering flesh; and warbled air, 10
Whose piercing sweetness can unloose
The chains of frenzy, or entice a smile
Into the ambush of despair;
Hosannas pealing down the long-drawn aisle,[572]
And requiems answered by the pulse that beats 15
Devoutly, in life's last retreats!
II
The headlong streams and fountains
Serve Thee, invisible Spirit, with untired powers;
Cheering the wakeful tent on Syrian mountains,
They lull perchance ten thousand thousand flowers. 20
_That_ roar, the prowling lion's _Here I am_,
How fearful to the desert wide!
That bleat, how tender! of the dam
Calling a straggler to her side.
Shout, cuckoo!--let the vernal soul 25
Go with thee to the frozen zone;
Toll from thy loftiest perch, lone bell-bird, toll!
At the still hour to Mercy dear,
Mercy from her twilight throne
Listening to nun's faint throb of holy fear, 30
To sailor's prayer breathed from a darkening sea,
Or widow's cottage-lullaby.
III
Ye Voices, and ye Shadows
And Images of voice--to hound and horn
From rocky steep and rock-bestudded meadows 35
Flung back, and, in the sky's blue caves, reborn--
On with your pastime! till the church-tower bells
A greeting give of measured glee;
And milder echoes from their cells
Repeat the bridal symphony. 40
Then, or far earlier, let us rove
Where mists are breaking up or gone,
And from aloft look down into a cove
Besprinkled with a careless quire,
Happy milk-maids, one by one 45
Scattering a ditty each to her desire,
A liquid concert matchless by nice Art,
A stream as if from one full heart.
IV
Blest be the song that brightens
The blind man's gloom, exalts the veteran's mirth; 50
Unscorned the peasant's whistling breath, that lightens
His duteous toil of furrowing the green earth.
For the tired slave, Song lifts the languid oar,
And bids it aptly fall, with chime
That beautifies the fairest shore, 55
And mitigates the harshest clime.
Yon pilgrims see--in lagging file
They move; but soon the appointed way
A choral _Ave Marie_ shall beguile,
And to their hope the distant shrine 60
Glisten with a livelier ray:
Nor friendless he, the prisoner of the mine,
Who from the well-spring of his own clear breast
Can draw, and sing his griefs to rest.
V
When civic renovation 65
Dawns on a kingdom, and for needful haste
Best eloquence avails not, Inspiration
Mounts with a tune, that travels like a blast
Piping through cave and battlemented tower;
Then starts the sluggard, pleased to meet 70
That voice of Freedom, in its power
Of promises, shrill, wild, and sweet!
Who, from a martial _pageant_, spreads
Incitements of a battle-day, 74
Thrilling the unweaponed crowd with plumeless heads?--
Even She whose Lydian airs inspire[573]
Peaceful striving, gentle play
Of timid hope and innocent desire
Shot from the dancing Graces, as they move
Fanned by the plausive wings of Love. 80
VI
How oft along thy mazes,
Regent of sound, have dangerous Passions trod!
O Thou, through whom the temple rings with praises,
And blackening clouds in thunder speak of God,
Betray not by the cozenage of sense[574] 85
Thy votaries, wooingly resigned
To a voluptuous influence
That taints the purer, better, mind;
But lead sick Fancy to a harp
That hath in noble tasks been tried; 90
And, if the virtuous feel a pang too sharp,
Soothe it into patience,--stay
The uplifted arm of Suicide;
And let some mood of thine in firm array
Knit every thought the impending issue needs, 95
Ere martyr burns, or patriot bleeds!
VII
As Conscience, to the centre
Of being, smites with irresistible pain
So shall a solemn cadence, if it enter
The mouldy vaults of the dull idiot's brain, 100
Transmute him to a wretch from quiet hurled--
Convulsed as by a jarring din;
And then aghast, as at the world
Of reason partially let in
By concords winding with a sway 105
Terrible for sense and soul!
Or, awed he weeps, struggling to quell dismay.
Point not these mysteries to an Art
Lodged above the starry pole;
Pure modulations flowing from the heart 110
Of divine Love, where Wisdom, Beauty, Truth
With Order dwell, in endless youth?
VIII
Oblivion may not cover
All treasures hoarded by the miser, Time.
Orphean Insight! truth's undaunted lover, 115
To the first leagues of tutored passion climb,
When Music deigned within this grosser sphere
Her subtle essence to enfold,
And voice and shell drew forth a tear
Softer than Nature's self could mould. 120
Yet _strenuous_ was the infant Age:
Art, daring because souls could feel,
Stirred nowhere but an urgent equipage
Of rapt imagination sped her march
Through the realms of woe and weal: 125
Hell to the lyre bowed low; the upper arch
Rejoiced that clamorous spell and magic verse
Her wan disasters could disperse.[575]
IX
The GIFT to king Amphion
That walled a city with its melody 130
Was for belief no dream:[576]--thy skill, Arion!
Could humanise the creatures of the sea,
Where men were monsters.[577] A last grace he craves,
Leave for one chant;--the dulcet sound
Steals from the deck o'er willing waves, 135
And listening dolphins gather round.[578]
Self-cast, as with a desperate course,
'Mid that strange audience, he bestrides
A proud One docile as a managed horse;
And singing, while the accordant hand 140
Sweeps his harp, the Master rides;
So shall he touch at length a friendly strand,
And he, with his preserver, shine star-bright
In memory, through silent night.
X
The pipe of Pan, to shepherds 145
Couched in the shadow of Mænalian pines,[579]
Was passing sweet; the eyeballs of the leopards,
That in high triumph drew the Lord of vines,
How did they sparkle to the cymbal's clang!
While Fauns and Satyrs beat the ground 150
In cadence,[580]--and Silenus swang
This way and that, with wild-flowers crowned.[581]
To life, to _life_ give back thine ear:
Ye who are longing to be rid
Of fable, though to truth subservient, hear 155
The little sprinkling of cold earth that fell
Echoed from the coffin-lid;
The convict's summons in the steeple's knell;
"The vain distress-gun,"[582] from a leeward shore,
Repeated-heard, and heard no more! 160
XI
For terror, joy, or pity,
Vast is the compass and the swell of notes:
From the babe's first cry to voice of regal city,
Rolling a solemn sea-like bass, that floats
Far as the woodlands--with the trill to blend 165
Of that shy songstress,[583] whose love-tale
Might tempt an angel to descend,
While hovering o'er the moonlight vale.
Ye wandering Utterances,[584] has earth no scheme,
No scale of moral music--to unite 170
Powers that survive but in the faintest dream[585]
Of memory?-O that ye[586] might stoop to bear
Chains, such precious chains of sight
As laboured minstrelsies through ages wear!
O for a balance fit the truth to tell 175
Of the Unsubstantial, pondered well!
XII
By one pervading spirit
Of tones and numbers all things are controlled,
As sages taught, where faith was found to merit
Initiation in that mystery old.[587][588] 180
The heavens, whose aspect makes our minds as still
As they themselves appear to be,
Innumerable voices fill
With everlasting harmony;
The towering headlands, crowned with mist, 185
Their feet among the billows, know
That Ocean is a mighty harmonist;[589]
Thy pinions, universal Air,
Ever waving to and fro,
Are delegates of harmony, and bear 190
Strains that support the Seasons in their round;
Stern Winter loves a dirge-like sound.
XIII
Break forth into thanksgiving,
Ye banded instruments of wind and chords;
Unite, to magnify the Ever-living,[590] 195
Your inarticulate notes with the voice of words!
Nor hushed be service from the lowing mead,
Nor mute the forest hum of noon;
Thou too be heard, lone eagle![591] freed
From snowy peak and cloud, attune 200
Thy hungry barkings to the hymn
Of joy, that from her utmost walls
The six-days' Work,[592] by flaming Seraphim
Transmits to Heaven! As Deep to Deep
Shouting through one valley calls, 205
All worlds, all natures, mood and measure keep
For praise and ceaseless gratulation, poured
Into the ear of God, their Lord!
XIV
A Voice to Light gave Being;[593]
To Time, and Man his earth-born chronicler; 210
A Voice shall finish doubt and dim foreseeing,
And sweep away life's visionary stir;
The trumpet (we, intoxicate with pride,
Arm at its blast for deadly wars)
To archangelic lips applied, 215
The grave shall open, quench the stars.[594]
O Silence! are Man's noisy years
No more than moments of thy life?[595]
Is Harmony, blest queen of smiles and tears,
With her smooth tones and discords just, 220
Tempered into rapturous strife,
Thy destined bond-slave? No! though earth be dust
And vanish, though the heavens dissolve, her stay
Is in the WORD, that shall not pass away.[596]
FOOTNOTES:
[571] 1836.
STANZAS ON ... 1835.
[572] Compare Gray's _Elegy_, l. 39.--ED.
[573] Compare _L'Allegro_, II. 135-37--
And ever, against eating cares,
Lap me in soft Lydian airs,
Married to immortal verse.
ED.
[574] The deception of the senses.--ED.
[575] Orpheus, is search of his lost Eurydice, gained admittance with
his lyre to the infernal regions. Pluto was charmed with his music, the
wheel of Ixion stopped, the stone of Sisyphus stood still, Tantalus
forgot his thirst, and the Furies relented, while Pluto and Proserpine
consented to restore Eurydice. The sequel is well known.--ED.
[576] The fable of Amphion moving stones and raising the walls of
Thebes by his melody is explained by supposing him gifted with an
eloquence and power of persuasion that roused the savage people to rise
and build the town of Thebes.--ED.
[577] The story of Arion, lyric poet and musician of Lesbos, was that
having gone into Italy, settled there, and grown rich, he wished to
revisit his native country, taking some of his fortune with him. The
sailors of the ship determined to murder him, and steal his treasure.
He asked, as a last favour, that he might play a tune on his lyre. As
soon as he began he attracted the creatures of the deep, and leaping
into the sea, one of the dolphins carried him, lyre in hand, to the
shore.--ED.
[578] Compare _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, act II. scene i. l. 150.--ED.
[579] Mænalus, a mountain in Arcadia, sacred to Pan, covered with pine
trees, a favourite haunt of shepherds.--See Virgil, _Eclogues_, viii.
24; _Georgics_, i. 17; Ovid, _Metamorphoses_, i. 216.--ED.
[580] Compare Gray's _Progress of Poesy_, ll. 33-35.--ED.
[581] In his expedition to the East, Bacchus was clothed in a panther's
skin. He was accompanied by all the Satyrs, and by Silenus crowned with
flowers and almost always intoxicated.--ED.
[582] I have been unable to trace this quotation.--ED.
[583] The nightingale.--ED.
[584] Compare _To the Cuckoo_, vol. ii. p. 289--
A wandering Voice.--ED.
[585] 1836.
O for some soul-affecting scheme
Of _moral_ music, to unite
Wanderers whose portion is the faintest dream 1835.
[586] 1836
... they ... 1835.
[587] 1835.
There is a world of spirit,
By tones and numbers guided and controlled;
And glorious privilege have they who merit
Initiation in that mystery old.
MS. copy by Dorothy Wordsworth.
[588] The fundamental idea, both in the intellectual and moral
philosophy of the Pythagoreans, was that of harmony or proportion.
Their natural science or cosmology was dominated by the same idea,
that as the world and all spheres within the universe were constructed
symmetrically, and moved around a central focus, the forms and the
proportions of things were best expressed by number. All good was due
to the principle of order; all evil to disorder. In accordance with the
mathematical conception of the universe which ruled the Pythagoreans,
justice was equality (#isotês#), that is to say it consisted in each
one receiving equally according to his deserts. Friendship too was
equality of feeling and relationship; harmony being the radical idea,
alike in the ethics and in the cosmology of the school.--ED.
[589] Compare Keats, in a letter to his friend Bailey, in 1817: "The
great elements we know of are no mean comforters; the open sky sits
upon our senses like a sapphire crown; the air is our robe of state;
the earth is our throne; and the sea a mighty minstrel playing before
it."--ED.
[590] Compare _The Excursion_, book iv. l. 1163 (vol. v. p. 188)--
... choral song, or burst
Sublime of instrumental harmony,
To glorify the Eternal!--ED.
[591] See the Fenwick note prefixed to this poem.--ED.
[592] Genesis i.--ED.
[593] "And God said, Let there be light, and there was light" (Genesis
i. 3).
ED.
[594] 1 Corinthians xv. 52.--ED.
[595] Compare _Ode, Intimations of Immortality_, in stanza ix.--
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal Silence.--ED.
[596] St. Luke xxi. 33.--ED.
1829
The Poems of 1829 were few; and were, for the most part, suggested by
incidents or occurrences at Rydal Mount.--ED.
GOLD AND SILVER FISHES IN A VASE
Composed 1829.--Published 1835
[They were a present from Miss Jewsbury, of whom mention is made in
the note at the end of the next poem. The fish were healthy to all
appearance in their confinement for a long time, but at last, for some
cause we could not make out, they languished, and, one of them being
all but dead, they were taken to the pool under the old pollard-oak.
The apparently dying one lay on its side unable to move. I used to
watch it, and about the tenth day it began to right itself, and in a
few days more was able to swim about with its companions. For many
months they continued to prosper in their new place of abode; but one
night by an unusually great flood they were swept out of the pool, and
perished to our great regret.--I. F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Poems."--ED.
The soaring lark is blest as proud
When at heaven's gate she sings;[597]
The roving bee proclaims aloud
Her flight by vocal wings;
While Ye, in lasting durance pent, 5
Your silent lives employ
For something more than dull content,
Though haply less than joy.[598]
Yet might your glassy prison seem
A place where joy is known, 10
Where golden flash and silver gleam
Have meanings of their own;
While, high and low, and all about,
Your motions, glittering Elves!
Ye weave--no danger from without, 15
And peace among yourselves.
Type of a sunny human breast
Is your transparent cell;
Where Fear is but a transient guest,
No sullen Humours dwell; 20
Where, sensitive of every ray
That smites this tiny sea,
Your scaly panoplies repay
The loan with usury.
How beautiful!--Yet none knows why 25
This ever-graceful change,
Renewed--renewed incessantly--
Within your quiet range.
Is it that ye with conscious skill
For mutual pleasure glide; 30
And sometimes, not without your will,
Are dwarfed, or magnified?
Fays, Genii of gigantic size!
And now, in twilight dim,
Clustering like constellated eyes, 35
In wings of Cherubim,
When the fierce orbs abate their glare;--[599]
Whate'er your forms express,
Whate'er ye seem, whate'er ye are--
All leads to gentleness. 40
Cold though your nature be, 'tis pure;
Your birthright is a fence
From all that haughtier kinds endure
Through tyranny of sense.
Ah! not alone by colours bright 45
Are Ye to heaven allied,
When, like essential Forms of light,
Ye mingle, or divide.
For day-dreams soft as e'er beguiled
Day-thoughts while limbs repose; 50
For moonlight fascinations mild,
Your gift, ere shutters close--
Accept, mute Captives! thanks and praise;
And may this tribute prove
That gentle admirations raise 55
Delight resembling love.
FOOTNOTES:
[597] Compare _Cymbeline_, act II. scene iii. l. 21.--ED.
[598] See note [448] to p. 160.--ED.
[599] 1837.
When they abate their fiery glare: 1835.
LIBERTY
(SEQUEL TO THE ABOVE)[600]
[ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND; THE GOLD AND SILVER FISHES HAVING BEEN
REMOVED TO A POOL IN THE PLEASURE-GROUND OF RYDAL MOUNT.]
Composed 1829.--Published 1835
"The liberty of a people consists in being governed by laws which they
have made for themselves, under whatever form it be of government. The
liberty of a private man, in being master of his own time and actions,
as far as may consist with the laws of God and of his country. Of this
latter we are here to discourse."--COWLEY.
One of the "Miscellaneous Poems."--ED.
Those breathing Tokens of your kind regard,
(Suspect not, Anna,[601] that their fate is hard;
Not soon does aught to which mild fancies cling
In lonely spots, become a slighted thing;)
Those silent Inmates now no longer share, 5
Nor do they need, our hospitable care,
Removed in kindness from their glassy Cell
To the fresh waters of a living Well--[602]
An elfin pool so sheltered that its rest
No winds disturb;[603] the mirror of whose breast 10
Is smooth as clear, save where with dimples small[604]
A fly may settle, or a blossom fall.[605]
--_There_ swims, of blazing sun and beating shower
Fearless (but how obscured!) the golden Power,
That from his bauble prison used to cast 15
Gleams by the richest jewel unsurpast;
And near him, darkling like a sullen Gnome,
The silver Tenant of the crystal dome;
Dissevered both from all the mysteries
Of hue and altering shape that charmed all eyes. 20
Alas! they pined,[606] they languished while they shone;
And, if not so, what matters beauty gone
And admiration lost, by change of place
That brings to the inward creature no disgrace?
But if the change restore his birth-right, then, 25
Whate'er the difference, boundless is the gain.
Who can divine what impulses from God
Reach the caged lark, within a town-abode,
From his poor inch or two of daisied sod?
O yield him back his privilege!--No sea 30
Swells like the bosom of a man set free;
A wilderness is rich with liberty.
Roll on, ye spouting whales, who die or keep
Your independence in the fathomless Deep!
Spread, tiny nautilus, the living sail; 35
Dive, at thy choice, or brave the freshening gale!
If unreproved the ambitious eagle mount
Sunward to seek the daylight in its fount,[607]
Bays, gulfs, and ocean's Indian width, shall be,
Till the world perishes, a field for thee! 40
While musing here I sit in shadow cool,
And watch these mute Companions, in the pool,
(Among reflected boughs of leafy trees)
By glimpses caught--disporting at their ease,
Enlivened, braced, by hardy luxuries, 45
I ask what warrant fixed them (like a spell
Of witchcraft fixed them) in the crystal cell;
To wheel with languid motion round and round,
Beautiful, yet in mournful durance bound.
Their peace, perhaps, our lightest footfall marred; 50
On their quick sense our sweetest music jarred;
And whither could they dart, if seized with fear?
No sheltering stone, no tangled root was near.
When fire or taper ceased to cheer the room,
They wore away the night in starless gloom; 55
And, when the sun first dawned upon the streams,
How faint their portion of his vital beams!
Thus, and unable to complain, they fared,
While not one joy of ours by them was shared.
Is there a cherished bird (I venture now 60
To snatch a sprig from Chaucer's reverend brow)--[608]
Is there a brilliant fondling of the cage,
Though sure of plaudits on his costly stage,
Though fed with dainties from the snow-white hand
Of a kind mistress, fairest of the land, 65
But gladly would escape; and, if need were,
Scatter the colours from the plumes that bear
The emancipated captive through blithe air
Into strange woods, where he at large may live
On best or worst which they and Nature give? 70
The beetle loves his unpretending track,
The snail the house he carries on his back;
The far-fetched worm with pleasure would disown
The bed we give him, though of softest down;
A noble instinct; in all kinds the same, 75
All ranks! What Sovereign, worthy of the name,
If doomed to breathe against his lawful will
An element that flatters him--to kill,
But would rejoice to barter outward show
For the least boon that freedom can bestow? 80
But most the Bard is true to inborn right,
Lark of the dawn, and Philomel of night,
Exults in freedom, can with rapture vouch
For the dear blessings of a lowly couch, 84
A natural meal--days, months, from Nature's hand;
Time, place, and business, all at his command!--
Who bends to happier duties, who more wise
Than the industrious Poet, taught to prize,
Above all grandeur, a pure life uncrossed
By cares in which simplicity is lost? 90
That life--the flowery path that[609] winds by stealth--
Which Horace needed for his spirit's health;[610]
Sighed for, in heart and genius, overcome
By noise and strife, and questions wearisome,
And the vain splendours of Imperial Rome?--[611] 95
Let easy mirth his social hours inspire,
And fiction animate his sportive lyre,
Attuned to verse that, crowning light Distress
With garlands, cheats her into happiness;
Give _me_ the humblest note of those sad strains 100
Drawn forth by pressure of his gilded chains,
As a chance-sunbeam from his memory fell
Upon the Sabine farm he loved so well;[612]
Or when the prattle of Blandusia's spring[613]
Haunted his ear--he only listening-- 105
He proud to please, above all rivals, fit
To win the palm of gaiety and wit;
He, doubt not, with involuntary dread,
Shrinking from each new favour to be shed,
By the world's Ruler, on his honoured head! 110
In a deep vision's intellectual scene,
Such earnest longings and regrets as keen
Depressed the melancholy Cowley, laid
Under a fancied yew-tree's luckless shade;
A doleful bower for penitential song, 115
Where Man and Muse complained of mutual wrong;
While Cam's ideal current glided by,
And antique towers nodded their foreheads high,
Citadels dear to studious privacy.
But Fortune, who had long been used to sport 120
With this tried Servant of a thankless Court,
Relenting met his wishes; and to you
The remnant of his days at least was true;
You, whom, though long deserted, he loved best;
You, Muses, books, fields, liberty, and rest![614] 125
Far[615] happier they who, fixing hope and aim
On the humanities of peaceful fame,
Enter betimes with more than martial fire
The generous course, aspire, and still aspire;
Upheld by warnings heeded not too late 130
Stifle the contradictions of their fate,
And to one purpose cleave, their Being's godlike mate!
Thus, gifted Friend, but with the placid brow
That woman ne'er should forfeit, keep _thy_ vow;
With modest scorn reject whate'er would blind 135
The ethereal eyesight, cramp the wingèd mind!
Then, with a blessing granted from above
To every act, word, thought, and look of love,
Life's book for Thee may lie unclosed, till age
Shall with a thankful tear bedrop its latest page.[616] 140
FOOTNOTES:
[600] 1835.
SEQUEL TO THE PRECEDING 1837.
The text of 1857 returns to that of 1835.
[601] See the Sonnet (p. 168) beginning--
While Anna's peers and early playmates tread.
ED.
[602] See _The Faërie Queene_, book i. canto 2, stanza 43--
Till we be bathed in a living well.
ED.
[603] This "elfin pool," to which the gold and silver fishes were
removed, still exists beneath the pollard oak tree in "Dora's
Field," at Rydal Mount. The field is now the property of Mr. Gordon
Wordsworth.--ED.
[604] 1845.
... Well;
That spreads into an elfin pool opaque
Of which close boughs a glimmering mirror make,
On whose smooth breast with dimples light and small 1835.
[605] 1845.
The fly may settle, leaf or blossom fall. 1835.
The fly may settle, or the blossom fall. 1837.
[606] 1845.
They pined, perhaps, ... 1835.
[607] See the reference to the Eagle in _The Power of Sound_ (p. 212),
and in the "Poems composed or suggested during a Tour in the Summer of
1833," _The Dunolly Eagle_.--ED.
[608] See, in "The Canterbury Tales," _The Squire's Tale_, ll.
598-611.--ED.
[609] 1837.
... which ... 1835.
[610] These last five lines are amongst the best instances of
Wordsworth's appreciation of one of his great predecessors. Compare the
second of the two poems _September_ 1819.--ED.
[611] "The Sabine farm was situated in the valley of Ustica, thirty
miles from Rome and twelve miles from Tivoli. It possessed the
attraction, no small one to Horace, of being very secluded: yet, at the
same time, within an easy distance of Rome. When his spirits wanted the
stimulus of society or the bustle of the capital, which they often did,
his ambling mule would speedily convey him thither; and when jaded, on
the other hand, by the noise and racket and dissipations of Rome, he
could, in the same homely way, bury himself in a few hours among the
hills, and there, under the shadow of his favourite Lucretilis, or by
the banks of the clear-flowing and ice-cold Digentia, either stretch
himself to dream upon the grass, lulled by the murmurs of the stream,
or do a little farming in the way of clearing his fields of stones, or
turning over a furrow here and there with the hoe." (See Sir Theodore
Martin's _Horace_, p. 68.)--ED.
[612] See Horace, _Odes_, II. 18--
Satis beatus unicis Sabinis.
With what I have completely blest,
My happy little Sabine nest.--ED.
[613] See _Odes_, III. 13.--ED.
[614] Abraham Cowley (born 1618), educated at Westminster and Trinity
College, Cambridge, a Royalist, and therefore expelled from Cambridge,
settled in St. John's College, Oxford, crossed over with the Queen
Mother to France for twelve years, returned at the Restoration, but was
neglected at Court, and retired to a farm at Chertsey, on the Thames,
where he lived for some years, "the melancholy Cowley."--ED.
[615] 1837.
But ... 1835.
[616] There is now, alas! no possibility of the anticipation, with
which the above Epistle concludes, being realised: nor were the
verses ever seen by the Individual for whom they were intended. She
accompanied her husband, the Rev. Wm. Fletcher, to India, and died of
cholera, at the age of thirty-two or thirty-three years, on her way
from Shalapore to Bombay, deeply lamented by all who knew her.
Her enthusiasm was ardent, her piety steadfast; and her great talents
would have enabled her to be eminently useful in the difficult path of
life to which she had been called. The opinion she entertained of her
own performances, given to the world under her maiden name, Jewsbury,
was modest and humble, and, indeed, far below their merits; as is
often the case with those who are making trial of their powers, with a
hope to discover what they are best fitted for. In one quality, viz.,
quickness in the motions of her mind, she had,[617] within the range of
the Author's acquaintance, no equal.--W. W. 1835.
[617] 1837.
She was in the author's estimation unequalled.--W. W. 1835.
HUMANITY[618]
Composed 1829.--Published 1835
Not from his fellows only man may learn
Rights to compare and duties to discern:
All creatures and all objects, in degree,
Are friends and patrons of humanity.--MS. 1835.
The Rocking-stones, alluded to in the beginning of the following
verses, are supposed to have been used, by our British ancestors, both
for judicial and religious purposes. Such stones are not uncommonly
found, at this day, both in Great Britain and in Ireland.--W. W. 1835.
[These verses and those entitled "Liberty" were composed as one piece,
which Mrs. Wordsworth complained of as unwieldy and ill-proportioned;
and accordingly it was divided into two, on her judicious
recommendation.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.
What though the Accused, upon his own appeal
To righteous Gods when man has ceased to feel,
Or at a doubting Judge's stern command,
Before the STONE OF POWER no longer stand--
To take his sentence from the balanced Block, 5
As, at his touch, it rocks, or seems to rock;[619]
Though, in the depths of sunless groves, no more
The Druid-priest the hallowed Oak adore;
Yet, for the Initiate, rocks and whispering trees
Do still perform mysterious offices! 10
And functions dwell in beast and bird that sway
The reasoning mind, or with the fancy play,
Inviting, at all seasons, ears and eyes
To watch for undelusive auguries:--[620]
Not uninspired appear their simplest ways; 15
Their voices mount symbolical of praise--
To mix with hymns that Spirits make and hear;
And to fallen man their innocence is dear.
Enraptured Art draws from those sacred springs
Streams that reflect the poetry of things! 20
Where christian Martyrs stand in hues portrayed,
That, might a wish avail, would never fade,
Borne in their hands the lily and the palm
Shed round the altar a celestial calm;
There, too, behold the lamb and guileless dove 25
Prest in the tenderness of virgin love
To saintly bosoms!--Glorious in the blending
Of right affections climbing or descending
Along a scale of light and life, with cares
Alternate; carrying holy thoughts and prayers 30
Up to the sovereign seat of the Most High;
Descending to the worm in charity;[621]
Like those good Angels whom a dream of night
Gave, in the field of Luz, to Jacob's sight[622]
All, while _he_ slept, treading the pendent stairs 35
Earthward or heavenward, radiant messengers,
That, with a perfect will in one accord
Of strict obedience, serve[623] the Almighty Lord;
And with untired humility forbore
To speed their errand by[624] the wings they wore. 40
What a fair world were ours for verse to paint,
If Power could live at ease with self-restraint!
Opinion bow before the naked sense
Of the great Vision,--faith in Providence;
Merciful over all his creatures, just[625] 45
To the least particle of sentient dust;[626]
But,[627] fixing by immutable decrees,
Seedtime and harvest for his purposes!
Then would be closed the restless oblique eye
That looks for evil like a treacherous spy; 50
Disputes would then relax, like stormy winds
That into breezes sink; impetuous minds
By discipline endeavour to grow meek
As Truth herself, whom they profess to seek.
Then Genius, shunning fellowship with Pride, 55
Would braid his golden locks at Wisdom's side;
Love ebb and flow untroubled by caprice;
And not alone _harsh_ tyranny would cease,
But unoffending creatures find release
From qualified oppression, whose defence 60
Rests on a hollow plea of recompense;
Thought-tempered wrongs, for each humane respect
Oft worse to bear, or deadlier in effect.
Witness those glances of indignant scorn
From some high-minded Slave, impelled to spurn 65
The kindness that would make him less forlorn;
Or, if the soul to bondage be subdued,
His look of pitiable gratitude!
Alas for thee, bright Galaxy of Isles,
Whose[628] day departs in pomp, returns with smiles--
To greet the flowers and fruitage of a land, 71
As the sun mounts, by sea-born breezes fanned;
A land whose azure mountain-tops are seats
For Gods in council, whose green vales, retreats
Fit for the shades of heroes, mingling there 75
To breathe Elysian peace in upper air.
Though cold as winter, gloomy as the grave,
Stone-walls a prisoner make, but not a slave.[629]
Shall man assume a property in man?
Lay on the moral will a withering ban? 80
Shame that our laws at distance still protect[630]
Enormities, which they at home reject!
"Slaves cannot breathe in England"[631]--yet that boast
Is but a mockery! when[632] from coast to coast,
Though _fettered_ slave be none, her floors and soil 85
Groan underneath a weight of slavish toil,
For the poor Many, measured out by rules
Fetched with cupidity from heartless schools,
That to an Idol, falsely called[633] "the Wealth
Of Nations,"[634] sacrifice a People's health, 90
Body and mind and soul; a thirst so keen[635]
Is ever urging on the vast machine
Of sleepless Labour, 'mid whose dizzy wheels
The Power least prized is that which thinks and feels.
Then, for the pastimes of this delicate age, 95
And all the heavy or light vassalage
Which for their sakes we fasten, as may suit
Our varying moods, on human kind or brute,
'Twere well in little, as in great, to pause,
Lest Fancy trifle with eternal laws. 100
Not from his fellows only man may learn
Rights to compare and duties to discern!
All creatures and all objects, in degree,
Are friends and patrons of humanity.
There are to whom the[636] garden, grove, and field, 105
Perpetual lessons of forbearance yield;
Who would not lightly violate the grace
The lowliest flower possesses in its place;
Nor shorten the sweet life, too fugitive, 109
Which nothing less than Infinite Power could give.[637]
FOOTNOTES:
[618] 1837.
HUMANITY.
(WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1829.) 1835.
[619] There are several, so-called, "rocking-stones" in Yorkshire and
Lancashire, in Derbyshire, in Cornwall, and in Wales. There are one or
two in Scotland, and there used to be several in the Lake District.
Some are natural; others artificial.--ED.
[620] 1837.
... offices!
And still in beast and bird a function dwells,
That, while we look and listen, sometimes tells
Upon the heart, in more authentic guise
Than Oracles, or winged Auguries,
Spake to the Science of the ancient wise. 1835.
[621] The author is indebted, here, to a passage in one of Mr. Digby's
valuable works.--W. W. 1835.
See his _Of Bodies, and of man's Soul_.--ED.
[622] Genesis xxviii. 12.--ED.
[623] 1845.
... served ... 1835.
[624] 1837.
The ready service of ... 1835.
[625] 1840.
Merciful over all existence, just 1835.
[626] 1837.
Compassionate to all that suffer, just
In the end to every creature born of dust. C.
[627] 1840.
And, ... 1835.
[628] 1837.
Where ... 1835.
[629] Compare Richard Lovelace, _To Althea, from Prison_--
Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage.
Minds innocent and quiet take
That for a hermitage.--ED.
[630] 1837.
... should protect 1835.
[631] Compare Cowper's _Task_, book ii. l. 40.--ED.
[632] 1837.
...--a proud boast!
And yet a mockery! if, ... 1835.
[633]
That to a monstrous idol, called ... C.
[634] Compare _The Prelude_, book xiii. ll. 77, 78--
... that idol proudly named
"The Wealth of Nations."--ED.
[635]
The weal of body and soul; so keen a thirst C.
The weal of body, mind, and soul; so keen
A thirst urging ... C.
[636] 1837.
... eternal laws.
There are to whom even ... 1835.
[637] Compare the closing lines of the _Ode, Intimations of
Immortality_--
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.--ED.
"THIS LAWN, A CARPET ALL ALIVE"
Composed 1829.--Published 1835
[This Lawn is the sloping one approaching the kitchen-garden, and
was made out of it. Hundreds of times have I watched the dancing of
shadows amid a press of sunshine, and other beautiful appearances of
light and shade, flowers and shrubs. What a contrast between this
and the cabbages and onions and carrots that used to grow there on
a piece of ugly-shaped unsightly ground! No reflection, however,
either upon cabbages or onions; the latter we know were worshipped
by the Egyptians, and he must have a poor eye for beauty who has
not observed how much of it there is in the form and colour which
cabbages and plants of that genus exhibit through the various stages
of their growth and decay. A richer display of colour in vegetable
nature can scarcely be conceived than Coleridge, my sister, and I
saw in a bed of potato-plants in blossom near a hut upon the moor
between Inversneyd and Loch Katrine.[638] These blossoms were of such
extraordinary beauty and richness that no one could have passed them
without notice. But the sense must be cultivated through the mind
before we can perceive these inexhaustible treasures of Nature, for
such they really are, without the least necessary reference to the
utility of her productions, or even to the laws whereupon, as we learn
by research, they are dependent. Some are of opinion that the habit of
analysing, decomposing, and anatomising, is inevitably unfavourable
to the perception of beauty. People are led into this mistake by
overlooking the fact that such processes being to a certain extent
within the reach of a limited intellect, we are apt to ascribe to them
that insensibility of which they are in truth the effect and not the
cause. Admiration and love, to which all knowledge truly vital must
tend, are felt by men of real genius in proportion as their discoveries
in natural Philosophy are enlarged; and the beauty in form of a plant
or an animal is not made less but more apparent as a whole by more
accurate insight into its constituent properties and powers. A _Savant_
who is not also a poet in soul and a religionist in heart is a feeble
and unhappy creature.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.
This Lawn, a carpet all alive
With shadows flung from leaves--to strive
In dance, amid a press
Of sunshine, an apt emblem yields
Of Worldlings revelling in the fields 5
Of strenuous idleness;[639]
Less quick the stir when tide and breeze
Encounter, and to narrow seas
Forbid a moment's rest;
The medley less when boreal Lights 10
Glance to and fro, like aery Sprites
To feats of arms addrest!
Yet, spite of all this eager strife,
This ceaseless play, the genuine life
That serves the stedfast hours, 15
Is in the grass beneath, that grows
Unheeded, and the mute repose
Of sweetly-breathing flowers.
FOOTNOTES:
[638] In 1803, Miss Wordsworth thus records it:--"We passed by
one patch of potatoes that a florist might have been proud of; no
carnation-bed ever looked more gay than this square plot of ground
on the waste common. The flowers were in very large bunches, and of
an extraordinary size, and of every conceivable shade of colouring
from snow-white to deep purple. It was pleasing in that place, where
perhaps was never yet a flower cultivated by man for his own pleasure,
to see these blossoms grow more gladly than elsewhere, making a summer
garden near the mountain dwellings." (_Recollections of a Tour made in
Scotland in 1803_, p. 85).--ED.
[639] Compare _The Prelude_, book iv. l. 378.--ED.
THOUGHTS[640] ON THE SEASONS
Composed 1829.--Published 1835
[Written at Rydal Mount.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.
Flattered with promise of escape
From every hurtful blast,
Spring takes, O sprightly May! thy shape,
Her loveliest and her last.[641]
Less fair is summer riding high 5
In fierce solstitial power,
Less fair than when a lenient sky
Brings on her parting hour.
When earth repays with golden sheaves
The labours of the plough, 10
And ripening fruits and forest leaves
All brighten on the bough;
What pensive beauty autumn shows,
Before she hears the sound
Of winter rushing in, to close 15
The emblematic round!
Such be our Spring, our Summer such;
So may our Autumn blend
With hoary Winter, and Life touch,
Through heaven-born hope, her end! 20
FOOTNOTES:
[640] 1850.
THOUGHT ... 1835.
The text of 1857 returns to that of 1835.
[641] Compare _Ode, composed on May Morning_, 1826 (p. 146); also _To
May_, 1826 (p. 148).--ED.
A TRADITION OF OKER HILL IN DARLEY DALE, DERBYSHIRE[642]
Composed 1829.--Published 1829[643]
[This pleasing tradition was told me by the coachman at whose side I
sate while he drove down the dale, he pointing to the trees on the hill
as he related the story.--I.F.]
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
'Tis said that to the brow of yon fair hill
Two Brothers clomb, and, turning face from face,
Nor one look more exchanging, grief to still
Or feed, each planted on that lofty place
A chosen Tree;[644] then, eager to fulfil 5
Their courses, like two new-born rivers, they
In opposite directions urged their way
Down from the far-seen mount. No blast might kill
Or blight that fond memorial;--the trees grew,
And now entwine their arms; but ne'er again 10
Embraced those Brothers upon earth's wide plain;
Nor aught of mutual joy or sorrow knew
Until their spirits mingled in the sea
That to itself takes all, Eternity.
FOOTNOTES:
[642] 1837.
A TRADITION OF DARLEY DALE, DERBYSHIRE. 1832.
[643] In _The Keepsake_.--ED.
[644] Mr. T. W. Shore (Southampton), writes to me: "The two trees
referred to by the poet are still on the hill, and called the
Shore Trees. The family of Shore is an ancient one in Derbyshire,
extending back to the reign of Richard II. In the time of Charles I,
several members of the family impoverished themselves in support of
the Royalist cause.... The trees on Oker Hill are supposed to have
been planted by those who remembered the family misfortunes, or who
succeeded the family which took part in the 17th century struggle."--ED.
FILIAL PIETY
(ON THE WAYSIDE BETWEEN PRESTON AND LIVERPOOL)
Composed 1829 (probably).--Published 1832
[This was also communicated to me by a coachman in the same way.[645]
In the course of my many coach rambles and journeys, which, during the
day-time always, and often in the night, were taken on the outside
of the coach, I had good and frequent opportunities of learning the
characteristics of this class of men. One remark I made that is worth
recording; that whenever I had occasion especially to notice their
well-ordered, respectful and kind behaviour to women, of whatever age,
I found them, I may say almost always, to be married men.--I.F.]
This happened near Ormskirk. Thomas Scarisbrick was killed by a flash
of lightning, whilst building a turf-stack in 1799. His son James
completed the work, and kept it intact during his life-time. James
was buried April 21st, 1824. Wordsworth was therefore wrong as to the
"fifty winters."--ED.
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
Untouched through all severity of cold;
Inviolate, whate'er the cottage hearth
Might need for comfort, or for festal mirth;
That Pile of Turf is half a century old:
Yes, Traveller! fifty winters have been told 5
Since suddenly the dart of death went forth
'Gainst him who raised it,--his last work on earth:
Thence has it, with the Son, so strong a hold
Upon his Father's memory, that his hands,
Through reverence, touch it only to repair[646] 10
Its waste.--Though crumbling with each breath of air,
In annual renovation thus it stands--
Rude Mausoleum! but wrens nestle there,
And red-breasts warble when sweet sounds are rare.
FOOTNOTES:
[645] Compare the Fenwick note to _A Tradition of Oker Hill in Darley_
_Dale, Derbyshire_, p. 230.--ED.
[646] 1837.
Thence by his Son more prized than aught which gold
Could purchase--watched, preserved by his own hands,
That, faithful to the Structure, still repair 1832.
1830
The Poems written in 1830 include, _The Armenian Lady's Love_, _The
Russian Fugitive_, _The Egyptian Maid_, the Elegiac Stanzas on Sir
George Beaumont, and several minor pieces.--ED.
THE ARMENIAN LADY'S LOVE
Composed 1830.--Published 1835
The subject of the following poem is from the Orlandus of the author's
friend, Kenelm Henry Digby: and the liberty is taken of inscribing
it to him as an acknowledgment, however unworthy, of pleasure
and instruction derived from his numerous and valuable writings,
illustrative of the piety and chivalry of the olden time.--W. W.
[Written at Rydal Mount.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."--ED.
I
You have heard "a Spanish Lady
How she wooed an English man;"[647]
Hear now of a fair Armenian,
Daughter of the proud Soldàn;
How she loved a Christian Slave, and told her pain 5
By word, look, deed, with hope that he might love again.
II
"Pluck that rose, it moves my liking,"
Said she, lifting up her veil;
"Pluck it for me, gentle gardener,
Ere it wither and grow pale." 10
"Princess fair, I till the ground, but may not take
From twig or bed an humbler flower, even for your sake!"
III
"Grieved am I, submissive Christian!
To behold thy captive state;
Women, in your land, may pity 15
(May they not?) the unfortunate."
"Yes, kind Lady! otherwise man could not bear
Life, which to every one that breathes is full of care."
IV
"Worse than idle is compassion
If it end in tears and sighs; 20
Thee from bondage would I rescue
And from vile indignities;
Nurtured, as thy mien bespeaks, in high degree,
Look up--and help a hand that longs to set thee free."
V
"Lady! dread the wish, nor venture 25
In such peril to engage;
Think how it would stir against you
Your most loving father's rage:
Sad deliverance would it be, and yoked with shame,
Should troubles overflow on her from whom it came." 30
VI
"Generous Frank! the just in effort
Are of inward peace secure:
Hardships for the brave encountered,
Even the feeblest may endure:
If almighty grace through me thy chains unbind 35
My father for slave's work may seek a slave in mind."
VII
"Princess, at this burst of goodness,
My long-frozen heart grows warm!"
"Yet you make all courage fruitless,
Me to save from chance of harm: 40
Leading such companion I that gilded dome,
Yon minarets, would gladly leave for his worst home."
VIII
"Feeling tunes your voice, fair Princess!
And your brow is free from scorn,
Else these words would come like mockery, 45
Sharper than the pointed thorn."
"Whence the undeserved mistrust? Too wide apart
Our faith hath been,--O would that eyes could see the heart!"
IX
"Tempt me not, I pray; my doom is
These base implements to wield; 50
Rusty lance, I ne'er shall grasp thee,
Ne'er assoil my cobwebb'd shield!
Never see my native land, nor castle towers,
Nor Her who thinking of me there counts widowed hours."
X
"Prisoner! pardon youthful fancies; 55
Wedded? If you _can_, say no!
Blessed is and be your consort;
Hopes I cherished--let them go!
Handmaid's privilege would leave my purpose free,
Without another link to my felicity." 60
XI
"Wedded love with loyal Christians,
Lady, is a mystery rare;
Body, heart, and soul in union,
Make one being of a pair."
"Humble love in me would look for no return, 65
Soft as a guiding star that cheers, but cannot burn."
XII
"Gracious Allah! by such title
Do I dare to thank the God,
Him who thus exalts thy spirit,
Flower of an unchristian sod! 70
Or hast thou put off wings which thou in heaven dost wear?
What have I seen, and heard or dreamt? where am I? where?"
XIII
Here broke off the dangerous converse:
Less impassioned words might tell
How the pair escaped together, 75
Tears not wanting, nor a knell
Of sorrow in her heart while through her father's door,
And from her narrow world, she passed for evermore.
XIV
But affections higher, holier,
Urged her steps; she shrunk from trust 80
In a sensual creed that trampled
Woman's birthright into dust.
Little be the wonder then, the blame be none,
If she, a timid Maid, hath put such boldness on.
XV
Judge both Fugitives with knowledge: 85
In those old romantic days
Mighty were the soul's commandments
To support, restrain, or raise.
Foes might hang upon their path, snakes rustle near,
But nothing from their inward selves had they to fear. 90
XVI
Thought infirm ne'er came between them,
Whether printing desert sands
With accordant steps, or gathering
Forest-fruit with social hands; 94
Or whispering like two reeds that in the cold moonbeam
Bend with the breeze their heads, beside a crystal stream.
XVII
On a friendly deck reposing
They at length for Venice steer;
There, when they had closed their voyage,
One, who daily on the pier 100
Watched for tidings from the East, beheld his Lord,
Fell down and clasped his knees for joy, not uttering word.
XVIII
Mutual was the sudden transport;
Breathless questions followed fast,
Years contracting to a moment, 105
Each word greedier than the last;
"Hie thee to the Countess, friend! return with speed,
And of this Stranger speak by whom her lord was freed.
XIX
Say that I, who might have languished,
Drooped and pined till life was spent, 110
Now before the gates of Stolberg[648]
My Deliverer would present
For a crowning recompense, the precious grace
Of her who in my heart still holds her ancient place.
XX
Make it known that my Companion 115
Is of royal eastern blood,
Thirsting after all perfection,
Innocent, and meek, and good,
Though with misbelievers bred; but that dark night
Will holy Church disperse by beams of gospel-light." 120
XXI
Swiftly went that grey-haired Servant,
Soon returned a trusty Page
Charged with greetings, benedictions,
Thanks and praises, each a gage
For a sunny thought to cheer the Stranger's way, 125
Her virtuous scruples to remove, her fears allay.
XXII
And how blest the Reunited,
While beneath their castle-walls,
Runs a deafening noise of welcome!--
Blest, though every tear that falls 130
Doth in its silence of past sorrow tell,
And makes[649] a meeting seem most like a dear farewell.
XXIII
Through a haze of human nature,
Glorified by heavenly light,
Looked the beautiful Deliverer 135
On that overpowering sight,
While across her virgin cheek pure blushes strayed,
For every tender sacrifice her heart had made.
XXIV
On the ground the weeping Countess
Knelt, and kissed the Stranger's hand; 140
Act of soul-devoted homage,
Pledge of an eternal band:
Nor did aught of future days that kiss belie,
Which, with a generous shout, the crowd did ratify.
XXV
Constant to the fair Armenian, 145
Gentle pleasures round her moved,
Like a tutelary spirit
Reverenced, like a sister, loved.
Christian meekness smoothed for all the path of life, 149
Who, loving most, should wiseliest love, their only strife.
XXVI
Mute memento of that union
In a Saxon church survives,
Where a cross-legged Knight lies sculptured
As between two wedded Wives--
Figures with armorial signs of race and birth, 155
And the vain rank the pilgrims bore while yet on earth.
FOOTNOTES:
[647] See, in Percy's _Reliques_, that fine old ballad, "The Spanish
Lady's Love;" from which Poem the form of stanza, as suitable to
dialogue, is adopted.--W. W. 1835.
[648] A small town in Prussian-Saxony, the residence of the Counts of
Stolberg-Stolberg.--ED.
[649] 1836.
Fancy (while, to banners floating
High on Stolberg's Castle walls,
Deafening noise of welcome mounted,
Trumpets, Drums, and Atabals,)
The devout embraces still, while such tears fell
As made ... 1835.
THE RUSSIAN FUGITIVE[650]
Composed 1830.--Published 1835
[Early in life this story had interested me, and I often thought it
would make a pleasing subject for an opera or musical drama.--I. F.]
In 1837 this poem was placed among those grouped as "Yarrow revisited,
etc." In 1845 it was transferred to the "Miscellaneous Poems."--ED.
PART I
Enough of rose-bud lips, and eyes
Like harebells bathed in dew,
Of cheek that with carnation vies,
And veins of violet hue;[651]
Earth wants not beauty that may scorn 5
A likening to frail flowers;
Yea, to the stars, if they were born[652]
For seasons and for hours.
Through Moscow's gates, with gold unbarred,[653]
Stepped One at dead of night, 10
Whom such high beauty could not guard
From meditated blight;
By stealth she passed, and fled as fast
As doth the hunted fawn,
Nor stopped, till in the dappling east 15
Appeared unwelcome dawn.
Seven days she lurked in brake and field,
Seven nights her course renewed,
Sustained by what her scrip might yield,
Or berries of the wood; 20
At length, in darkness travelling on,
When lowly doors were shut,
The haven of her hope she won,
Her Foster-mother's hut.
"To put your love to dangerous proof 25
I come," said she, "from far;
For I have left my Father's roof,
In terror of the Czar."
No answer did the Matron give,
No second look she cast, 30
But hung upon the Fugitive,[654]
Embracing and embraced.
She led the Lady[655] to a seat
Beside the glimmering fire,
Bathed duteously her wayworn feet, 35
Prevented each desire:--
The cricket chirped, the house-dog dozed,
And on that simple bed,
Where she in childhood had reposed,
Now rests her weary head. 40
When she, whose couch had been the sod,
Whose curtain, pine or thorn,
Had breathed a sigh of thanks to God,
Who comforts the forlorn;
While over her the Matron bent 45
Sleep sealed her eyes, and stole
Feeling from limbs with travel spent,
And trouble from the soul.
Refreshed, the Wanderer rose at morn,
And soon again was dight 50
In those unworthy vestments worn
Through long and perilous flight;
And "O beloved Nurse," she said,
"My thanks with silent tears
Have unto Heaven and You been paid: 55
Now listen to my fears!
"Have you forgot"--and here she smiled--
"The babbling flatteries
You lavished on me when a child
Disporting round your knees? 60
I was your lambkin, and your bird,
Your star, your gem, your flower;
Light words, that were more lightly heard
In many a cloudless hour!
"The blossom you so fondly praised 65
Is come to bitter fruit;
A mighty One upon me gazed;
I spurned his lawless suit,
And must be hidden from his wrath:[656]
You, Foster-father dear, 70
Will guide me in my forward path;
I may not tarry here!
"I cannot bring to utter woe
Your proved fidelity."----
"Dear Child, sweet Mistress, say not so! 75
For you we both would die."
"Nay, nay, I come with semblance feigned
And cheek embrowned by art;
Yet, being inwardly unstained,
With courage will depart." 80
"But whither would you, could you, flee?
A poor Man's counsel take;
The Holy Virgin gives to me
A thought for your dear sake;
Rest, shielded by our Lady's grace, 85
And soon shall you be led
Forth to a safe abiding-place,
Where never foot doth tread."