Chapter VI: Appendix (5)

Not only was this Callippus his friend, not only had he initiated him into the mysteries at Athens, a bond of peculiar sanctity, but there was even a worse perfidy: to allay the suspicions of Dion's household he had taken '_the awful oath_'. Descending into the sacred enclosure of Demeter, he had put on the purple robe of the goddess, and taking a burning torch in his hand, had disowned upon oath any thought of treachery. Yet in spite of this awful oath, he chose the very festival of the goddess as the moment for perpetrating the crime.

_... The marble city wept._

Syracuse was one of the most magnificent cities of the ancient world, and contained a large number of splendid buildings built from the quarries adjacent to the city. Perhaps the most famous was the great theatre, the seats of which were formed with slabs of white marble.

_... too just
To his own native greatness to desire
That wretched boon, days lengthened by mistrust._

ὁ μὲν Δίων, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἐπὶ τοῖς κατὰ τὸν Ἡρακλείδην ἀχθόμενος καὶ τὸν φόνον ἐκεῖνον ὥς τινα τοῦ βίου καὶ τῶν πράξεων αὐτῷ κηλῖδα περικειμένην, δυσχεραίνων ἀεὶ καὶ βαρυνόμενος εἶπεν ὅτι πολλάκις ἤδη θνήσκειν ἕτοιμός ἐστι καὶ παρέχειν τῷ βουλομένῳ σφάττειν αὑτόν, εἰ ζῆν δεήσει μὴ μόνον τοὺς ἐχθρούς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς φίλους φυλαττόμενον. His relations had been cautioning him against Callippus; but 'Dion, grieved at heart, it would seem, at the fate of Heracleides, and ever chafing at and brooding over the murder as a stain upon his life and conduct, was willing, he said, to die a thousand deaths and yield his neck to any who would strike the blow, if life was only to be had by guarding against friends as well as foes.'"--ED.

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 174: 1820.

Vanish the dusky hill, ... MS.
]

[Footnote 175: 1837.

So pure, so bright, so fitted to embrace,
Where'er he turn'd, a natural grace MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 176: 1837.

Nor less the homage that was seen to wait
On Dion's virtues, when the lunar beam MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 177: 1820.

Softening his inbred dignity austere.
If on thy path the world delight to gaze,
Pride of the world--beware! for thou may'st live,
Like Dion, to behold the torch of Praise
Inverted in thy presence, and to give
Proof, for the historian's page and poet's lays,
That Peace, even Peace herself, is fugitive. MS.
]

[Footnote 178: 1820.

... joyful day! MS.
]

[Footnote 179: 1820.

... such as chance might yield, MS.
]

[Footnote 180: 1820.

... advanc'd ... MS.
]

[Footnote 181: 1827.

And, wheresoe'er the great Deliverer passed,
Fruits were strewn before his eye,
And flowers upon his person cast MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 182: 1827.

... did ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 183: 1820.

... wings ... MS.
]

[Footnote 184: 1837.

... to measure with delight; 1820.

... to gaze on with delight; MS.
]

[Footnote 185: 1820.

Now hath he overleaped ... 1837.

The edition of 1840 returns to the text of 1820.
]

[Footnote 186: 1820.

... gallery's farthest bound,
A formidable shape ... MS.
]

[Footnote 187: 1820.

Like winged Auster stooping low, MS.
]

[Footnote 188: 1827.

Intrusive Presence!-- ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 189: 1820.

Sweeping--vehemently sweeping--
Long gazed the chieftain--ere he spake--aloud--
With even voice and stern composure wrought
Into his brow by self-supporting thought:
"Avaunt, inexplicable Guest--avaunt,
Intrusive Phantom! let me rather see
What they behold ... MS.

Sweeping--vehemently sweeping--
No pause admitted--no design avowed!
Breathless the chieftain gazed--at length,
Endeavouring to collect his strength,
With pallid cheek and rueful brow,
And a half-pleading, a half-threatening eye,
Such as the Fates exclusively allow
For the behoof of suffering majesty,
He rose and spake aloud--
"Intrusive Presence! let me rather see
What they behold, ... MS.
]

[Footnote 190: 1820.

... wretched ... MS.
]

[Footnote 191: 1820.

Ill-fated Lord! O, there are ... MS.

Afflicted chief! ... MS.
]

[Footnote 192: 1820.

Upon the basis of thy ruined name; MS.
]

[Footnote 193: 1820.

... name;
Away--for hark a rushing sound,
A conflict--and a groan profound! MS.
]

[Footnote 194: 1820.

O monstrous perfidy! ... MS.
]

[Footnote 195: 1832.

Shudder ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 196: 1820.

While ... MS.
]

[Footnote 197: 1820.

To his inborn greatness ... MS.
]

[Footnote 198: 1820.

Thus ... MS.
]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote CA: See, at the close of the poem (p. 122), several experimental renderings of this stanza, printed from MS.--ED.]

[Footnote CB: That Wordsworth knew the Elgin marbles--where the half-recumbent Ilissus, a torso, is one of the finest pieces of the pediment--is certain. There is a reproduction of it in his nephew's (the late Bishop of Lincoln's) book on _Greece_. In Henry Crabb Robinson's _Diary_ (vol. ii. p. 195) there is an interesting account of the poet's visit to the British Museum, to see the Elgin marbles, etc. See also the _Autobiography of B. R. Haydon_, where, in a letter to the artist, Wordsworth says, "I am not surprised to hear that Canova expressed himself highly pleased with the Elgin marbles: a man must be senseless as a clod, or as perverse as a fiend, not to be enraptured with them" (vol. i. p. 325).--ED.]

A FACT, AND AN IMAGINATION;

OR, CANUTE AND ALFRED, ON THE SEA-SHORE[199]

Composed 1816.--Published 1820

[The first and last fourteen lines of this poem each make a sonnet, and were composed as such; but I thought that by intermediate lines they might be connected so as to make a whole. One or two expressions are taken from Milton's _History of England_.--I. F.]

One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.

The Danish Conqueror, on his royal chair,
Mustering a face of haughty[200] sovereignty,
To aid a covert purpose, cried--"O ye
Approaching Waters of the deep, that share
With this green isle my fortunes, come not where 5
Your Master's throne is set."--Deaf was the Sea;
Her waves rolled on, respecting his decree
Less than they heed a breath of wanton air.[201]
--Then Canute, rising from the invaded throne,
Said to his servile Courtiers,--"Poor the reach,[202] 10
The undisguised extent, of mortal sway!
He only is a King, and he alone
Deserves the name (this truth the billows preach)
Whose everlasting laws, sea, earth, and heaven, obey."
This just reproof the prosperous Dane 15
Drew from the influx of the main,
For some whose rugged northern mouths would strain
At oriental flattery;
And Canute (fact more worthy to be known)[203]
From that time forth did for his brows disown 20
The ostentatious symbol of a crown;
Esteeming earthly royalty
Contemptible as vain.[204]

Now hear what one of elder days,
Rich theme of England's fondest praise, 25
Her darling Alfred, _might_ have spoken;[205]
To cheer the remnant of his host
When he was driven from coast to coast,
Distressed and harassed, but with mind unbroken:[206]

"My faithful followers, lo! the tide is spent 30
That rose, and steadily advanced to fill
The shores and channels, working Nature's will
Among the mazy streams that backward went,
And in the sluggish pools where ships are pent: 34
And now, his[207] task performed, the flood stands still,
At the green base of many an inland hill,[CC]
In placid beauty and sublime content![208]
Such the repose that sage and hero find;
Such measured rest the sedulous and good
Of humbler name; whose souls do, like the flood 40
Of Ocean, press right on; or gently wind,
Neither to be diverted nor withstood,
Until they reach the bounds by Heaven assigned."

The passage from Milton's _History of England_ (book vi.), referred to in the Fenwick note, relates an incident, "which" (as Milton justly says), "unless to Court-Parasites, needed no such laborious demonstration." There is only one expression borrowed by Wordsworth: "The Sea, as before, came rolling on, ... whereat the King, quickly rising, wished all about him to behold and consider the weak and frivolous form of a King, and that none indeed deserved the name of a King, but he whose Eternal Laws both Heaven, Earth, and Sea obey."--ED.

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 199: 1820.

... by the sea-side. MS.
]

[Footnote 200: 1820.

... haughtiest ... MS.
]

[Footnote 201: 1840.

Your Master's throne is set!"--Absurd decree!
A mandate uttered to the foaming sea,
Is to its motions less than wanton air. MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 202: 1820.

Said to his Courtiers, Scanty is the reach, MS.
]

[Footnote 203: 1845.

And Canute (truth ... MS. and 1820.

And Canute, which is worthiest to be known, MS.

... what ... MS.

And in the self same Page is told that he MS.
]

[Footnote 204: 1857.

Contemptible and vain. MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 205: 1820.

... have taught
The Sea, the prompter of his thought,
Such words as these methinks he might have spoken MS.
]

[Footnote 206: 1820.

Distressed but not down broken: MS.
]

[Footnote 207: 1837.

... its ... MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 208: 1820.

... entire content. MS.
]

"A LITTLE ONWARD LEND THY GUIDING HAND"

Composed 1816.--Published 1820

[The complaint in my eyes, which gave occasion to this address to my daughter, first showed itself as a consequence of inflammation, caught at the top of Kirkstone, when I was over-heated by having carried up the ascent my eldest son, a lusty infant. Frequently has the disease recurred since, leaving my eyes in a state which has often prevented my reading for months, and makes me at this day incapable of bearing without injury any strong light by day or night. My acquaintance with books has therefore been far short of my wishes; and on this account, to acknowledge the services daily and hourly done me by my family and friends, this note is written.--I. F.]

One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.

"_A little onward lend thy guiding hand
To these dark steps, a little further on!_"[CD]
--What trick of memory to _my_ voice hath brought
This mournful iteration? For though Time, 4
The Conqueror, crowns the Conquered, on this brow
Planting his favourite silver diadem,
Nor he, nor minister of his--intent
To run before him, hath enrolled me yet,
Though not unmenaced, among those who lean
Upon a living staff, with borrowed sight. 10
--O my own Dora, my belovèd child![209][CE]
Should that day come--but hark! the birds salute
The cheerful dawn, brightening for me the east;
For me, thy natural leader, once again
Impatient to conduct thee, not as erst 15
A tottering infant, with compliant stoop
From flower to flower supported; but to curb
Thy nymph-like step swift bounding o'er the lawn,[CF]
Along the loose rocks, or the slippery verge
Of foaming torrents.[210]--From thy orisons 20
Come forth; and, while the morning air is yet
Transparent as the soul of innocent youth,
Let me, thy happy guide, now point thy way,
And now precede thee, winding to and fro,
Till we by perseverance gain the top 25
Of some smooth ridge, whose brink precipitous
Kindles intense desire for powers withheld
From this corporeal frame; whereon who stands,
Is seized with strong incitement to push forth
His arms, as swimmers use, and plunge--dread thought,
For pastime plunge--into the "abrupt abyss,"[CG] 31
Where ravens spread their plumy vans, at ease!

And yet more gladly thee would I conduct
Through woods and spacious forests,--to behold
There, how the Original of human art, 35
Heaven-prompted Nature, measures and erects
Her temples, fearless for the stately work,
Though waves, to every breeze,[211] its high-arched roof,
And storms the pillars rock. But we such schools
Of reverential awe will chiefly seek 40
In the still summer noon, while beams of light,
Reposing here, and in the aisles beyond
Traceably gliding through the dusk, recal
To mind the living presences of nuns;
A gentle, pensive, white-robed sisterhood, 45
Whose saintly radiance mitigates the gloom
Of those terrestrial fabrics, where they serve,
To Christ, the Sun of righteousness, espoused.
Now also shall the page of classic lore,
To these glad eyes from bondage freed, again 50
Lie open; and the book of Holy Writ,
Again unfolded, passage clear shall yield
To heights more glorious still, and into shades
More awful, where, advancing hand in hand,
We may be taught, O Darling of my care! 55
To calm the affections, elevate the soul,
And consecrate our lives to truth and love.[212]

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 209: 1850.

--O my Antigone, beloved child! 1820.
]

[Footnote 210: 1837.

... torrent ... 1827.
]

[Footnote 211: 1837.

Though waves in every breeze ... 1820.
]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote CC: Compare Tennyson, _In Memoriam_, stanza xix.--

There twice a day the Severn fills;
The salt sea-water passes by,
And hushes half the babbling Wye,
And makes a silence in the hills.

ED.
]

[Footnote CD: The opening lines of Milton's _Samson Agonistes_. Compare also _The Wanderings of Cain_ (canto ii. l. 1), by S. T. Coleridge: "A little farther, O my father, yet a little farther, and we shall come into the open moonlight." ... "Lead on, my child!" said Cain; "guide me, little child!"--ED.]

[Footnote CE: Dora Wordsworth died in 1847, a loss which cast a gloom over her father's remaining years; and it is not without interest that in the last revision of the text of his poems, in the year of his own death, he substituted

O my own Dora, my belovèd child!

for the earlier reading,

O my Antigone, beloved child!

ED.
]

[Footnote CF: Compare in the lines on Lucy, beginning, "Three years she grew in sun and shower" (vol. ii. p. 81)--

She shall be sportive as the fawn
That wild with glee across the lawn
Or up the mountain springs.

ED.
]

[Footnote CG: Compare _Paradise Lost_, book ii. l. 409.--ED.]

TO ----,

ON HER FIRST ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF HELVELLYN

Composed 1816.--Published 1820.

[Written at Rydal Mount. The lady was Miss Blackett, then residing with Mr. Montagu Burgoyne at Fox-Ghyll. We were tempted to remain too long upon the mountain; and I, imprudently, with the hope of shortening the way led her among the crags and down a steep slope which entangled us in difficulties that were met by her with much spirit and courage.--I. F.]

One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.

Inmate of a mountain-dwelling,
Thou hast clomb aloft, and gazed
From the watch-towers of Helvellyn;
Awed, delighted, and amazed!
Potent was the spell that bound thee 5
Not unwilling to obey:[213]
For[214] blue Ether's arms, flung round thee,
Stilled the pantings of dismay.

Lo! the dwindled woods and meadows;
What a vast abyss is there! 10
Lo! the clouds, the solemn shadows,
And the glistenings--heavenly fair!

And a record of commotion
Which a thousand ridges yield;
Ridge, and gulf, and distant ocean 15
Gleaming like a silver shield!

Maiden! now take flight;--inherit[215]
Alps or Andes--they are thine!
With the morning's roseate Spirit,
Sweep their length of snowy line; 20

Or survey their[216] bright dominions
In the gorgeous colours drest
Flung from off the purple pinions,
Evening spreads throughout the west![217]

Thine are all the coral[218] fountains 25
Warbling in each sparry vault[219]
Of the untrodden lunar mountains;
Listen to their songs!--or halt,

To Niphates' top invited,[CH]
Whither spiteful Satan steered; 30
Or descend where the ark alighted,
When the green earth re-appeared;

For the power of hills is on thee,
As was witnessed through thine eye
Then, when old Helvellyn won thee 35
To confess their majesty!

With these stanzas to Miss Blackett, compare those addressed by Wordsworth to his sister, published in 1807, under the title _To a Young Lady, who had been reproached for taking Long Walks in the Country_; and the poem entitled _Louisa, after accompanying her on a Mountain Excursion_, also referring to his sister (vol. ii. pp. 362, 365).--ED.

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 212: 1827.

Re-open now thy everlasting gates,
Thou Fane of Holy Writ! ye classic Domes,
To these glad orbs from darksome bondage freed,
Unfold again your portals! Passage lies
Through you to heights more glorious still, and shades
More awful, where this Darling of my care,
Advancing with me hand in hand, may learn,
Without forsaking a too earnest world,
To calm the affections, elevate the soul,
And consecrate her life to truth and love. 1820.
]

[Footnote 213: 1827.

In the moment of dismay, MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 214: 1832.

While ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 215: 1845.

--Take thy flight;--possess, inherit MS. and 1820.

Now--take flight;--possess, inherit 1836.
]

[Footnote 216: 1836.

... the ... 1820.
... thy ... MS.
]

[Footnote 217: 1820.

Or adopt the purple pinions
Evening spreads throughout the west,
And survey thy new dominions
In that bright reflection drest. MS.
]

[Footnote 218: 1832.

... choral ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 219: 1820.

... sparkling vault MS.
]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote CH: A mountain in Asia, dividing Armenia from Assyria, whence the river Tigris has its source.

Satan, bowing low,

* * * * *

Throws his steep flight in many an aery wheel,
Nor staid till on _Niphates'_ top he lights.

_Paradise Lost_, book iii. ll. 736-742.

ED.
]

1817

The year 1817 was not specially productive of new poems. They may be arranged thus, _The Vernal Ode_, _The Ode to Lycoris_, its _Sequel_, _The Longest Day_, _The Pass of Kirkstone_, _Hints from the Mountains_, and the _Lament of Mary Queen of Scots_.

VERNAL ODE[220]

Composed 1817.--Published 1820

[Composed at Rydal Mount, to place in view the immortality of succession where immortality is denied, as far as we know, to the individual creature.--I. F.][CI]

Rerum Natura tota est nusquam magis quam in minimis.

PLIN. _Nat. Hist._[CJ]

This _Vernal Ode_ was first published in the volume entitled "The River Duddon, a series of Sonnets: Vaudracour and Julia: and other poems. To which is annexed, a Topographical Description of the Country of the Lakes, in the north of England." In that volume its title was _Ode.--1817_. In 1820 it was placed among the "Poems of the Imagination." Its title was merely _Ode_, and in the table of contents it was called "Beneath the Concave"; the page heading "Vernal Ode" being given to it on the last three of its six pages. In 1827, and 1832, it was transferred to the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection." In 1836 it was returned to the class of "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.

I

Beneath the concave of an April sky,
When all the fields with freshest green were dight,
Appeared, in presence of the[221] spiritual eye
That aids or supersedes our grosser sight,
The form and rich habiliments of One 5
Whose countenance bore resemblance to the sun,
When it reveals, in evening majesty,
Features half lost amid their own pure light.
Poised like a weary cloud, in middle air[222]
He hung,--then floated with angelic ease 10
(Softening that bright effulgence by degrees)
Till he had reached a summit sharp and bare,[223]
Where oft the venturous heifer drinks the noontide[224] breeze.
Upon the apex of that lofty cone
Alighted, there the Stranger stood alone; 15
Fair as a gorgeous Fabric of the east
Suddenly raised by some enchanter's power,
Where nothing was; and firm as some old Tower
Of Britain's realm, whose leafy crest
Waves high, embellished by a gleaming shower! 20

II

Beneath the shadow of his purple wings
Rested a golden harp;--he touched the strings;
And, after prelude of unearthly sound
Poured through the echoing hills around,
He sang--
"No wintry desolations, 25
Scorching blight or noxious dew,
Affect my native habitations;
Buried in glory, far beyond the scope
Of man's inquiring gaze, but to his hope
Imaged, though faintly, in the hue[225] 30
Profound of night's ethereal blue;
And in the aspect of each radiant orb:--
Some fixed, some wandering with no timid curb:
But wandering star[226] and fixed, to mortal eye,
Blended in absolute serenity, 35
And free from semblance of decline;--
Fresh as if Evening brought their natal hour,
Her darkness splendour gave, her silence power,
To testify of Love and Grace divine.[227]

III[CK]

What if those bright fires 40
Shine subject to decay,
Sons haply of extinguished sires,
Themselves to lose their light, or pass away
Like clouds before the wind, 44
Be thanks poured out to Him whose hand bestows,
Nightly, on human kind
That vision[228] of endurance and repose.
--And though to every draught of vital breath
Renewed throughout the bounds of earth or ocean,
The melancholy gates of Death 50
Respond with sympathetic motion;[229]
Though all that feeds on nether air,
Howe'er magnificent or fair,
Grows but to perish, and entrust
Its ruins to their kindred dust: 55
Yet, by the Almighty's[230] ever-during care,
Her procreant vigils[231] Nature keeps
Amid the unfathomable deeps;
And saves the peopled[232] fields of earth
From dread[233] of emptiness or dearth. 60
Thus, in their stations, lifting tow'rd[234] the sky
The foliaged head in cloud-like majesty,
The shadow-casting race of trees survive:
Thus, in the train of Spring, arrive
Sweet flowers;--what living eye hath viewed 65
Their myriads?[235]--endlessly renewed,
Wherever strikes the sun's glad ray;
Where'er the subtle[236] waters stray;
Wherever sportive breezes[237] bend
Their course, or genial showers descend![238] 70
Mortals, rejoice![239] the very Angels quit
Their mansions unsusceptible of change,
Amid your pleasant bowers to sit,
And through your sweet vicissitudes to range!"

IV

O, nursed at happy distance from the cares 75
Of a too-anxious world, mild pastoral Muse!
That, to the sparkling crown Urania wears,
And to her sister Clio's laurel wreath,[CL]
Prefer'st a garland culled from purple heath,
Or blooming thicket moist with morning dews; 80
Was such bright Spectacle vouchsafed to me?
And was it granted to the simple ear
Of thy contented Votary
Such melody to hear!
_Him_ rather suits it, side by side with thee, 85
Wrapped in a fit of[240] pleasing indolence,
While thy tired lute hangs on the hawthorn-tree,
To lie and listen--till o'er-drowsèd sense
Sinks,[241] hardly conscious of the influence--
To the soft murmur of the vagrant Bee. 90
--A slender sound! yet hoary Time
Doth to the _Soul_ exalt it with the chime
Of all his years;--a company
Of ages coming, ages gone;
(Nations from before them sweeping, 95
Regions in destruction steeping,)
But every awful note in unison[242]
With that faint utterance, which tells
Of treasure sucked from buds and bells,
For the pure keeping of those waxen cells;[243] 100
Where She--a statist prudent to confer
Upon the common[244] weal; a warrior bold,
Radiant all over with unburnished gold,
And armed with living spear for mortal fight;[245]
A cunning forager 105
That spreads no waste; a social builder; one
In whom all busy offices unite
With all fine functions that afford delight--
Safe through the winter[246] storm in quiet dwells!

V

And is She brought within the power 110
Of vision?--o'er this tempting flower
Hovering until the petals stay
Her flight, and take its voice away!--
Observe[247] each wing!--a tiny van!
The structure of her laden thigh, 115
How fragile! yet of ancestry
Mysteriously remote and high;
High as the imperial front of man;
The roseate bloom on woman's cheek;
The soaring eagle's curvèd beak; 120
The white plumes of the floating swan;
Old as the tiger's paw, the lion's mane
Ere shaken by that mood of stern disdain
At which the desert trembles.--Humming Bee! 124
Thy sting was needless then, perchance unknown,
The seeds of malice were not sown;
All creatures met in peace, from fierceness free,
And no pride blended with their dignity.[248]
--Tears had not broken from their source;
Nor Anguish strayed from her Tartarean den; 130
The golden years maintained a course
Not undiversified though smooth and even;
We were not mocked with glimpse and shadow then,
Bright Seraphs mixed familiarly with men; 134
And earth and stars composed a universal heaven!

A MS. copy of this Ode commences with the following stanza, and goes on to "And what if his presiding breath," stanza iii. text of 1820.--ED.

Forsake me not, Urania, but when Ev'n
Fades into night, resume the enraptur'd song
That shadowed forth the immensity of Heav'n
In music--uttered surely without wrong
(For 'twas thy work) though here the Listener lay
Couch'd on green herbage 'mid the warmth of May
--A parting promise makes a bright farewell:
Empow'r'd to wait for thy return
Voice of the Heav'ns I will not mourn;
Content that holy peace and mute remembrance dwell
Within the bosom of the chorded shell
Tuned 'mid those seats of love and joy, concealed
By day, by night imperfectly revealed;
Thy native mansions that endure
Beyond their present seeming--pure
From taint of dissolution or decay.
--No blights, no wintry desolations,
Affect those blissful habitations,
Built such as hope might gather from the hue
Profound of the celestial blue,
And from the aspect of each radiant orb,
Some fix'd, some wandering, with no timid curb,
Yet both permitted to proclaim
Their Maker's glory with unaltered frame.

ED.

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 220: 1827.

ODE.--1817. 1820.
1st Edition.

ODE. 1820.
2nd Edition.
]

[Footnote 221: 1836.

... that ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 222: 1827.

Poised in the middle region of the air 1820.
]

[Footnote 223: 1827.

Until he reached a rock, of summit bare, 1820.
]

[Footnote 224: 1827.

... summer ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 225: 1836.

Of man's enquiring gaze, and imaged to his hope
(Alas, how faintly!) in the hue 1820.

... but ... 1827.
]

[Footnote 226: 1827.

... orb ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 227: 1827.

... of decline;--
So wills eternal Love, with Power divine. 1820.
]

[Footnote 228: 1840.

--That image ... 1836.
]

[Footnote 229: 1827.

... divine.
And what if his presiding breath
Impart a sympathetic motion
Unto the gates of life and death,
Throughout the bounds of earth and ocean;

MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 230: 1820.

Yet by this ... MS.
]

[Footnote 231: 1820.

... cradle ... MS.
]

[Footnote 232: 1820.

... changeful ... MS.
]

[Footnote 233: 1820.

... fear ... MS.
]

[Footnote 234: 1820.

... tow'rds ... MS.
]

[Footnote 235: 1820.

... numbers? ... MS.
]

[Footnote 236: 1827.

... joyous ... MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 237: 1836.

... zephyrs ... MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 238: The stanza ends here. MS.]

[Footnote 239: 1827.

Rejoice, O men! ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 240: 1820.

... morning dews;
Oft side by side with some lov'd Votary
Wrapp'd like thyself in ... MS.
]

[Footnote 241: 1820.

... hung on the hawthorn tree
Hast thou sate listening till o'er-drowsèd sense
Sank ... MS.
]

[Footnote 242: 1820.

... ages gone,
{Yet}
{But} each and all in unison MS.
]

[Footnote 243: 1820.

... buds and bells
And stored with frugal care in waxen cells.

(end of stanza) MS.
]

[Footnote 244: 1832.

... public ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 245: 1820.

... buds and bells,
To travel through the pathless air,
Or who consigned with frugal care
To the pure keeping of those waxen cells,
Where, She--a valiant soldier if need were-- MS.
]

[Footnote 246: 1820.

... wintry ... MS.
]

[Footnote 247: 1820.

... by this tempting flower
Observe ... MS.
]

[Footnote 248: 1820.

... majesty. MS.
]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote CI: Compare George Eliot's "O may I join the choir invisible" (_Poems_, p. 240).--ED.]

[Footnote CJ: See Pliny's _Historia Naturalis_, book xi. chap. 1.--ED.]

[Footnote CK: The first eight lines of stanza iii. were added in the edition of 1836; and in that of 1832 stanzas ii. and iii. were included in a single one. They were again separated in 1836.--ED.]

[Footnote CL: Urania (the heavenly muse) was usually represented as crowned with stars, and holding a globe in her hand; while Clio was crowned with laurel.--ED.]

ODE TO LYCORIS

MAY, 1817

Composed 1817.--Published 1820

[The discerning reader--who is aware that in the poem of _Ellen Irwin_ I was desirous of throwing the reader at once out of the old ballad, so as if possible, to preclude a comparison between that mode of dealing with the subject and the mode I meant to adopt--may here perhaps perceive that this poem originated in the four last lines of the first stanza. Those specks of snow, reflected in the lake and so transferred, as it were, to the subaqueous sky, reminded me of the swans which the fancy of the ancient classic poets yoked to the car of Venus. Hence the tenor of the whole first stanza, and the name of Lycoris, which--with some readers who think my theology and classical allusion too far fetched and therefore more or less unnatural and affected--will tend to unrealise the sentiment that pervades these verses. But surely one who has written so much in verse as I have done may be allowed to retrace his steps in the regions of fancy which delighted him in his boyhood, when he first became acquainted with the Greek and Roman poets. Before I read Virgil I was so strongly attached to Ovid, whose _Metamorphoses_ I read at school, that I was quite in a passion whenever I found him, in books of criticism, placed below Virgil. As to Homer, I was never weary of travelling over the scenes through which he led me. Classical literature affected me by its own beauty. But the truths of Scripture having been entrusted to the dead languages, and these fountains having recently been laid open at the Reformation, an importance and a sanctity were at that period attached to classical literature that extended, as is obvious in Milton's _Lycidas_ for example, both to its spirit and form in a degree that can never be revived. No doubt the hacknied and lifeless use into which mythology fell towards the close of the 17th century, and which continued through the 18th, disgusted the general reader with all allusion to it in modern verse; and though, in deference to this disgust, and also in a measure participating in it, I abstained in my earlier writings from all introduction of pagan fable, surely, even in its humble form, it may ally itself with real sentiment, as I can truly affirm it did in the present case.--I. F.]

One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection." In 1847 Wordsworth wrote to Mr. Fletcher that this poem was "suggested to him one day at Ullswater, in the year 1817, by seeing two white, snowy clouds reflected in the lake. 'They looked' (he said), 'like two swans.'"--ED.

I

An age hath been when Earth was proud
Of lustre too intense
To be sustained; and Mortals bowed
The front in self-defence.
Who _then_, if Dian's crescent gleamed, 5
Or Cupid's sparkling arrow streamed
While on the wing the Urchin played,
Could fearlessly approach the shade?
--Enough for one soft vernal day,
If I, a bard of ebbing time, 10
And nurtured in a fickle clime,
May haunt this hornèd bay;[CM]
Whose amorous water multiplies
The flitting halcyon's vivid dyes;[CN]
And smooths her[249] liquid breast--to show 15
These swan-like specks of mountain snow,[CO]
White as the pair that slid along the plains
Of heaven, when Venus held the reins!

II

In youth we love the darksome lawn
Brushed by the owlet's wing; 20
Then, Twilight is preferred to Dawn,
And Autumn to the Spring.[CP]
Sad fancies do we then affect,
In luxury of disrespect
To our own prodigal excess 25
Of too familiar happiness.
Lycoris (if such name befit
Thee, thee my life's celestial sign!)[CQ]
When Nature marks the year's decline,
Be ours to welcome it; 30
Pleased with the harvest hope that runs
Before the path of milder suns;[250]
Pleased while the sylvan world displays
Its ripeness to the feeding gaze;
Pleased when the sullen winds resound the knell
Of the resplendent miracle. 36

III

But something whispers to my heart
That, as we downward tend,
Lycoris! life requires an _art_
To which our souls must bend; 40
A skill--to balance and supply;
And, ere the flowing fount be dry,
As soon it must, a sense to sip,
Or drink, with no fastidious lip.
Then welcome, above all, the Guest 45
Whose smiles, diffused o'er land and sea,
Seem to recal the Deity
Of youth into the breast:[251]
May pensive Autumn ne'er present
A claim to her disparagement! 50
While blossoms and the budding spray
Inspire us in our own decay;
Still, as we nearer draw to life's dark goal,
Be hopeful Spring the favourite of the Soul!

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 249: 1827.

And smoothes its ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 250: 1827.

Pleased with the soil's requited cares;
Pleased with the blue that ether wears; 1820.
]

[Footnote 251: 1837.

Frank greeting, then, to that blithe Guest
Diffusing smiles o'er land and sea
To aid the vernal Deity
Whose home is in the breast! 1820.
]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote CM: Probably one of the bays in Rydal Mere.--ED.]

[Footnote CN: The kingfisher.--ED.]

[Footnote CO: Probably on Nab Scar reflected in Rydal water.--ED.]

[Footnote CP: Compare _The Prelude_, book vi. l. 173--

Moods melancholy, ... that loved
The twilight more than dawn, autumn than spring.

ED.
]

[Footnote CQ: Lycoris was the name under which the poet Gallus wrote of his Cytheris, a freed woman of the senator Volumnius, celebrated for her beauty and intrigues. See Virgil's reference to her in _Eclogue_ x. 42, in which he condoles with his friend Gallus for the loss of Lycoris--

Hic gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori,
Hic nemus; hic ipso tecum consumerer aevo.

Ovid also refers to her, A. A. iii. 537--"The western and the eastern lands know of Lycoris." From the tone of the Fenwick note, it would seem that Wordsworth was doubtful of the fitness of associating the name of Lycoris with the dominant thought of these stanzas; but there is no unfitness in the use he makes of it. This poem, with its reference to the "one soft vernal day," and its prevailing thought of spring, and

the Guest
Whose smiles, diffused o'er land and sea,
Seem to recal the Deity
Of youth into the breast,

appropriately follow the _Vernal Ode_.--ED.]

TO THE SAME

Composed 1817.--Published 1820

[This, as well as the preceding and the two that follow,[CR] were composed in front of Rydal Mount, and during my walks in the neighbourhood. Nine-tenths of my verses have been murmured out in the open air: and here let me repeat what I believe has already appeared in print. One day a stranger having walked round the garden and grounds of Rydal Mount asked one of the female servants, who happened to be at the door, permission to see her master's study. "This," said she, leading him forward, "is my master's library where he keeps his books, but his study is out of doors." After a long absence from home it has more than once happened that some one of my cottage neighbours has said--"Well, there he is; we are glad to hear him _booing_ about again." Once more in excuse for so much egotism let me say, these notes are written for my familiar friends, and at their earnest request. Another time a gentleman whom James had conducted through the grounds asked him what kind of plants throve best there: after a little consideration he answered--"Laurels." "That is," said the stranger, "as it should be; don't you know that the laurel is the emblem of poetry, and that poets used on public occasions to be crowned with it?" James stared when the question was first put, but was doubtless much pleased with the information.--I.F.]

One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--ED.

Enough of climbing toil!--Ambition treads
Here, as 'mid[252] busier scenes, ground steep and rough,
Or slippery even to peril![253] and each step,
As we for most uncertain recompence
Mount toward the empire of the fickle clouds, 5
Each weary step, dwarfing the world below,[254]
Induces, for its old familiar sights,
Unacceptable feelings of contempt,
With wonder mixed--that Man could e'er be tied,
In anxious bondage, to such nice array 10
And formal fellowship of pretty things!
--Oh! 'tis the _heart_ that magnifies this life,
Making a truth and beauty of her own;
And moss-grown alleys, circumscribing shades,
And gurgling rills, assist her in the work 15
More efficaciously than realms outspread,
As in a map, before the adventurer's gaze--
Ocean and Earth contending for regard.

The umbrageous woods are left--how far beneath!
But lo! where darkness seems to guard the mouth 20
Of yon wild cave, whose jaggèd brows are fringed
With flaccid threads of ivy, in the still
And sultry air, depending motionless.
Yet cool the space within, and not uncheered
(As whoso enters shall ere long perceive) 25
By stealthy influx of the timid day
Mingling with night, such twilight to compose
As Numa loved; when, in the Egerian grot,
From the sage Nymph appearing at his wish,
He gained whate'er a regal mind might ask, 30
Or need, of counsel breathed through lips divine.[CS]

Long as the heat shall rage, let that dim cave
Protect us, there deciphering as we may
Diluvian records; or the sighs of Earth
Interpreting; or counting for old Time 35
His minutes, by reiterated drops,
Audible tears,[CT] from some invisible source
That deepens upon fancy--more and more
Drawn toward the centre whence those sighs creep forth
To awe the lightness of humanity. 40
Or, shutting up thyself within thyself,
There[255] let me see thee sink into a mood
Of gentler thought,[256] protracted till thine eye
Be calm as water when the winds are gone,
And no one can tell whither. Dearest Friend![CU] 45
We too have known such happy hours together
That, were power granted to replace them (fetched
From out the pensive shadows where they lie)
In the first warmth of their original sunshine,
Loth should I be to use it: passing sweet 50
Are the domains of tender memory!

The spot described in this sequel to _Lycoris_ is, I think, the bower in the rock on Nab Scar, alluded to in Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal (see note to _The Waterfall and the Eglantine_, vol. ii. p. 172). The description in that Journal, taken in connection with the text of this poem, warrants the suggestion that the "Friend" with whom he had "known such happy hours together" was his own sister Dorothy. The extreme probability that it was on Nab Scar that the snow patches lay, which were reflected in Rydal mere, and which his imagination transformed into the swans that carried Venus' car through heaven, adds to the likelihood of this conjecture. The following extracts from the Sister's journal may be compared with passages in the poem:--"We pushed on to the foot of the Scar. It was very grand when we looked up, very stony.... Coleridge went to search for something new. We saw him climbing up towards a rock. He called us, and we found him in a bower,--the sweetest that was ever seen. The rock on one side is very high, and all covered with ivy, which hung loosely about, and bore bunches of brown berries." With this compare--

Yon wild cave, whose jaggèd brows are fringed
With flaccid threads of ivy, in the still
And sultry air, depending motionless.

And with the following, "We looked down on the Ambleside vale, that seemed to wind away from us, the village lying under the hill," compare--

Mount toward the empire of the fickle clouds,
Each weary step, dwarfing the world below.

With the following, "It is scarce a bower, a little parlour only, not enclosed by walls, but shaped out for a resting-place by the rocks, and the ground rising about it. It had a sweet moss carpet," compare l. 14--

Moss-grown alleys, circumscribing shades.

Doubtless Wordsworth drew on his imagination, "making a truth and beauty of his own," in this, as in every other description of place, which has a local colouring in it; but to connect "the dim cave" of the _Ode to Lycoris_ with these conversations between Coleridge and the Wordsworths--mentioned in the Grasmere Journal of the latter, and hinted at in the closing passage of the Ode--is certainly permissible.--ED.

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 252: 1827.

Here, as in ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 253: 1827.

Oft perilous, always tiresome; ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 254: 1827.

As we for most uncertain gain ascend
Toward the clouds, dwarfing the world below, 1820.
]

[Footnote 255: 1827.

... contending for regard!
Lo! there a dim Egerian grotto fringed
With ivy-twine, profusely from its brows
Dependant,--enter without further aim;
And ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 256: 1827.

Of quiet thought-- ... 1820.
]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote CR: As the Fenwick notes have no regard to chronological order, but refer to the poems as arranged by Wordsworth himself, it may be noted that the "preceding" is the _Ode to Lycoris_; "the two that follow" are _September 1819_, and its sequel entitled _Upon the same Occasion_.--ED.]

[Footnote CS: Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome. "He was renowned," says Niebuhr (_History of Rome_, I. 237), "as the author of the Roman ceremonial law. Instructed by the Camena Egeria, who led him into the assemblies of her sisters in the sacred grove, he regulated the whole hierarchy, the pontiffs, the augurs, the flamens," etc.--ED.]

[Footnote CT: Compare Walter Savage Landor's _Count Julian_, v. 3--

The very tear ... drops audible.

ED.
]

[Footnote CU: Possibly this refers to his sister Dorothy. Among the poems on the Tour of 1833 is one _To a Friend_. This friend was the poet's son, pastor at Brigham, Cockermouth. See the note appended to the present poem.--ED.]

THE LONGEST DAY

ADDRESSED TO MY DAUGHTER, DORA[257]

Composed 1817.--Published 1820

[Suggested by the sight of my daughter (Dora) playing in front of Rydal Mount; and composed in a great measure the same afternoon. I have often wished to pair this poem upon the _longest_, with one upon the _shortest_, day, and regret even now that it has not been done.--I. F.]

One of the "Poems referring to the Period of Childhood."--ED.

Let us quit the leafy arbour,
And the torrent murmuring by;
For the sun is in his harbour,[258]
Weary of the open sky.

Evening now unbinds the fetters 5
Fashioned by the glowing light;
All that breathe are thankful debtors
To the harbinger of night.

Yet by some grave thoughts attended
Eve renews her calm career; 10
For the day that now is ended,
Is the longest of the year.

Dora![259] sport, as now thou sportest,
On this platform, light and free;
Take thy bliss, while longest, shortest, 15
Are indifferent to thee!
Who would check the happy feeling
That inspires the linnet's song?
Who would stop the swallow, wheeling
On her pinions swift and strong? 20

Yet at this impressive season,
Words which tenderness can speak
From the truths of homely reason,
Might exalt the loveliest cheek;

And, while shades to shades succeeding 25
Steal the landscape from the sight,
I would urge this moral pleading,
Last forerunner of "Good-night!"

Summer ebbs;--each day that follows
Is a reflux from on high, 30
Tending to the darksome hollows
Where the frosts of winter lie.

He who governs the creation,
In his providence, assigned
Such a gradual declination 35
To the life of human kind.

Yet we mark it not;--fruits redden,
Fresh flowers blow, as flowers have blown,
And the heart is loth to deaden
Hopes that she so long hath known. 40

Be thou wiser, youthful Maiden!
And when thy decline shall come,
Let not flowers, or boughs fruit-laden,
Hide the knowledge of thy doom.

Now, even now, ere wrapped in slumber, 45
Fix thine eyes[260] upon the sea
That absorbs time, space, and number;
Look thou to Eternity![261]

Follow thou the flowing river
On whose breast are thither borne 50
All deceived, and each deceiver,
Through the gates of night and morn;

Through the year's successive portals;
Through the bounds which many a star
Marks, not mindless of frail mortals, 55
When his[262] light returns from far.

Thus when thou with Time hast travelled
Toward[263] the mighty gulf of things,
And the mazy stream unravelled[264]
With thy best imaginings;[265] 60

Think, if thou on beauty leanest,
Think how pitiful that stay,
Did not virtue give the meanest
Charms superior to decay.

Duty, like a strict[266] preceptor, 65
Sometimes frowns, or seems to frown;
Choose her thistle for thy sceptre,
While youth's roses are thy crown.[267]

Grasp it,--if thou shrink and tremble,
Fairest damsel of the green, 70
Thou wilt lack the only symbol
That proclaims a genuine queen;

And ensure those palms of honour
Which selected spirits wear,
Bending low before the Donor, 75
Lord of heaven's unchanging year!

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 257: 1849.

Addressed to ----, On the longest day. 1820.
]

[Footnote 258: 1845.

Sol has dropped into his harbour, MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 259: 1845.

Laura! ... MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 260: 1820.

Fix thy thoughts ... MS.
]

[Footnote 261: 1836.

Look towards Eternity! ... MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 262: 1820.

... her ... MS.
]

[Footnote 263: 1832.

Tow'rds ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 264: 1820.

From mysterious springs ...
And his mazes has unravelled MS.
]

[Footnote 265: This stanza is an interpolation by the poet in the MS.]

[Footnote 266: 1820.

... true ... MS.
]

HINT FROM THE MOUNTAINS,

FOR CERTAIN POLITICAL PRETENDERS[268]

Composed 1817.--Published 1820

[Bunches of fern may often be seen wheeling about in the wind as here described. The particular bunch that suggested these verses was noticed in the Pass of Dunmail Raise. The verses were composed in 1817, but the application is for all times and places.--I. F.]

Included among the "Poems of the Fancy."--ED.

"Who but hails the sight with pleasure[269]
When the wings of genius rise,
Their ability to measure
With great enterprise;
But in man was ne'er such daring 5
As yon Hawk exhibits, pairing
His brave spirit with the war in
The stormy skies!

"Mark him, how his power he uses,
Lays it by, at will resumes! 10
Mark, ere for his haunt he chooses
Clouds and utter glooms!
There, he wheels in downward mazes;
Sunward now his flight he raises,
Catches fire, as seems, and blazes 15
With uninjured plumes!"--

ANSWER

"Stranger,[270] 'tis no act of courage
Which aloft thou dost discern;
No bold _bird_ gone forth to forage
'Mid the tempest stern; 20
But such mockery as the nations
See, when public perturbations[271]
Lift men from their native stations,
Like yon TUFT OF FERN;

"Such it is; the aspiring creature[272] 25
Soaring on undaunted wing,
(So you fancied) is by nature
A dull helpless thing,[273]
Dry and withered, light and yellow;--
_That_ to be the tempest's fellow! 30
Wait--and you shall see how hollow
Its endeavouring!"

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 267: 1845.

While thy brow youth's roses crown. MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 268: 1827.

... political aspirants. 1820.
]

[Footnote 269: 1827.

Stranger, 'tis a sight of pleasure 1820.
]

[Footnote 270: 1827.

Traveller, ... 1820.
]

[Footnote 271: 1827.

See, when Commonwealth-vexations 1820.
]

[Footnote 272: 1827.

Such it is, and not a Haggard 1820.
]

[Footnote 273: 1827.

'Tis by nature dull and laggard,
A poor helpless Thing, 1820.
]

THE PASS OF KIRKSTONE[CV]

Composed June 27, 1817.--Published 1820

[Written at Rydal Mount. Thoughts and feelings of many walks in all weathers, by day and night, over this Pass, alone and with beloved friends.--I. F.]

Included among the "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.

I

Within the mind strong fancies work,
A deep delight the bosom thrills,
Oft as I pass along the fork
Of these fraternal hills:
Where, save the rugged road, we find 5
No appanage of human kind,
Nor hint of man; if stone or rock
Seem not his handy-work to mock
By something cognizably shaped;
Mockery[274]--or model roughly hewn, 10
And left as if by earthquake strewn,
Or from the Flood escaped:
Altars for Druid service fit;
(But where no fire was ever lit,
Unless the glow-worm to the skies 15
Thence offer nightly sacrifice)
Wrinkled Egyptian monument;
Green moss-grown tower; or hoary tent;
Tents of a camp that never shall be razed--[275]
On which four thousand years have gazed! 20

II

Ye plough-shares sparkling on the slopes!
Ye snow-white lambs that trip
Imprisoned 'mid the formal props
Of restless ownership!
Ye trees, that may[276] to-morrow fall 25
To feed the insatiate Prodigal![277]
Lawns, houses, chattels, groves, and fields,
All that the fertile valley shields;[278]
Wages of folly--baits of crime,
Of life's uneasy game the stake, 30
Playthings that keep the eyes awake
Of drowsy, dotard Time;--
O care! O guilt!--O vales and plains,
Here, 'mid[279] his own unvexed domains,
A Genius dwells, that can subdue 35
At once all memory of You,--
Most potent when mists veil the sky,
Mists that distort and magnify;
While the coarse rushes, to the sweeping breeze,
Sigh forth their ancient melodies! 40

III

List to those shriller notes!--_that_ march
Perchance was on the blast,
When, through this Height's inverted arch,
Rome's earliest legion passed![CW]
--They saw, adventurously impelled, 45
And older[280] eyes than theirs beheld,
This[281] block--and yon, whose church-like frame
Gives to this[282] savage Pass its name.[CX]
Aspiring Road! that lov'st to hide
Thy daring in a vapoury bourn, 50
Not seldom may the hour return
When thou shalt be my guide:
And I (as all men may find cause,[283]
When life is at a weary pause,
And they[284] have panted up the hill 55
Of duty with reluctant will)
Be thankful, even though tired and faint,
For the rich bounties of constraint;
Whence oft invigorating transports flow
That choice lacked courage to bestow! 60

IV

My[285] Soul was grateful for delight
That wore a threatening brow;
A veil is lifted--can she slight
The scene that opens now?
Though habitation none appear,[CY] 65
The greenness tells, man must be there;[286]
The shelter--that the pérspective
Is of the clime[287] in which we live;
Where Toil pursues his daily round;
Where Pity sheds sweet tears[288]--and Love, 70
In woodbine bower or birchen grove,
Inflicts his tender wound.
--Who comes not hither ne'er shall know
How beautiful the world below;
Nor can he guess how lightly leaps 75
The brook adown the rocky steeps,[CZ]
Farewell, thou desolate Domain!
Hope, pointing to the cultured plain,
Carols like a shepherd-boy;
And who is she?--Can that be Joy![DA] 80
Who, with a sunbeam for her guide,
Smoothly skims the meadows wide;
While Faith, from yonder opening cloud,
To hill and vale proclaims aloud,
"Whate'er the weak may dread, the wicked dare, 85
Thy lot, O Man, is good, thy portion fair!"[289]

A copy of this poem, sent in MS. to the Beaumonts at Coleorton, contains the following preface--"Composed chiefly in a walk from the top of Kirkstone to Patterdale, by W. Wordsworth, 1817"; and on the back of this MS. (in which those variations from the earliest published version occur, which are printed as "MS." readings in the previous footnotes, and which ends with stanza iii.), the date is given, "Mr. Wordsworth's verses, June 27, 1817."--ED.

VARIANTS:

[Footnote 274: 1820.

Rockery ... MS. copy, sent to Coleorton.
]

[Footnote 275: 1857.

... raised; 1820.
]

[Footnote 276: 1820.

... shall ... MS.
]

[Footnote 277: 1820.

To feed the careless Prodigal, MS.

So bids the careless Prodigal, MS.
]

[Footnote 278: 1820.

All that the beauteous valley shields. MS.
]

[Footnote 279: 1820.

Here in ... MS.
]

[Footnote 280: 1820.

... other ... MS.
]

[Footnote 281: 1820.

That ... MS.
]

[Footnote 282: 1836.

... the ... MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 283: 1836.

And I (as often we find cause, MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 284: 1836.

... we ... MS. and 1820.
]

[Footnote 285: 1820.

The ... MS.
]

[Footnote 286: 1820.

... tells us Man is near MS.
]

[Footnote 287: 1820.

... world ... MS.
]

[Footnote 288: 1820.

Where Pity's tears are shed ... MS.
]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote CV: The title in the edition of 1820 was _Ode, The Pass of Kirkstone_.--ED.]

[Footnote CW: The top of Kirkstone Pass is aptly described as an "inverted arch." There are numerous signs of the Roman occupation of Britain still surviving in the district; the old Roman road to Penrith running along the top of High Street, a little to the east of Kirkstone.--ED.]

[Footnote CX: The block, which from its shape was called the Kirkstone, lies to the west of the road, and a little way from the summit of the Pass, on the right as one ascends from Patterdale.--ED.]

[Footnote CY: Towards Brothers Water.--ED.]

[Footnote CZ: "The walk up Kirkstone was very interesting. The becks among the rocks were all alive. William showed me the little mossy streamlet which he had before loved when he saw its bright green track in the snow. The view above Ambleside very beautiful. There we sat and looked down on the green vale. We watched the crows at a little distance from us become white as silver as they flew in the sunshine, and when they went still further, they looked like shapes of water passing over the green fields." (Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, 16th April 1802.)--ED.]

[Footnote DA: Compare _Ode, Intimations of Immortality_, stanza iii.--

Thou Child of Joy,
Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy
Shepherd-boy!

ED.
]

LAMENT OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

ON THE EVE OF A NEW YEAR

Composed 1817.--Published 1820

[This arose out of a flash of moonlight that struck the ground when I was approaching the steps that lead from the garden at Rydal Mount to the front of the house. "From her sunk eyes a stagnant tear stole forth" is taken, with some loss, from a discarded poem, _The Convict_, in which occurred, when he was discovered lying in the cell, these lines:--

But now he upraises the deep-sunken eye,
The motion unsettles a tear;
The silence of sorrow it seems to supply,
And asks of me--why I am here.--I. F.]