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The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 2 (of 8)

Chapter 75: The Poem
By William Wordsworth
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British LiteraturePoetry

About This Book

A collection of lyrical and narrative poems ranging from intimate meditations on landscape and memory to shorter occasional pieces and a moral tale in verse about a wandering man and his loyal animal guide. The texts move between vivid descriptions of rural scenes and inward reflection, using simple diction and everyday incidents to examine imagination, conscience, and the emotional power of recollection. Recurring features include pastoral imagery, moral questioning prompted by ordinary events, and a sustained interest in how nature and memory shape feeling and thought.






Variant 1:
 
1837
Erect as a sunflower he stands, and the streak
Of the unfaded rose is expressed on his cheek.

1815
... still enlivens his cheek.
 1827
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Variant 2:
 
1840
There fashion'd that countenance, which, in spite of a stain
 1815
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Variant 3:
 
date
There's an old man in London, the prime of old men,
You may hunt for his match through ten thousand and ten,
Of prop or of staff, does he walk, does he run,
No more need has he than a flow'r of the sun.


1800
This stanza appeared only in 1800, occupying the place of the three first stanzas in the final text.

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Variant 4:
 
1815
... name ...
 1800
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Variant 5:
 
1815
Was the Top of the Country, ...
1800
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Variant 6:
 
1827
Not less than the skill of an Exchequer Teller
Could count the shoes worn on the steps of his cellar.
1800
How oft have I heard in sweet Tilsbury Vale
Of the silver-rimmed horn whence he dealt his good ale.

1815
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Variant 7:
 
1815
... plough'd land, ...
 1800
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Variant 8:
 
1815
... the noise of the bowl,
 1800
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Variant 9:
 
On the works of the world, on the bustle and sound,
Seated still in his boat, he look'd leisurely round;
And if now and then he his hands did employ,
'Twas with vanity, wonder, and infantine joy.


Only in the text of 1800.
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Variant 10:
 
1815
... were ...
 1800
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Variant 11:
 
1815
For they all still imagin'd his hive full of honey;
Like a Church-warden, Adam continu'd his rounds,

1800
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Variant 12:
 
1837
... this ...
 1800
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Variant 13:
 
1815
... he kept to himself;
 1800
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Variant 14:
 
1820
You lift up your eyes, "O the merciless Jew!"
But in truth he was never more cruel than you;
1800
... —and I guess that you frame
A judgment too harsh of the sin and the shame;
1815
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Variant 15:
 
1815
... scarce e'en ...
 1800
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Variant 16:
 
Italics first used in 1815.
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Variant 17:
 
1815
... lawn ...
 1800
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Variant 18:
 
1815
He stood all alone like ...
1800
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Variant 19:
 
1800
... needs ...
1815
The edition of 1827 returns to the text of 1800.

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Variant 20:
 
1815
Both stable-boy, errand-boy, porter and groom;
You'd think it the life of a Devil in H—l,
But nature was kind, and with Adam 'twas well.

1800
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Variant 21:
 
He's ten birth-days younger, he's green, and he's stout,
Twice as fast as before does his blood run about,
You'd think it the life of a Devil in H—l,
But Nature is kind, and with Adam 'twas well.
This stanza appeared only in 1800. It was followed by that which now forms lines 53-56 of the final text.

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Variant 22:
 
1815
He's ten birth-days younger, he's green, and he's stout,
1800
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Variant 23:
 
1815
You'd ...
1800
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Variant 24:
 
1815
... does ...
 1800
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Variant 25:
 
1815
... in ...
1800
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Variant 26:
 
1800
... have come ...
 1815
The text of 1820 returns to that of 1800.

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Variant 27:
 
1815
...he'll stand
 1800
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Variant 28:
 
1837
Where proud Covent-Garden, in frost and in snow,
Spreads her fruits and her flow'rs, built up row after row;
Old Adam will point with his finger and say,
To them that stand by, "I've seen better than they."


1800
... her fruit ...
 1815
(The text of 1815 is otherwise identical with that of 1837.)

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Variant 29:
 
Where the apples are heap'd on the barrows in piles,
You see him stop short, he looks long, and he smiles;
He looks, and he smiles, and a Poet might spy
The image of fifty green fields in his eye.


Only in the text of 1800.
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Variant 30:
 
1837
... in the waggons, and smells to the hay;
1800
... in the Waggon, and smells at ...
1815
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Variant 31:
 
1815
... has mown,
And sometimes he dreams that the hay is his own.
1800
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Variant 32:
 
1815
... where'er ...
1800
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Variant 33:
 
1850
... spring up o'er ...
 1800
... over ...
 1815
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Footnote A:
 
i. e. first published in the 1815 edition of the Poems: but, although dated by Wordsworth 1803, it had appeared in The Morning Post of July 21, 1800, under the title, The Farmer of Tilsbury Vale. A Character. It was then unsigned.—Ed.

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Note:
  With this picture, which was taken from real life, compare the imaginative one of
The Reverie of Poor Susan
[vol. i. p. 226]; and see (to make up the deficiencies of this class)
The Excursion, passim
.—W. W. 1837.



Contents 1800
Main Contents





1799 ← end of Volume II: 1800 → Poems on the Naming of Places
Main Contents





Wordsworth's Poetical Works, Volume 2: Poems on the Naming of Places



Edited by William Knight


1896




Table of Contents





Poems on the Naming of Places

Advertisement:


By Persons resident in the country and attached to rural objects, many places will be found unnamed or of unknown names, where little Incidents will have occurred, or feelings been experienced, which will have given to such places a private and peculiar interest. From a wish to give some sort of record to such Incidents or renew the gratification of such Feelings, Names have been given to Places by the Author and some of his Friends, and the following Poems written in consequence
A
.—W. W. 1800.





Footnote A:
 
It should be explained that owing to the chronological plan adopted in this edition (see the preface to vol. i.), two of the poems which were placed by Wordsworth in his series of "Poems on the Naming of Places," but which belong to later years, are printed in subsequent volumes.—Ed.

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Contents: Poems on the Naming of Places
Main Contents



"It was an April morning: fresh and clear"

Composed 1800.—Published 1800

[Written at Grasmere. This poem was suggested on the banks of the brook that runs through Easdale, which is, in some parts of its course, as wild and beautiful as brook can be. I have composed thousands of verses by the side of it.—I. F.]





The Poem


text variant footnote line number
It was an April morning: fresh and clear
The Rivulet, delighting in its strength,
Ran with a young man's speed; and yet the voice
Of waters which the winter had supplied
Was softened down into a vernal tone.
The spirit of enjoyment and desire,
And hopes and wishes, from all living things
Went circling, like a multitude of sounds.
The budding groves seemed eager to urge on
The steps of June; as if their various hues
Were only hindrances that stood between
Them and their object: but, meanwhile, prevailed
Such an entire contentment in the air
That every naked ash, and tardy tree
Yet leafless, showed as if the countenance
With which it looked on this delightful day
Were native to the summer.—Up the brook
I roamed in the confusion of my heart,
Alive to all things and forgetting all.
At length I to a sudden turning came
In this continuous glen, where down a rock
The Stream, so ardent in its course before,
Sent forth such sallies of glad sound, that all
Which I till then had heard, appeared the voice
Of common pleasure: beast and bird, the lamb,
The shepherd's dog, the linnet and the thrush
Vied with this waterfall, and made a song,
Which, while I listened, seemed like the wild growth
Or like some natural produce of the air,
That could not cease to be. Green leaves were here;
But 'twas the foliage of the rocks—the birch,
The yew, the holly, and the bright green thorn,
With hanging islands of resplendent furze:
And, on a summit, distant a short space,
By any who should look beyond the dell,
A single mountain-cottage might be seen.
I gazed and gazed, and to myself I said,
"Our thoughts at least are ours; and this wild nook,
My Emma, I will dedicate to thee."
—Soon did the spot become my other home,
My dwelling, and my out-of-doors abode.
And, of the Shepherds who have seen me there,
To whom I sometimes in our idle talk
Have told this fancy, two or three, perhaps,
Years after we are gone and in our graves,
When they have cause to speak of this wild place,
May call it by the name of Emma's Dell.



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