That winds through secret wards;
Are well assigned to Memory
By allegoric Bards.
A Pencil to her hand;
That, softening objects, sometimes even
Outstrips the heart's demand;
Of lingering care subdues, 10
Long-vanished happiness refines,
And clothes in brighter hues;
Those Spectres to dilate
That startle Conscience, as she lurks 15
Within her lonely seat.
In purity were such,
That not an image of the past
Should fear that pencil's touch! 20
Upon a soothing scene,
Age steal to his allotted nook
Contented and serene;
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.
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.
[368] 1837.
[369] 1837.
[370] Compare Tintern Abbey, II. 17, 18.—Ed.
[371] e. g. The Rothay, or the Duddon.—Ed.
[372] 1827.
[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.
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.
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.
Bright suns without a spot;
But thou art no such perfect thing:
Rejoice that thou art not!
[377]
So, Mary, let it be
If nought in loveliness compare
With what thou art to me.
Whose veil is unremoved 10
Till heart with heart in concord beats,
And the lover is beloved.
FOOTNOTES:
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.
TO ——
Composed 1824.—Published 1827
[Written at Rydal Mount. To Mrs. W.—I. F.]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections."—Ed.
Full oft our human foresight I deplore;
Trembling, through my unworthiness, with fear
That friends, by death disjoined, may meet no more!
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]
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.
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.
[381] 1836.
[382] 1836.
[383] 1836.
"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 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
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—
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.
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!
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 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[385] Compare Robert Herrick's poem To Daffodils—
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.
[387] Compare Lyly's Endymion, v. 3—
[388] 1836.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
It sees not nor suspects a Bound, 1827.
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
[392] 1836.
MS. sent by Mrs. Wordsworth to Lady Beaumont.
[394] 1836.
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.
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.
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,
[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)—
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.
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]