[249] Compare, in the “Poems on the Naming of Places” (1805), the lines beginning, “When, to the attractions of the busy world,” l. 48—
Ed.
[250] The fifty-three small islands in the Ægean surrounding Delos, as with a circle (κύκλος)—hence the name.—Ed.
[251] Compare Coleridge’s Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouni—
Ed.
[252] Sol = Phoebus = Apollo.—Ed.
AIREY-FORCE VALLEY
Published 1842
First published (1842) in “Poems, chiefly of Early and Late Years.” Afterwards one of the “Poems of the Imagination.”—Ed.
The Aira beck rises on the slopes of Great Dodd, passes Dockray, and enters Ullswater between Glencoin Park and Gowbarrow Park, about two miles from the head of the lake. The Force is quite near to Lyulph’s Tower, where the stream has a fall of about eighty feet. Compare the reference to it in The Somnambulist (1833), and Wordsworth’s account of “Aira-Force,” in his Guide through the District of the Lakes, “Here is a powerful Brook, which dashes among rocks through a deep glen, hung on every side with a rich and happy intermixture of native wood; here are beds of luxuriant fern, aged hawthorns and hollies decked with honeysuckles; and fallow deer glancing and bounding over the lawns and through the thickets.”—Ed.
[253] An ash-tree may still be seen at Aira-Force.—Ed.
“LYRE! THOUGH SUCH POWER DO IN THY MAGIC LIVE”
Composed 1842 (or earlier).—Published 1842
One of the “Poems of the Imagination.”—Ed.
[254] Compare Wordsworth’s description of the Duddon as “diaphanous, because it travels slowly,”—Ed.
LOVE LIES BLEEDING
Composed 1842.—Published 1842
[It has been said that the English, though their country has produced so many great poets, is now the most unpoetical nation in Europe. It is probably true; for they have more temptation to become so than any other European people. Trade, commerce, and manufactures, physical science, and mechanic arts, out of which so much wealth has arisen, have made our countrymen infinitely less sensible to movements of imagination and fancy than were our forefathers in their simple state of society. How touching and beautiful were, in most instances, the names they gave to our indigenous flowers, or any other they were familiarly acquainted with!—Every month for many years have we been importing plants and flowers from all quarters of the globe, many of which are spread through our gardens, and some perhaps likely to be met with on the few Commons which we have left. Will their botanical names ever be displaced by plain English appellations, which will bring them home to our hearts by connexion with our joys and sorrows? It can never be, unless society treads back her steps towards those simplicities which have been banished by the undue influence of towns spreading and spreading in every direction, so that city-life with every generation takes more and more the lead of rural. Among the ancients, villages were reckoned the seats of barbarism. Refinement, for the most part false, increases the desire to accumulate wealth; and while theories of political economy are boastfully pleading for the practice, inhumanity pervades all our dealings in buying and selling. This selfishness wars against disinterested imagination in all directions, and, evils coming round in a circle, barbarism spreads in every quarter of our island. Oh for the reign of justice, and then the humblest man among us would have more power and dignity in and about him than the highest have now!—I.F.]
One of the “Poems of the Fancy.”—Ed.
[255] Compare Midsummer Night’s Dream, act II. scene i. ll. 165-168.—Ed.
“THEY CALL IT LOVE LIES BLEEDING! RATHER SAY”
The previous poem was originally composed in sonnet form; and it belongs, in that form, to the year 1833. It occurs in a MS. copy of the sonnets which record the Tour of 1833 to the Isle of Man and to Scotland.—Ed.
COMPANION TO THE FOREGOING
Composed (?)[256]—Published 1845
[256] The date of the composition of this poem is uncertain, but, as “companion” to Love lies Bleeding, it must be placed in immediate succession to it.—Ed.
THE CUCKOO-CLOCK
Composed 1842.—Published 1842
[Of this clock I have nothing further to say than what the poem expresses, except that it must be here recorded that it was a present from the dear friend for whose sake these notes were chiefly undertaken, and who has written them from my dictation.—I.F.]
One of the “Poems of the Imagination.”—Ed.
[257] Compare To the Cuckoo (vol. ii. p. 289)—
Ed.
[258] Professor Dowden has appropriately called attention to the fact that the cuckoo-clock at Rydal Mount was not stopped during Wordsworth’s last illness.—Ed.
“WANSFELL! THIS HOUSEHOLD HAS A FAVOURED LOT”
Composed 1842.—Published 1845
One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”—Ed.
[259] The Hill that rises to the south-east, above Ambleside.—W.W. 1842.
“THOUGH THE BOLD WINGS OF POESY AFFECT”
Composed (?)—Published 1842
One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”—Ed.
“GLAD SIGHT WHEREVER NEW WITH OLD”
Composed 1842.[260]—Published 1845
One of the “Poems of the Fancy.”—Ed.
[260] A MS. copy of this fragment in Wordsworth’s handwriting, 31st December 1842, fixes the date approximately.—Ed.
[261] 1845.
[262] 1845.
[263] 1845.
[264] 1845.
[265] Compare the lines addressed to Mrs. Wordsworth in 1824, beginning—
Ed.
1843
Two sonnets, and an Inscription for a monument to Southey, were written in 1843.—Ed.
“WHILE BEAMS OF ORIENT LIGHT SHOOT WIDE AND HIGH”
Composed 1st January 1843.—Published 1845
One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”—Ed.
[266] Ambleside.—W.W. 1845.
[267] 1845.
[268] 1845.
[269] 1845.
† These MS. variants occur in a copy of the sonnet written by Wordsworth for Mrs. Arnold at Foxhowe.
INSCRIPTION
For a Monument in Crosthwaite Church, in
the Vale of Keswick
Composed 1843.—Published 1845
One of the “Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces.”—Ed.
I received, from the late Lord Coleridge, the following extracts from letters written by Wordsworth to his father, the Hon. Justice Coleridge, in reference to the Southey Inscription in Crosthwaite Church. Wordsworth seems to have submitted the proposed Inscription to Mr. Coleridge’s judgment, and the changes he made upon it, in deference to the opinions he received, shew, as Lord Coleridge says, “the extreme care Wordsworth took to have the substance, and the expression also, as perfect as he could make it.” The original draft of the “Inscription” was as follows:—
Sacred to the Memory of Robert Southey, whose mortal remains are interred in the adjoining Churchyard. He was born at Bristol, October ye 4th, 1774, And died, after a residence of nearly forty years, at Greta Hall in this Parish. March 21st, 1843.
This Memorial was erected by friends of Robert Southey.
Alteration in the Epitaph—
December the 6th.
My dear Mr. Justice Coleridge,
Notwithstanding what I have written before, I could not but wish to meet your wishes upon the points which you mentioned, and, accordingly, have added and altered as on the other side of this paper. If you approve don’t trouble yourself to answer.
Ever faithfully yours,
W. Wordsworth.
These alterations are approved of by friends here, and I hope will please you.
My dear Mr. Justice Coleridge,
Pray accept my thanks for the pains you have taken with the Inscription, and excuse the few words I shall have to say upon your remarks. There are two lakes in the Vale of Keswick; both which, along with the lateral Vale of Newlands immediately opposite Southey’s study window, will be included in the words “Ye Vales and Hills” by everyone who is familiar with the neighbourhood.
I quite agree with you that the construction of the lines that particularize his writings is rendered awkward by so many participles passive, and the more so on account of the transitive verb informed. One of these participles may be got rid of, and, I think, a better couplet produced by this alteration—
As I have entered into particulars as to the character of S.’s writings, and they are so various, I thought his historic works ought by no means to be omitted, and therefore, though unwilling to lengthen the Epitaph, I added the two following—
I do not feel with you in respect to the word “so”; it refers, of course, to the preceding line, and as the reference is to fireside feelings and intimate friends, there appears to me a propriety in an expression inclining to the colloquial. The couplet was the dictate of my own feelings, and the construction is accordingly broken and rather dramatic,—but too much of this. If you have any objection to the couplet as altered, be so kind as let me know; if not, on no account trouble yourself to answer this letter.
Prematurely I object to as you do. I used the word with reference to that decay of faculties which is not uncommon in advanced life, and which often leads to dotage,—but the word must not be retained.
We regret much to hear that Lady Coleridge is unwell, pray present to her our best wishes.
What could induce the Bishop of London to forbid the choral service at St. Mark’s? It was in execution, I understand, above all praise.
Ever most faithfully yours,
W. Wordsworth.
December 2nd, ’43.
My dear Mr. Justice Coleridge,
The first line would certainly have more spirit by reading “your” as you suggest. I had previously considered that; but decided in favour of “the,” as “your,” I thought, would clog the sentence in sound, there being “ye” thrice repeated, and followed by “you” at the close of the 4th line. I also thought that “your” would interfere with the application of “you” at the end of the fourth line, to the whole of the particular previous images as I intended it to do. But I don’t trouble you with this Letter on that account, but merely to ask you whether the couplet now standing:—
would not be better thus
This alteration does not quite satisfy me, but I can do no better. The word “nest” both in itself and in conjunction with “holier” seems to me somewhat bold and rather startling for marble, particularly in a Church. I should not have thought of any alteration in a merely printed poem, but this makes a difference. If you think the proposed alteration better, don’t trouble yourself to answer this; if not, pray be so kind as to tell me so by a single line. I would not on any account have trespassed on your time but for this public occasion. We are sorry to hear of Lady Coleridge’s indisposition; pray present to her our kind regards and best wishes for her recovery, united with the greetings of the season both for her and yourself, and believe me faithfully,
Your obliged,
Wm. Wordsworth.
Rydal Mount, December 23rd, ’43.
To the Memory of Robert Southey, a Man eminent for genius, versatile talents, extensive and accurate knowledge, and habits of the most conscientious industry. Nor was he less distinguished for strict temperance, pure benevolence, and warm affections; but his Mind, such are the awful dispensations of Providence, was prematurely and almost totally obscured by a slowly-working and inscrutable malady under which he languished until released by death in the 69th year of his age.
Reader! ponder the condition to which this great and good Man, not without merciful alleviations, was doomed, and learn from his example to make timely use of thy endowments and opportunities, and to walk humbly with thy God.
COPY OF THE PRINTED INSCRIPTION
Sacred to the Memory of Robert Southey, whose mortal remains are interred in the adjoining churchyard. He was born at Bristol, October 4th, 1774, and died after a residence of nearly 40 years at Greta Hall, in this Parish, March 21st, 1843.
This Memorial was erected by friends of Robert Southey.
Edward Quillinan wrote, 25th March 1843, “Yesterday I drove Mr. Wordsworth early over to Keswick, that he and I might attend the funeral of Mr. Southey, who was buried in Crosthwaite churchyard there at eleven A.M. It was very affecting to see Kate Southey with her brother Cuthbert, and brother-in-law Herbert Hill, at her father’s grave as the coffin was lowered into it. She looked as if she yearned to be there too. She says she has now got her father back again.”—Ed.
TO THE REV. CHRISTOPHER WORDSWORTH,
D.D., MASTER OF HARROW SCHOOL[271]
After the perusal of his Theophilus Anglicanus, recently
published.
Composed 1843.—Published 1845
One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”—Ed.