Doubtless "observed" during the visit to London in April and May 1806.—Ed.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1807.
[2] 1807
[3] 1827.
[5] 1827.
[6] 1807.
The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807.
[7] 1807.
[9] 1827.
And MS. letter, D. W. to Lady Beaumont, Nov. 15, 1806.
[10] 1807.
[11] 1807.
MS. letter, D. W. to Lady Beaumont, Nov. 15, 1806.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] "Compare Shelley's statement in Julian and Maddalo—where he speaks of material not spiritual voyaging—that coming homeward 'always makes the spirit tame'" (Professor Dowden).
Composed 1806.—Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. The echo came from Nab-scar, when I was walking on the opposite side of Rydal Mere. I will here mention, for my dear Sister's sake, that, while she was sitting alone one day high up on this part of Loughrigg Fell, she was so affected by the voice of the Cuckoo heard from the crags at some distance that she could not suppress a wish to have a stone inscribed with her name among the rocks from which the sound proceeded. On my return from my walk I recited these verses to Mrs. Wordsworth.—I. F.]
Classed among the "Poems of the Imagination."—Ed.
The place where this echo was heard can easily be identified by any one walking along the southern or Loughrigg shore of Rydal. The Fenwick note refers to a wish of Dorothy Wordsworth to have her name inscribed on a stone among the rocks of Loughrigg Fell. It is impossible to know whether it was ever carried out or not. If it was, the place is undiscoverable, like the spot on the banks of the Rotha, where Joanna's name was graven "deep in the living rock," or the place where Wordsworth carved his wife's initials (as recorded in Mrs. Hemans' Memoirs), or where the daisy was found, which suggested the lines beginning
and it is well that they are undiscoverable. It is so easy for posterity to vulgarise, by idle and unappreciative curiosity, spots that are sacred only to the few who feel them to be shrines. The very grave where Wordsworth rests runs the risk of being thus abused by the unthinking crowd. But, in the hope that no one will desecrate it, as the Rock of Names has been injured, I may mention that there is a stone near Rydal Mere, on the north-eastern slope of Loughrigg, with the initial "M." deeply cut. The exact locality I need not more minutely indicate.—Ed.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1827.
Only in the edition of 1807.
[3] 1815.
[4] Italics were first used in the edition of 1836.
[5] 1836.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Writing to Barron Field about this stanza of the poem in 1827, Wordsworth said, "The word 'rebounds' I wish much to introduce here; for the imaginative warning turns upon the echo, which ought to be revived as near the conclusion as possible."—Ed.
Composed 1806.—Published 1807
[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 with 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 Shakspeare'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.]
From 1807 to 1820 this was named Prefatory Sonnet, as introducing the series of "Miscellaneous Sonnets" in these editions. In 1827 it took its place as the first in that series, following the Dedication To ——.—Ed.
In Wordsworth's time "Furness-fells" was a generic phrase for all the hills east of the Duddon, south of the Brathay, and west of Windermere; including the Coniston group, Wetherlam, with the Yewdale and Tilberthwaite fells. The district of Furness, like that of Craven in Yorkshire, being originally ecclesiastical, had a wide area, of which the abbey of Furness was the centre.
In the Fenwick note prefixed to this sonnet, Wordsworth refers to his earliest attempt at sonnet writing. He says he wrote an irregular one at school, and the next were three sonnets written one afternoon in Dove Cottage in the year 1801, after his sister had read the sonnets of Milton. This note is not, however, to be trusted. It was not in 1801, but on the 21st of May 1802, that his sister read to him these sonnets of Milton; and he afterwards wrote not one but two sonnets on Buonaparte. What the irregular sonnet written at school was it is impossible to say, unless he refers to the one entitled, in 1807 and subsequent editions, Written in Very Early Youth; and beginning—
But on a copy of An Evening Walk (1793 edition) Wordsworth wrote:—"This is the first of my published poems, with the exception of a sonnet, written when I was a schoolboy, and published in the European Magazine in June or July 1786, and signed Axiologus." Even as to this date his memory was at fault. It was published in 1787, when he was seventeen years of age. Its full title may be given; although, for reasons already stated, it would be unjustifiable to republish the sonnet, except in an appendix to the poems, and mainly for its biographical interest. It was entitled, Sonnet, on seeing Miss Maria Williams weep at a Tale of Distress. But, fully ten years before the date mentioned by Dorothy Wordsworth in her Grasmere Journal—as the day on which she read Milton's sonnets to her brother, and on which he wrote the two on Buonaparte—he had written others, the existence of which he had evidently forgotten. On the 6th of May 1792, his sister wrote thus from Forncett Rectory in Norfolk to her friend, Miss Jane Pollard:—"I promised to transcribe some of William's compositions. As I made the promise, I will give you a little sonnet.... I take the first that offers. It is very valuable to me, because the cause which gave birth to it was the favourite evening walk of William and me.... I have not chosen this sonnet from any particular beauty it has. It was the first I laid my hands upon." From the clause I have italicised, it would almost seem that other sonnets belong to that period, viz. before 1793, when An Evening Walk appeared. She would hardly have spoken of it as she did, if this was the only sonnet her brother had then written. Though very inferior to his later work, this sonnet may be preserved as a specimen of Wordsworth's earlier manner, before he had broken away, by the force of his own imagination, from the trammels of the conventional style, which he inherited. It is printed in the Appendix to volume viii.
It will be seen that Wordsworth's memory cannot be always relied upon, in reference to dates, and similar details, in the Fenwick memoranda.—Ed.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1849.
[2] 1827.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare in Lovelace's poem, To Althea from Prison—
[B] Compare the line in the Ode to Duty vol. iii. p. 40—
Composed 1806.—Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. The last line but two stood, at first, better and more characteristically, thus:—
My sister and I were in the habit of having the tea-kettle in our little sitting room; and we toasted the bread ourselves, which reminds me of a little circumstance not unworthy to be set down among these minutiæ. Happening both of us to be engaged a few minutes one morning when we had a young prig of a Scotch lawyer to breakfast with us, my dear Sister, with her usual simplicity, put the toasting fork with a slice of bread into the hands of this Edinburgh genius. Our little book-case stood on one side of the fire. To prevent loss of time, he took down a book, and fell to reading, to the neglect of the toast, which was burnt to a cinder. Many a time have we laughed at this circumstance, and other cottage simplicities of that day. By the bye, I have a spite at one of this series of Sonnets (I will leave the reader to discover which) as having been the means of nearly putting off for ever our acquaintance with dear Miss Fenwick, who has always stigmatized one line of it as vulgar, and worthy only of having been composed by a country squire.—I. F.]
In 1815, this was classed among the "Poems proceeding from Sentiment and Reflection." From 1820 to 1843, it found a place among the "Miscellaneous Sonnets," and in 1845 was restored to its earlier one among the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."—Ed.
I
II
III
IV
The text of the poem was little altered, and was fixed in 1827. It had no title in 1807 and 1815.
The reading of 1807,
was a reminiscence of Dove Cottage, which we regret to lose in the later editions.
In the Baptistery of Westminster Abbey, there is a statue of Wordsworth by Frederick Thrupp of great merit, placed there by the late Dean Stanley, beside busts of Keble, Maurice, and Kingsley. Underneath the statue of Wordsworth are the four lines from Personal Talk—
Dean Stanley found it difficult to select from Wordsworth's poems the lines most appropriate for inscription, and adopted these at the suggestion of his friend, Principal Shairp.—Ed.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1815.
[2] 1815.
[3] 1827.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] This is the line referred to by Wordsworth in the Fenwick note. Compare Midsummer Night's Dream, act I. scene i. ll. 75-78.—Ed.
[B] Compare Collins, The Passions, l. 60, and An Evening Walk, l. 237 and note (vol. i. p. 22).—Ed.
[C] Compare The Prelude, book xii. l. 151 (vol. iii. p. 349)—
[D] Wordsworth said on one occasion, as Professor Dowden has reminded us, that he thought Othello, the close of the Phædo, and Walton's Life of George Herbert, the three "most pathetic" writings in the world.—Ed.
Intended more particularly for the perusal of those who may have happened to be enamoured of some beautiful place of Retreat, in the Country of the Lakes.
Composed 1806.—Published 1807
Classed among the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."—Ed.
The cottage at Town-end, Grasmere—where this sonnet was composed—may have suggested it. Some of the details, however, are scarcely applicable to Dove Cottage; the "brook" (referred to elsewhere) is outside the orchard ground, and there is scarcely anything in the garden to warrant the phrase, "its own small pasture." It is unnecessary to localise the allusions.—Ed.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1837.
[2] 1827.
[3] 1827.
[4] 1827.
[5] 1827.
[6] 1838.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare the lines in Peter Bell, vol. ii. p. 13—
Composed 1806.—Published 1807
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."—Ed.