No More Learning

. . And, when it chanced
That pauses of deep silence mock'd his skill, 1800.

. . . and, when a lengthened pause
Of silence came and baffled his best skill,
'The Prelude', 1850. ]


[Variant 4: This and the following line were added in 1805. ]


[Variant 5:

1815.

. . . ere he was ten years old. 1805. ]


[Variant 6:

1845.

Fair are the woods, and beauteous is the spot,
The vale where he was born: the Church-yard hangs 1800.

Fair is the spot, most beautiful the Vale
Where he was born: the grassy Church-yard hangs 1827.

The text of 1840 returns to that of 1800. ]


[Variant 7:

1836.

And there along that bank when I have pass'd
At evening, I believe, that near his grave 1800.

. . . I believe, that oftentimes 1805.

And through that Church-yard when my way has led 1827. ]


[Variant 8:

1815.

A full half-hour together I have stood,
Mute--for he died when he was ten years old. 1800.

Mute--looking at the grave in which he lies. 1805. ]



* * * * *


FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: In 'The Prelude' the version of 1827 is adopted for the
most part. --Ed. ]


[Footnote B: See 'Graduati Cantabrigienses' (1850), by Joseph Romily,
the Registrar to the University 1832-1862. --Ed. ]





* * * * *





THE TWO THIEVES; OR, THE LAST STAGE OF AVARICE


Composed 1798. --Published 1800


[This is described from the life, as I was in the habit of observing
when a boy at Hawkshead School. Daniel was more than eighty years older
than myself when he was daily, thus occupied, under my notice. No books
have so early taught me to think of the changes to which human life is
subject, and while looking at him I could not but say to myself--we may,
one of us, I or the happiest of my playmates, live to become still more
the object of pity, than this old man, this half-doating
pilferer. --I. F. ]

Included among the "Poems referring to the Period of Old Age. "--Ed.



O now that the genius of Bewick [A] were mine,
And the skill which he learned on the banks of the Tyne,
Then the Muses might deal with me just as they chose,
For I'd take my last leave both of verse and of prose. [1]

What feats would I work with my magical hand! 5
Book-learning and books should be banished the land: [2]
And, for hunger and thirst and such troublesome calls,
Every ale-house should then have a feast on its walls.

The traveller would hang his wet clothes on a chair;
Let them smoke, let them burn, not a straw. Would he care! 10
For the Prodigal Son, Joseph's Dream and his sheaves,
Oh, what would they be to my tale of two Thieves?

The One, yet unbreeched, is not three birthdays old,[3]
His Grandsire that age more than thirty times told;
There are ninety good seasons of fair and foul weather 15
Between them, and both go a-pilfering [4] together.

With chips is the carpenter strewing his floor?
Is a cart-load of turf [5] at an old woman's door?
Old Daniel his hand to the treasure will slide!
And his Grandson's as busy at work by his side. 20

Old Daniel begins; he stops short--and his eye,
Through the lost look of dotage, is cunning and sly:
'Tis a look which at this time is hardly his own,
But tells a plain tale of the days that are flown.

He once [6] had a heart which was moved by the wires 25
Of manifold pleasures and many desires:
And what if he cherished his purse? 'Twas no more
Than treading a path trod by thousands before.

'Twas a path trod by thousands; but Daniel is one
Who went something farther than others have gone, [7] 30
And now with old Daniel you see how it fares;
You see to what end he has brought his grey hairs.

The pair sally forth hand in hand: ere the sun
Has peered o'er the beeches, their work is begun:
And yet, into whatever sin they may fall, 35
This child but half knows it, and that not at all.

They hunt through the streets [8] with deliberate tread,
And each, in his turn, becomes leader or led; [9]
And, wherever they carry their plots and their wiles,
Every face in the village is dimpled with smiles. 40

Neither checked by the rich nor the needy they roam;
For the grey-headed Sire [10] has a daughter at home,
Who will gladly repair all the damage that's done;
And three, were it asked, would be rendered for one.

Old Man! whom so oft I with pity have eyed, 45
I love thee, and love the sweet Boy at thy side:
Long yet may'st thou live! for a teacher we see
That lifts up the veil of our nature in thee. [B]



* * * * *


VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1800.

Oh! now that the boxwood and graver were mine,
Of the Poet who lives on the banks of the Tyne,
Who has plied his rude tools with more fortunate toil
Than Reynolds e'er brought to his canvas and oil.
MS. 1798. ]


[Variant 2:

1800.

Then Books, and Book-learning, I'd ring out your knell,
The Vicar should scarce know an A from an L. MS. 1798. ]


[Variant 3:

1820.

Little Dan is unbreech'd, he is three birth-days old, 1800. ]


[Variant 4:

1837.

. . . a-stealing . . . 1800. ]


[Variant 5:

1827.

. . . of peats . . . 1800. ]


[Variant 6:

1820.

Dan once . . . 1800. ]


[Variant 7:

1800.

'Twas a smooth pleasant pathway, a gentle descent,
And leisurely down it, and down it, he went. MS. 1798. ]


[Variant 8:

1802.

. . . street . . . 1800. ]


[Variant 9:

1837.

. . . is both leader and led; 1800. ]


[Variant 10:

1837.

For grey-headed Dan . . . 1800.

The grey-headed Sire . . . 1820. ]



* * * * *


FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: Thomas Bewick, the wood engraver, born at Cherryburn, near
Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1753, died 1828. He revived the art of wood
engraving in England. His illustrations--drawn for the 'General History
of British Quadrupeds' (1790), and for his own 'History of British
Birds' (1797 and 1804)--were unrivalled in their way. --Ed. ]


[Footnote B: Charles Lamb, writing to Wordsworth in 1815, spoke of

"that delicacy towards aberrations from the strict path, which is so
fine in the 'Old Thief and the Boy by his side,' which always brings
water into my eyes. "

(See 'Letters of Charles Lamb', edited by Alfred Ainger, vol. i. p.
287. )--Ed. ]





* * * * *





WRITTEN WITH A SLATE PENCIL UPON A STONE, THE LARGEST OF A HEAP LYING
NEAR A DESERTED QUARRY, UPON ONE OF THE ISLANDS [A] AT RYDAL


Composed 1798. --Published 1800


Included among the "Inscriptions. "--Ed.




Stranger! this hillock of mis-shapen stones
Is not a Ruin spared or made by time, [1]
Nor, as perchance thou rashly deem'st, the Cairn
Of some old British Chief: 'tis nothing more
Than the rude embryo of a little Dome 5
Or Pleasure-house, once destined to be built [2]
Among the birch-trees of this rocky isle. [3]
But, as it chanced, Sir William having learned
That from the shore a full-grown man might wade,
And make himself a freeman of this spot 10
At any hour he chose, the prudent Knight [4]
Desisted, and the quarry and the mound
Are monuments of his unfinished task.
The block on which these lines are traced, perhaps,
Was once selected as the corner-stone 15
Of that [5] intended Pile, which would have been
Some quaint odd plaything of elaborate skill,
So that, I guess, the linnet and the thrush,
And other little builders who dwell here,
Had wondered at the work. But blame him not, 20
For old Sir William was a gentle Knight,
Bred in this vale, to which he appertained [6]
With all his ancestry. Then peace to him,
And for the outrage which he had devised
Entire forgiveness! --But if thou art one 25
On fire with thy impatience to become
An inmate of these mountains,--if, disturbed
By beautiful conceptions, thou hast hewn
Out of the quiet rock the elements
Of thy trim Mansion destined soon to blaze 30
In snow white splendour, [B] [7]--think again; and, taught
By old Sir William and his quarry, leave
Thy fragments to the bramble and the rose;
There let the vernal slow warm sun himself,
And let the redbreast hop from stone to stone. 35



* * * * *


VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1837.

Is not a ruin of the ancient time, 1800.

. . . antique . . . MS. ]


[Variant 2:

1802.

. . . which was to have been built 1800. ]


[Variant 3:

1800.

Of some old British warrior: so, to speak
The honest truth, 'tis neither more nor less
Than the rude germ of what was to have been
A pleasure-house, and built upon this isle. MS. ]


[Variant 4:

1837.

. . . the Knight forthwith 1800. ]


[Variant 5:

1837.

Of the . . . 1800. ]


[Variant 6:

1800.

Bred here, and to this valley appertained MS. 1798. ]


[Variant 7:

1800.

. . . glory, . . . 1802.

The text of 1815 returns to that of 1800. ]



* * * * *


FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: In a MS. copy this is given as "the lesser Island. "--Ed. ]


[Footnote B: Compare Wordsworth's

"objections to white, as a colour, in large spots or masses in
landscape,"

in his 'Guide through the district of the Lakes' (section third). --Ed. ]





* * * * *





1799


The poems belonging to the year 1799 were chiefly, if not wholly,
composed at Goslar, in Germany; and all, with three exceptions, appeared
in the second edition of "Lyrical Ballads" (1800). The exceptions were
the following: The lyric beginning, "I travelled among unknown men,"
which was first published in the "Poems" of 1807; and two fragments from
'The Prelude', viz. 'The Influence of Natural Objects' (which appeared
in 'The Friend' in 1809), and 'The Simplon Pass' (first published in the
8vo edition of the Poems in 1845).

Wordsworth reached Goslar on the 6th of October 1798, and left it on the
10th of February 1799. It is impossible to determine the precise order
in which the nineteen or twenty poems associated with that city were
composed. But it is certain that the fragment on the immortal boy of
Windermere--whom its cliffs and islands knew so well--was written in
1798, and not in 1799 (as Wordsworth himself states); because Coleridge
sent a letter to his friend, thanking him for a MS. copy of these lines,
and commenting on them, of which the date is "Ratzeburg, Dec. 10, 1798. "
For obvious reasons, however, I place the fragments originally meant to
be parts of 'The Recluse' together; and, since Wordsworth gave the date
1799 to the others, it would be gratuitous to suppose that he erred in
reference to them all, because we know that his memory failed him in
reference to one of the series. Therefore, although he spent more than
twice as many days in 1798 as in 1799 at Goslar, I set down this group
of poems as belonging to 1799, rather than to the previous year. It will
be seen that, after placing all the poems of this Goslar period in the
year to which they belong, it is possible also to group them according
to their subject matter, without violating chronological order. I
therefore put the fragments, afterwards incorporated in 'The Prelude',
together. These are naturally followed by 'Nutting'--a poem intended for
'The Prelude', but afterwards excluded, as inappropriate. The five poems
referring to "Lucy" are placed in sequence, and the same is done with
the four "Matthew" poems. A small group of four poems follows
appropriately, viz.
'To a Sexton', 'The Danish Boy', 'Lucy Gray', and
'Ruth'; while the Fenwick note almost necessitates our placing the
'Poet's Epitaph' immediately after the Lines 'Written in Germany'; and,
with Wordsworth's life at Goslar, we naturally associate five
things--the cold winter, 'The Prelude', the "Lucy" and the "Matthew"
poems, and the 'Poet's Epitaph'. --Ed.





* * * * *





INFLUENCE OF NATURAL OBJECTS IN CALLING FORTH AND STRENGTHENING THE
IMAGINATION IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH

FROM AN UNPUBLISHED POEM

[This extract is reprinted from "THE FRIEND. "[A]]

Composed 1799. --Published 1809

It was included by Wordsworth among the "Poems referring to the Period
of Childhood. "--Ed.




Wisdom and Spirit of the universe!
Thou Soul, that art the Eternity of thought!
And giv'st [1] to forms and images a breath
And everlasting motion! not in vain,
By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn 5
Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me
The passions that build up our human soul;
Not [2] with the mean and vulgar works of Man:
But with high objects, with enduring things,
With life and nature: purifying thus 10
The elements of feeling and of thought,
And sanctifying by such discipline
Both pain and fear,--until we recognise
A grandeur in the beatings of the heart.

Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me 15
With stinted kindness. In November days,
When vapours rolling down the valleys [3] made
A lonely scene more lonesome; among woods
At noon; and 'mid the calm of summer nights,
When, by the margin of the trembling lake, 20
Beneath the gloomy hills, homeward I went [4]
In solitude, such intercourse was mine:
Mine was it in the fields [5] both day and night,
And by the waters, all the summer long.
And in the frosty season, when the sun 25
Was set, and, visible for many a mile,
The cottage-windows through the twilight blazed, [6]
I heeded not the summons: happy time
It was indeed for all of us; for me [7]
It was a time of rapture! Clear and loud 30
The village-clock tolled six--I wheeled about,
Proud and exulting like an untired horse
That cares not for his home. [8]--All shod with steel
We hissed along the polished ice, in games
Confederate, imitative of the chase 35
And woodland pleasures,--the resounding horn,
The pack loud-chiming, [9] and the hunted hare.
So through the darkness and the cold we flew,
And not a voice was idle: with the din
Smitten, [10] the precipices rang aloud; 40
The leafless trees and every icy crag
Tinkled like iron; while far-distant hills [11]
Into the tumult sent an alien sound
Of melancholy, not unnoticed while the stars,
Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west 45
The orange sky of evening died away.

Not seldom from the uproar I retired
Into a silent bay, or sportively
Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng,
To cut across the reflex [12] of a star; 50
Image, that, flying still before me, gleamed
Upon the glassy plain: and oftentimes, [13]
When we had given our bodies to the wind,
And all the shadowy banks on either side
Came sweeping through the darkness, spinning still 55
The rapid line of motion, then at once
Have I, reclining back upon my heels,
Stopped short; yet still the solitary cliffs
Wheeled by me--even as if the earth had rolled
With visible motion her diurnal round! 60
Behind me did they stretch in solemn train,
Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watched
Till all was tranquil as a summer sea. [14]



* * * * *


VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1809.

That givest . . . 'The Prelude', 1850. ]


[Variant 2:

1815.

Nor . . . 1809. ]


[Variant 3:

1809.

. . . valley . . . The Prelude', 1850. ]


[Variant 4:

1836.

. . . I homeward went 1809. ]


[Variant 5:

1845.

'Twas mine among the fields . . . 1809. ]


[Variant 6:

1809.

. . . blazed through twilight gloom, 'The Prelude', 1850. ]


[Variant 7:

1815.

. . . to me 1809. ]


[Variant 8:

1827.

. . . car'd not for its home--. . . 1809.

. . . cares not . . . 1815. ]


[Variant 9:

1840.

. . . loud bellowing . . . 1809. ]


[Variant 10:

1836.

Meanwhile . . . 1809. ]


[Variant 11:

1845.

. . . while the distant hills 1809. ]


[Variant 12:

1827.

To cut across the image . . . 1809.

To cross the bright reflection . . . 1820. ]


[Variant 13:

1820.

That gleam'd upon the ice; and oftentimes 1809.

(This line occupied the place of lines 51-52 of the final text. )

That fled, and, flying still before me, gleamed
Upon the glassy plain; and oftentimes, 'The Prelude', 1850. ]


[Variant 14:

1809.

. . . as a dreamless sleep. 'The Prelude', 1850. ]



* * * * *


FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: The title of the fragment, as it appeared in 'The Friend',
No. 19, (Dec. 28, 1809,) was 'Growth of Genius from the Influences of
Natural Objects on the Imagination, in Boyhood and Early Youth'. It
first appeared in Wordsworth's Poems in the edition of 1815. It was
afterwards included in the first book of 'The Prelude', l. 401.

The lake referred to with its "silent bays" and "shadowy banks" is that
of Esthwaite; the village clock is that of Hawkshead (see the footnotes
to 'The Prelude'). The only physical accomplishment in which Wordsworth
thought he excelled was skating, an accomplishment in which his brother
poet and acquaintance, Klopstock, also excelled. --Ed. ]





* * * * *





THE SIMPLON PASS [A]


Composed 1799. --Published 1845


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




--Brook and road
Were fellow-travellers in this gloomy Pass, [1]
And with them did we journey several hours
At a slow step. [2] The immeasurable height
Of woods decaying, never to be decayed, 5
The stationary blasts of waterfalls,
And in the narrow rent, at every turn,
Winds thwarting winds bewildered and forlorn,
The torrents shooting from the clear blue sky,
The rocks that muttered close upon our ears, 10
Black drizzling crags that spake by the wayside
As if a voice were in them, the sick sight
And giddy prospect of the raving stream,
The unfettered clouds and region of the heavens,
Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light--15
Were all like workings of one mind, the features
Of the same face, blossoms upon one tree,
Characters of the great Apocalypse,
The types and symbols of Eternity,
Of first, and last, and midst, and without end. 20



* * * * *


VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1845.

. . . gloomy strait, 'The Prelude', 1850. ]


[Variant 2:

1845.

. . . pace . . . 'The Prelude', 1850. ]



* * * * *


FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: This is an extract from the sixth book of 'The Prelude', l.
621. It refers to Wordsworth's first experience of Switzerland, when he
crossed the Alps by the Simplon route, in 1790, in company with his
friend Robert Jones. --Ed. ]





* * * * *





NUTTING


Composed 1799. --Published 1800


[Written in Germany; intended as part of a poem on my own life, but
struck out as not being wanted there. Like most of my schoolfellows I
was an impassioned Nutter. For this pleasure, the Vale of Esthwaite,
abounding in coppice wood, furnished a very wide range. These verses
arose out of the remembrance of feelings I had often had when a boy, and
particularly in the extensive woods that still stretch from the side of
Esthwaite Lake towards Graythwaite, the seat of the ancient family of
Sandys. --I. F. ]

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



--It seems a day
(I speak of one from many singled out)
One of those heavenly days that [1] cannot die;
When, in the eagerness of boyish hope, [2]
I left our cottage-threshold, [A] sallying forth [3] 5
With a huge wallet o'er my shoulders slung, [4]
A nutting-crook in hand; and turned [5] my steps
Tow'rd some far-distant wood, [6] a Figure quaint,
Tricked out in proud disguise of cast-off weeds
Which for that service had been husbanded, 10
By exhortation of my frugal Dame--[7]
Motley accoutrement, of power to smile
At thorns, and brakes, and brambles,--and, in truth,
More ragged than need was! O'er pathless rocks,
Through beds of matted fern, and tangled thickets, 15
Forcing my way, I came to one dear nook [8]
Unvisited, where not a broken bough
Drooped with its withered leaves, ungracious sign
Of devastation; but the hazels rose
Tall and erect, with tempting clusters [9] hung, 20
A virgin scene! --A little while I stood,
Breathing with such suppression of the heart
As joy delights in; and, with wise restraint
Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed
The banquet;--or beneath the trees I sate 25
Among the flowers, and with the flowers I played;
A temper known to those, who, after long
And weary expectation, have been blest
With sudden happiness beyond all hope.
Perhaps it was a bower beneath whose leaves 30
The violets of five seasons re-appear
And fade, unseen by any human eye;
Where fairy water-breaks do murmur on
For ever; and I saw the sparkling foam,
And--with my cheek on one of those green stones 35
That, fleeced with moss, under [10] the shady trees,
Lay round me, scattered like a flock of sheep--
I heard the murmur and the murmuring sound,
In that sweet mood when pleasure loves to pay
Tribute to ease; and, of its joy secure, 40
The heart luxuriates with indifferent things,
Wasting its kindliness on stocks and stones,
And on the vacant air. Then up I rose,
And dragged to earth both branch and bough, with crash
And merciless ravage: and the shady nook 45
Of hazels, and the green and mossy bower,
Deformed and sullied, patiently gave up
Their quiet being: and, unless I now
Confound my present feelings with the past;
Ere from the mutilated bower I turned [11] 50
Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings,
I felt a sense of pain when I beheld
The silent trees, and saw the intruding sky. --[12]
Then, dearest Maiden, move along these shades
In gentleness of heart; with gentle hand 55
Touch--for there is a spirit in the woods.



The woods round Esthwaite Lake have undergone considerable change since
Wordsworth's school-days at Hawkshead; but hazel coppice is still
abundant to the south and west of the Lake. --Ed.



* * * * *


VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1836.

. . . which . . . 1800. ]


[Variant 2: This line was added in the edition of 1827. ]


[Variant 3:

1827.

When forth I sallied from our cottage-door, 1800. ]


[Variant 4:

1832.

And with a wallet o'er my shoulder slung, 1800.

With a huge wallet o'er my shoulder slung, 1815. ]


[Variant 5:

1815.

. . . I turn'd . . . 1800. ]


[Variant 6:

1836.

Towards the distant woods, . . . 1800.

Toward . . . 1832. ]


[Variant 7:

1815.

. . . of Beggar's weeds
Put on for the occasion, by advice
And exhortation . . . 1800. ]


[Variant 8:

1836.

. . . Among the woods,
And o'er the pathless rocks, I forc'd my way
Until, at length, I came . .