"
This statement is much more than improbable; it is, I think, disproved
by the Fenwick note.
This statement is much more than improbable; it is, I think, disproved
by the Fenwick note.
William Wordsworth
8 or 1.
E.
9.
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? The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth,
Vol. III, by William Wordsworth
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www. gutenberg. net
Title: The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. III
Author: William Wordsworth
Release Date: May 19, 2004 [EBook #12383]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM WORDSWORTH POETRY, III ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Clytie Siddall and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team!
THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
EDITED BY
WILLIAM KNIGHT
VOL. III
1896
CONTENTS
1804
"She was a Phantom of delight"
"I wandered lonely as a cloud"
The Affliction of Margaret--
The Forsaken
Repentance
Address to my Infant Daughter, Dora
The Kitten and Falling Leaves
The Small Celandine
At Applethwaite, near Keswick
Vaudracour and Julia
1805
French Revolution
Ode to Duty
To a Sky-Lark
Fidelity
Incident characteristic of a Favourite Dog
Tribute to the Memory of the same Dog
To the Daisy (#4)
Elegiac Stanzas
Elegiac Verses
"When, to the attractions of the busy world"
The Cottager to her Infant
The Waggoner
The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind
From the Italian of Michael Angelo
From the Same
From the Same. To the Supreme Being
APPENDICES
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS
1804
The poems written in 1804 were not numerous; and, with the exception of
'The Small Celandine', the stanzas beginning "I wandered lonely as a
cloud," and "She was a Phantom of delight," they were less remarkable
than those of the two preceding, and the three following years.
Wordsworth's poetical activity in 1804 is not recorded, however, in
Lyrical Ballads or Sonnets, but in 'The Prelude', much of which was
thought out, and afterwards dictated to Dorothy or Mary Wordsworth, on
the terrace walk of Lancrigg during that year; while the 'Ode,
Intimations of Immortality' was altered and added to, although it did
not receive its final form till 1806. In the sixth book of 'The
Prelude', p. 222, the lines occur:
'Four years and thirty, told this very week,
Have I been now a sojourner on earth. '
That part of the great autobiographical poem must therefore
have been composed in April, 1804. --Ed.
* * * * *
"SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT"
Composed 1804. --Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. The germ of this poem was four lines
composed as a part of the verses on the 'Highland Girl'. Though
beginning in this way, it was written from my heart, as is sufficiently
obvious. --I. F. ]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination. "--Ed.
She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight; [A]
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; 5
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; [1]
A dancing Shape, an Image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and way-lay. 10
I saw her upon nearer view,
A Spirit, yet a Woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin-liberty;
A countenance in which did meet 15
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A Creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 20
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller between [2] life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will, 25
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, [3] nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light. [4] 30
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1807.
From May-time's brightest, liveliest dawn; 1836
The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807. ]
[Variant 2:
1832.
. . . betwixt . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 3:
1815.
A perfect Woman; . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 4:
1845.
. . . of an angel light. 1807.
. . . angel-light. 1836. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: Compare two references to Mary Wordsworth in 'The Prelude':
'Another maid there was, who also shed
A gladness o'er that season, then to me,
By her exulting outside look of youth
And placid under-countenance, first endeared;'
(Book vi. l. 224).
'She came, no more a phantom to adorn
A moment, but an inmate of the heart,
And yet a spirit, there for me enshrined
To penetrate the lofty and the low;'
(Book xiv, l. 268). --Ed. ]
It is not easy to say what were the "four lines composed as a part of
the verses on the 'Highland Girl'" which the Fenwick note tells us was
"the germ of this poem. " They may be lines now incorporated in those 'To
a Highland Girl', vol. ii. p. 389, or they may be lines in the present
poem, which Wordsworth wrote at first for the 'Highland Girl', but
afterwards transferred to this one. They _may_ have been the first four
lines of the later poem. The two should be read consecutively, and
compared.
After Wordsworth's death, a writer in the 'Daily News', January
1859--then understood to be Miss Harriet Martineau--wrote thus:
"In the 'Memoirs', by the nephew of the poet, it is said that these
verses refer to Mrs. Wordsworth; but for half of Wordsworth's life it
was always understood that they referred to some other phantom which
'gleamed upon his sight' before Mary Hutchinson.
"
This statement is much more than improbable; it is, I think, disproved
by the Fenwick note. They cannot refer to the "Lucy" of the Goslar
poems; and Wordsworth indicates, as plainly as he chose, to whom they
actually do refer. Compare the Hon. Justice Coleridge's account of a
conversation with Wordsworth ('Memoirs', vol. ii. p. 306), in which the
poet expressly said that the lines were written on his wife. The
question was, however, set at rest in a conversation of Wordsworth with
Henry Crabb Robinson, who wrote in his 'Diary' on
"May 12 (1842). --Wordsworth said that the poems 'Our walk was far
among the ancient trees' [vol. ii. p. 167], then 'She was a Phantom of
delight,' [B] and finally the two sonnets 'To a Painter', should be
read in succession as exhibiting the different phases of his affection
to his wife. "
('Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson',
vol. iii. p. 197. )
The use of the word "machine," in the third stanza of the poem, has been
much criticised, but for a similar use of the term, see the sequel to
'The Waggoner' (p. 107):
'Forgive me, then; for I had been
On friendly terms with this Machine. '
See also 'Hamlet' (act II. scene ii. l. 124):
'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him. '
The progress of mechanical industry in Britain since the beginning of
the present century has given a more limited, and purely technical,
meaning to the word, than it bore when Wordsworth used it in these two
instances. --Ed.
[Footnote B: The poet expressly told me that these verses were on his
wife. --H. C. R. ]
* * * * *
"I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD"
Composed 1804. --Published 1807
[Town-end, 1804. The two best lines in it are by Mary. The daffodils
grew, and still grow, on the margin of Ullswater, and probably may be
seen to this day as beautiful in the month of March, nodding their
golden heads beside the dancing and foaming waves. --I. F. ]
This was No. VII. in the series of Poems, entitled, in the edition of
1807, "Moods of my own Mind. " In 1815, and afterwards, it was classed by
Wordsworth among his "Poems of the Imagination. "--Ed.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden [1] daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 5
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. [2]
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay: 10
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. [3]
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay, [4] 15
In such a jocund [5] company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1815.
. . . dancing . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 2:
1815.
Along the Lake, beneath the trees,
Ten thousand dancing in the breeze. 1807]
[Variant 3: This stanza was added in the edition of 1815. ]
[Variant 4:
1807
. . . be but gay, 1836.
The 1840 edition returns to the text of 1807. ]
[Variant 5:
1815.
. . . laughing . . . 1807. ]
The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, under date,
Thursday, April 15, 1802:
"When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few
daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the sea had floated
the seeds ashore, and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as
we went along there were more, and yet more; and, at last, under the
boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along
the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw
daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones, about and
above them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow
for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed
as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the
lake. They looked so gay, ever glancing, ever changing. This wind blew
directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little
knot, and a few stragglers higher up; but they were so few as not to
disturb the simplicity, unity, and life of that one busy highway. We
rested again and again. The bays were stormy, and we heard the waves
at different distances, and in the middle of the water, like the
sea. . . . "
In the edition of 1815 there is a footnote to the lines
'They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude'
to the following effect:
"The subject of these Stanzas is rather an elementary feeling and
simple impression (approaching to the nature of an ocular spectrum)
upon the imaginative faculty, than an exertion of it. The one which
follows [A] is strictly a Reverie; and neither that, nor the next
after it in succession, 'Power of Music', would have been placed here
except for the reason given in the foregoing note. "
The being "placed here" refers to its being included among the "Poems of
the Imagination. " The "foregoing note" is the note appended to 'The Horn
of Egremont Castle'; and the "reason given" in it is "to avoid a
needless multiplication of the Classes" into which Wordsworth divided
his poems. This note of 181? [B], is reprinted mainly to show the
difficulties to which Wordsworth was reduced by the artificial method of
arrangement referred to. The following letter to Mr. Wrangham is a more
appropriate illustration of the poem of "The Daffodils. " It was written,
the late Bishop of Lincoln says, "sometime afterwards. " (See 'Memoirs of
Wordsworth', vol. i. pp. 183, 184); and, for the whole of the letter,
see a subsequent volume of this edition.
"GRASMERE, Nov. 4.
"MY DEAR WRANGHAM,--I am indeed much pleased that Mrs. Wrangham and
yourself have been gratified by these breathings of simple nature. You
mention Butler, Montagu's friend; not Tom Butler, but the conveyancer:
when I was in town in spring, he happened to see the volumes lying on
Montagu's mantelpiece, and to glance his eye upon the very poem of
'The Daffodils. ' 'Aye,' says he, 'a fine morsel this for the
Reviewers. ' When this was told me (for I was not present) I observed
that there were 'two lines' in that little poem which, if thoroughly
felt, would annihilate nine-tenths of the reviews of the kingdom, as
they would find no readers. The lines I alluded to were these:
'They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude. '"
These two lines were composed by Mrs. Wordsworth. In 1877 the daffodils
were still growing in abundance on the shore of Ullswater, below
Gowbarrow Park.
Compare the last four lines of James Montgomery's poem, 'The Little
Cloud':
'Bliss in possession will not last:
Remembered joys are never past:
At once the fountain, stream, and sea,
They were--they are--they yet shall be. '
Ed.
[Footnote A: It was 'The Reverie of Poor Susan'. --Ed. ]
[Footnote B: This is an error in the original printed text. Evidently a
year before the above-mentioned publication in 1815: one of 1810-1815.
text Ed. ]
* * * * *
THE AFFLICTION OF MARGARET--[A]
Composed 1804. --Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. This was taken from the case of a poor
widow who lived in the town of Penrith. Her sorrow was well known to
Mrs. Wordsworth, to my sister, and, I believe, to the whole town. She
kept a shop, and when she saw a stranger passing by, she was in the
habit of going out into the street to enquire of him after her
son. --I. F. ]
Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems founded on the Affections. "--Ed.
I Where art thou, my beloved Son,
Where art thou, worse to me than dead?
Oh find me, prosperous or undone!
Or, if the grave be now thy bed,
Why am I ignorant of the same 5
That I may rest; and neither blame
Nor sorrow may attend thy name?
II Seven years, alas! to have received
No tidings of an only child;
To have despaired, have hoped, believed, 10
And been for evermore beguiled; [1]
Sometimes with thoughts of very bliss!
I catch at them, and then I miss;
Was ever darkness like to this?
III He was among the prime in worth, 15
An object beauteous to behold;
Well born, well bred; I sent him forth
Ingenuous, innocent, and bold:
If things ensued that wanted grace,
As hath been said, they were not base; 20
And never blush was on my face.
IV Ah! little doth the young-one dream,
When full of play and childish cares,
What power is in [2] his wildest scream,
Heard by his mother unawares! 25
He knows it not, he cannot guess:
Years to a mother bring distress;
But do not make her love the less.
V Neglect me! no, I suffered long
From that ill thought; and, being blind, 30
Said, "Pride shall help me in my wrong:
Kind mother have I been, as kind
As ever breathed:" and that is true;
I've wet my path with tears like dew,
Weeping for him when no one knew. 35
VI My Son, if thou be humbled, poor,
Hopeless of honour and of gain,
Oh! do not dread thy mother's door;
Think not of me with grief and pain:
I now can see with better eyes; 40
And worldly grandeur I despise,
And fortune with her gifts and lies.
VII Alas! the fowls of heaven have wings,
And blasts of heaven will aid their flight;
They mount--how short a voyage brings 45
The wanderers back to their delight!
Chains tie us down by land and sea;
And wishes, vain as mine, may be
All that is left to comfort thee.
VIII Perhaps some dungeon hears thee groan, 50
Maimed, mangled by inhuman men;
Or thou upon a desert thrown
Inheritest the lion's den;
Or hast been summoned to the deep,
Thou, thou and all thy mates, to keep 55
An incommunicable sleep.
IX I look for ghosts; but none will force
Their way to me: 'tis falsely said
That there was ever intercourse
Between [3] the living and the dead; 60
For, surely, then I should have sight
Of him I wait for day and night,
With love and longings infinite.
X My apprehensions come in crowds;
I dread the rustling of the grass; 65
The very shadows of the clouds
Have power to shake me as they pass:
I question things and do not find
One that will answer to my mind;
And all the world appears unkind. 70
XI Beyond participation lie
My troubles, and beyond relief:
If any chance to heave a sigh,
They pity me, and not my grief.
Then come to me, my Son, or send 75
Some tidings that my woes may end;
I have no other earthly friend!
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1836.
To have despair'd, and have believ'd,
And be for evermore beguil'd; 1807. ]
[Variant 2:
1832.
What power hath even . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 3:
1832.
Betwixt . . . 1807. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: In the edition of 1807, the title was 'The Affliction of
Margaret--of--'; in 1820, it was 'The Affliction of Margaret'; and in
1845, it was as above. In an early MS. it was 'The Affliction of
Mary--of--'. For an as yet unpublished Preface to it, see volume viii.
of this edition. --Ed. ]
* * * * *
THE FORSAKEN
Composed 1804. --Published 1842
[This was an overflow from 'The Affliction of Margaret', and was
excluded as superfluous there, but preserved in the faint hope that it
may turn to account by restoring a shy lover to some forsaken damsel. My
poetry has been complained of as deficient in interests of this sort,--a
charge which the piece beginning, "Lyre! though such power do in thy
magic live," will scarcely tend to obviate. The natural imagery of these
verses was supplied by frequent, I might say intense, observation of the
Rydal torrent. What an animating contrast is the ever-changing aspect of
that, and indeed of every one of our mountain brooks, to the monotonous
tone and unmitigated fury of such streams among the Alps as are fed all
the summer long by glaciers and melting snows. A traveller observing the
exquisite purity of the great rivers, such as the Rhone at Geneva, and
the Reuss at Lucerne, when they issue out of their respective lakes,
might fancy for a moment that some power in nature produced this
beautiful change, with a view to make amends for those Alpine sullyings
which the waters exhibit near their fountain heads; but, alas! how soon
does that purity depart before the influx of tributary waters that have
flowed through cultivated plains and the crowded abodes of men. --I. F. ]
Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems founded on the Affections. "--Ed.
The peace which others seek they find;
The heaviest storms not longest last;
Heaven grants even to the guiltiest mind
An amnesty for what is past;
When will my sentence be reversed? 5
I only pray to know the worst;
And wish as if my heart would burst.
O weary struggle! silent years
Tell seemingly no doubtful tale;
And yet they leave it short, and fears 10
And hopes are strong and will prevail.
My calmest faith escapes not pain;
And, feeling that the hope is vain,
I think that he will come again.
* * * * *
REPENTANCE
A PASTORAL BALLAD
Composed 1804. --Published 1820
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. Suggested by the conversation of our
next neighbour, Margaret Ashburner. --I. F. ]
This "next neighbour" is constantly referred to in Dorothy Wordsworth's
Grasmere Journal.
Included in 1820 among the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection"; in 1827,
and afterwards, it was classed with those "founded on the
Affections. "--Ed.
The fields which with covetous spirit we sold,
Those beautiful fields, the delight of the day,
Would have brought us more good than a burthen of gold, [1]
Could we but have been as contented as they.
When the troublesome Tempter beset us, said I, 5
"Let him come, with his purse proudly grasped in his hand;
But, Allan, be true to me, Allan,--we'll die [2]
Before he shall go with an inch of the land! "
There dwelt we, as happy as birds in their bowers;
Unfettered as bees that in gardens abide; 10
We could do what we liked [3] with the land, it was ours;
And for us the brook murmured that ran by its side.
But now we are strangers, go early or late;
And often, like one overburthened with sin,
With my hand on the latch of the half-opened gate, [4] 15
I look at the fields, but [5] I cannot go in!
When I walk by the hedge on a bright summer's day,
Or sit in the shade of my grandfather's tree,
A stern face it puts on, as if ready to say,
"What ails you, that you must come creeping to me! " 20
With our pastures about us, we could not be sad;
Our comfort was near if we ever were crost;
But the comfort, the blessings, and wealth that we had,
We slighted them all,--and our birth-right was lost. [6]
Oh, ill-judging sire of an innocent son 25
Who must now be a wanderer! but peace to that strain!
Think of evening's repose when our labour was done,
The sabbath's return; and its leisure's soft chain!
And in sickness, if night had been sparing of sleep,
How cheerful, at sunrise, the hill where I stood, [7] 30
Looking down on the kine, and our treasure of sheep
That besprinkled the field; 'twas like youth in my blood!
Now I cleave to the house, and am dull as a snail;
And, oftentimes, hear the church-bell with a sigh,
That follows the thought--We've no land in the vale, 35
Save six feet of earth where our forefathers lie!
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1820.
the delight of our day, MS.
O fools that we were--we had land which we sold MS.
O fools that we were without virtue to hold MS.
The fields that together contentedly lay
Would have done us more good than another man's gold MS.
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? The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth,
Vol. III, by William Wordsworth
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www. gutenberg. net
Title: The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. III
Author: William Wordsworth
Release Date: May 19, 2004 [EBook #12383]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILLIAM WORDSWORTH POETRY, III ***
Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Clytie Siddall and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team!
THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
EDITED BY
WILLIAM KNIGHT
VOL. III
1896
CONTENTS
1804
"She was a Phantom of delight"
"I wandered lonely as a cloud"
The Affliction of Margaret--
The Forsaken
Repentance
Address to my Infant Daughter, Dora
The Kitten and Falling Leaves
The Small Celandine
At Applethwaite, near Keswick
Vaudracour and Julia
1805
French Revolution
Ode to Duty
To a Sky-Lark
Fidelity
Incident characteristic of a Favourite Dog
Tribute to the Memory of the same Dog
To the Daisy (#4)
Elegiac Stanzas
Elegiac Verses
"When, to the attractions of the busy world"
The Cottager to her Infant
The Waggoner
The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind
From the Italian of Michael Angelo
From the Same
From the Same. To the Supreme Being
APPENDICES
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS
1804
The poems written in 1804 were not numerous; and, with the exception of
'The Small Celandine', the stanzas beginning "I wandered lonely as a
cloud," and "She was a Phantom of delight," they were less remarkable
than those of the two preceding, and the three following years.
Wordsworth's poetical activity in 1804 is not recorded, however, in
Lyrical Ballads or Sonnets, but in 'The Prelude', much of which was
thought out, and afterwards dictated to Dorothy or Mary Wordsworth, on
the terrace walk of Lancrigg during that year; while the 'Ode,
Intimations of Immortality' was altered and added to, although it did
not receive its final form till 1806. In the sixth book of 'The
Prelude', p. 222, the lines occur:
'Four years and thirty, told this very week,
Have I been now a sojourner on earth. '
That part of the great autobiographical poem must therefore
have been composed in April, 1804. --Ed.
* * * * *
"SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT"
Composed 1804. --Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. The germ of this poem was four lines
composed as a part of the verses on the 'Highland Girl'. Though
beginning in this way, it was written from my heart, as is sufficiently
obvious. --I. F. ]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination. "--Ed.
She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight; [A]
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; 5
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; [1]
A dancing Shape, an Image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and way-lay. 10
I saw her upon nearer view,
A Spirit, yet a Woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin-liberty;
A countenance in which did meet 15
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A Creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 20
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath,
A Traveller between [2] life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will, 25
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect Woman, [3] nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light. [4] 30
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1807.
From May-time's brightest, liveliest dawn; 1836
The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807. ]
[Variant 2:
1832.
. . . betwixt . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 3:
1815.
A perfect Woman; . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 4:
1845.
. . . of an angel light. 1807.
. . . angel-light. 1836. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: Compare two references to Mary Wordsworth in 'The Prelude':
'Another maid there was, who also shed
A gladness o'er that season, then to me,
By her exulting outside look of youth
And placid under-countenance, first endeared;'
(Book vi. l. 224).
'She came, no more a phantom to adorn
A moment, but an inmate of the heart,
And yet a spirit, there for me enshrined
To penetrate the lofty and the low;'
(Book xiv, l. 268). --Ed. ]
It is not easy to say what were the "four lines composed as a part of
the verses on the 'Highland Girl'" which the Fenwick note tells us was
"the germ of this poem. " They may be lines now incorporated in those 'To
a Highland Girl', vol. ii. p. 389, or they may be lines in the present
poem, which Wordsworth wrote at first for the 'Highland Girl', but
afterwards transferred to this one. They _may_ have been the first four
lines of the later poem. The two should be read consecutively, and
compared.
After Wordsworth's death, a writer in the 'Daily News', January
1859--then understood to be Miss Harriet Martineau--wrote thus:
"In the 'Memoirs', by the nephew of the poet, it is said that these
verses refer to Mrs. Wordsworth; but for half of Wordsworth's life it
was always understood that they referred to some other phantom which
'gleamed upon his sight' before Mary Hutchinson.
"
This statement is much more than improbable; it is, I think, disproved
by the Fenwick note. They cannot refer to the "Lucy" of the Goslar
poems; and Wordsworth indicates, as plainly as he chose, to whom they
actually do refer. Compare the Hon. Justice Coleridge's account of a
conversation with Wordsworth ('Memoirs', vol. ii. p. 306), in which the
poet expressly said that the lines were written on his wife. The
question was, however, set at rest in a conversation of Wordsworth with
Henry Crabb Robinson, who wrote in his 'Diary' on
"May 12 (1842). --Wordsworth said that the poems 'Our walk was far
among the ancient trees' [vol. ii. p. 167], then 'She was a Phantom of
delight,' [B] and finally the two sonnets 'To a Painter', should be
read in succession as exhibiting the different phases of his affection
to his wife. "
('Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson',
vol. iii. p. 197. )
The use of the word "machine," in the third stanza of the poem, has been
much criticised, but for a similar use of the term, see the sequel to
'The Waggoner' (p. 107):
'Forgive me, then; for I had been
On friendly terms with this Machine. '
See also 'Hamlet' (act II. scene ii. l. 124):
'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him. '
The progress of mechanical industry in Britain since the beginning of
the present century has given a more limited, and purely technical,
meaning to the word, than it bore when Wordsworth used it in these two
instances. --Ed.
[Footnote B: The poet expressly told me that these verses were on his
wife. --H. C. R. ]
* * * * *
"I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD"
Composed 1804. --Published 1807
[Town-end, 1804. The two best lines in it are by Mary. The daffodils
grew, and still grow, on the margin of Ullswater, and probably may be
seen to this day as beautiful in the month of March, nodding their
golden heads beside the dancing and foaming waves. --I. F. ]
This was No. VII. in the series of Poems, entitled, in the edition of
1807, "Moods of my own Mind. " In 1815, and afterwards, it was classed by
Wordsworth among his "Poems of the Imagination. "--Ed.
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden [1] daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees, 5
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. [2]
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay: 10
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. [3]
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay, [4] 15
In such a jocund [5] company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood, 20
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1815.
. . . dancing . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 2:
1815.
Along the Lake, beneath the trees,
Ten thousand dancing in the breeze. 1807]
[Variant 3: This stanza was added in the edition of 1815. ]
[Variant 4:
1807
. . . be but gay, 1836.
The 1840 edition returns to the text of 1807. ]
[Variant 5:
1815.
. . . laughing . . . 1807. ]
The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, under date,
Thursday, April 15, 1802:
"When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few
daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the sea had floated
the seeds ashore, and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as
we went along there were more, and yet more; and, at last, under the
boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along
the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw
daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones, about and
above them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow
for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed
as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the
lake. They looked so gay, ever glancing, ever changing. This wind blew
directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little
knot, and a few stragglers higher up; but they were so few as not to
disturb the simplicity, unity, and life of that one busy highway. We
rested again and again. The bays were stormy, and we heard the waves
at different distances, and in the middle of the water, like the
sea. . . . "
In the edition of 1815 there is a footnote to the lines
'They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude'
to the following effect:
"The subject of these Stanzas is rather an elementary feeling and
simple impression (approaching to the nature of an ocular spectrum)
upon the imaginative faculty, than an exertion of it. The one which
follows [A] is strictly a Reverie; and neither that, nor the next
after it in succession, 'Power of Music', would have been placed here
except for the reason given in the foregoing note. "
The being "placed here" refers to its being included among the "Poems of
the Imagination. " The "foregoing note" is the note appended to 'The Horn
of Egremont Castle'; and the "reason given" in it is "to avoid a
needless multiplication of the Classes" into which Wordsworth divided
his poems. This note of 181? [B], is reprinted mainly to show the
difficulties to which Wordsworth was reduced by the artificial method of
arrangement referred to. The following letter to Mr. Wrangham is a more
appropriate illustration of the poem of "The Daffodils. " It was written,
the late Bishop of Lincoln says, "sometime afterwards. " (See 'Memoirs of
Wordsworth', vol. i. pp. 183, 184); and, for the whole of the letter,
see a subsequent volume of this edition.
"GRASMERE, Nov. 4.
"MY DEAR WRANGHAM,--I am indeed much pleased that Mrs. Wrangham and
yourself have been gratified by these breathings of simple nature. You
mention Butler, Montagu's friend; not Tom Butler, but the conveyancer:
when I was in town in spring, he happened to see the volumes lying on
Montagu's mantelpiece, and to glance his eye upon the very poem of
'The Daffodils. ' 'Aye,' says he, 'a fine morsel this for the
Reviewers. ' When this was told me (for I was not present) I observed
that there were 'two lines' in that little poem which, if thoroughly
felt, would annihilate nine-tenths of the reviews of the kingdom, as
they would find no readers. The lines I alluded to were these:
'They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude. '"
These two lines were composed by Mrs. Wordsworth. In 1877 the daffodils
were still growing in abundance on the shore of Ullswater, below
Gowbarrow Park.
Compare the last four lines of James Montgomery's poem, 'The Little
Cloud':
'Bliss in possession will not last:
Remembered joys are never past:
At once the fountain, stream, and sea,
They were--they are--they yet shall be. '
Ed.
[Footnote A: It was 'The Reverie of Poor Susan'. --Ed. ]
[Footnote B: This is an error in the original printed text. Evidently a
year before the above-mentioned publication in 1815: one of 1810-1815.
text Ed. ]
* * * * *
THE AFFLICTION OF MARGARET--[A]
Composed 1804. --Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. This was taken from the case of a poor
widow who lived in the town of Penrith. Her sorrow was well known to
Mrs. Wordsworth, to my sister, and, I believe, to the whole town. She
kept a shop, and when she saw a stranger passing by, she was in the
habit of going out into the street to enquire of him after her
son. --I. F. ]
Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems founded on the Affections. "--Ed.
I Where art thou, my beloved Son,
Where art thou, worse to me than dead?
Oh find me, prosperous or undone!
Or, if the grave be now thy bed,
Why am I ignorant of the same 5
That I may rest; and neither blame
Nor sorrow may attend thy name?
II Seven years, alas! to have received
No tidings of an only child;
To have despaired, have hoped, believed, 10
And been for evermore beguiled; [1]
Sometimes with thoughts of very bliss!
I catch at them, and then I miss;
Was ever darkness like to this?
III He was among the prime in worth, 15
An object beauteous to behold;
Well born, well bred; I sent him forth
Ingenuous, innocent, and bold:
If things ensued that wanted grace,
As hath been said, they were not base; 20
And never blush was on my face.
IV Ah! little doth the young-one dream,
When full of play and childish cares,
What power is in [2] his wildest scream,
Heard by his mother unawares! 25
He knows it not, he cannot guess:
Years to a mother bring distress;
But do not make her love the less.
V Neglect me! no, I suffered long
From that ill thought; and, being blind, 30
Said, "Pride shall help me in my wrong:
Kind mother have I been, as kind
As ever breathed:" and that is true;
I've wet my path with tears like dew,
Weeping for him when no one knew. 35
VI My Son, if thou be humbled, poor,
Hopeless of honour and of gain,
Oh! do not dread thy mother's door;
Think not of me with grief and pain:
I now can see with better eyes; 40
And worldly grandeur I despise,
And fortune with her gifts and lies.
VII Alas! the fowls of heaven have wings,
And blasts of heaven will aid their flight;
They mount--how short a voyage brings 45
The wanderers back to their delight!
Chains tie us down by land and sea;
And wishes, vain as mine, may be
All that is left to comfort thee.
VIII Perhaps some dungeon hears thee groan, 50
Maimed, mangled by inhuman men;
Or thou upon a desert thrown
Inheritest the lion's den;
Or hast been summoned to the deep,
Thou, thou and all thy mates, to keep 55
An incommunicable sleep.
IX I look for ghosts; but none will force
Their way to me: 'tis falsely said
That there was ever intercourse
Between [3] the living and the dead; 60
For, surely, then I should have sight
Of him I wait for day and night,
With love and longings infinite.
X My apprehensions come in crowds;
I dread the rustling of the grass; 65
The very shadows of the clouds
Have power to shake me as they pass:
I question things and do not find
One that will answer to my mind;
And all the world appears unkind. 70
XI Beyond participation lie
My troubles, and beyond relief:
If any chance to heave a sigh,
They pity me, and not my grief.
Then come to me, my Son, or send 75
Some tidings that my woes may end;
I have no other earthly friend!
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1836.
To have despair'd, and have believ'd,
And be for evermore beguil'd; 1807. ]
[Variant 2:
1832.
What power hath even . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 3:
1832.
Betwixt . . . 1807. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: In the edition of 1807, the title was 'The Affliction of
Margaret--of--'; in 1820, it was 'The Affliction of Margaret'; and in
1845, it was as above. In an early MS. it was 'The Affliction of
Mary--of--'. For an as yet unpublished Preface to it, see volume viii.
of this edition. --Ed. ]
* * * * *
THE FORSAKEN
Composed 1804. --Published 1842
[This was an overflow from 'The Affliction of Margaret', and was
excluded as superfluous there, but preserved in the faint hope that it
may turn to account by restoring a shy lover to some forsaken damsel. My
poetry has been complained of as deficient in interests of this sort,--a
charge which the piece beginning, "Lyre! though such power do in thy
magic live," will scarcely tend to obviate. The natural imagery of these
verses was supplied by frequent, I might say intense, observation of the
Rydal torrent. What an animating contrast is the ever-changing aspect of
that, and indeed of every one of our mountain brooks, to the monotonous
tone and unmitigated fury of such streams among the Alps as are fed all
the summer long by glaciers and melting snows. A traveller observing the
exquisite purity of the great rivers, such as the Rhone at Geneva, and
the Reuss at Lucerne, when they issue out of their respective lakes,
might fancy for a moment that some power in nature produced this
beautiful change, with a view to make amends for those Alpine sullyings
which the waters exhibit near their fountain heads; but, alas! how soon
does that purity depart before the influx of tributary waters that have
flowed through cultivated plains and the crowded abodes of men. --I. F. ]
Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems founded on the Affections. "--Ed.
The peace which others seek they find;
The heaviest storms not longest last;
Heaven grants even to the guiltiest mind
An amnesty for what is past;
When will my sentence be reversed? 5
I only pray to know the worst;
And wish as if my heart would burst.
O weary struggle! silent years
Tell seemingly no doubtful tale;
And yet they leave it short, and fears 10
And hopes are strong and will prevail.
My calmest faith escapes not pain;
And, feeling that the hope is vain,
I think that he will come again.
* * * * *
REPENTANCE
A PASTORAL BALLAD
Composed 1804. --Published 1820
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. Suggested by the conversation of our
next neighbour, Margaret Ashburner. --I. F. ]
This "next neighbour" is constantly referred to in Dorothy Wordsworth's
Grasmere Journal.
Included in 1820 among the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection"; in 1827,
and afterwards, it was classed with those "founded on the
Affections. "--Ed.
The fields which with covetous spirit we sold,
Those beautiful fields, the delight of the day,
Would have brought us more good than a burthen of gold, [1]
Could we but have been as contented as they.
When the troublesome Tempter beset us, said I, 5
"Let him come, with his purse proudly grasped in his hand;
But, Allan, be true to me, Allan,--we'll die [2]
Before he shall go with an inch of the land! "
There dwelt we, as happy as birds in their bowers;
Unfettered as bees that in gardens abide; 10
We could do what we liked [3] with the land, it was ours;
And for us the brook murmured that ran by its side.
But now we are strangers, go early or late;
And often, like one overburthened with sin,
With my hand on the latch of the half-opened gate, [4] 15
I look at the fields, but [5] I cannot go in!
When I walk by the hedge on a bright summer's day,
Or sit in the shade of my grandfather's tree,
A stern face it puts on, as if ready to say,
"What ails you, that you must come creeping to me! " 20
With our pastures about us, we could not be sad;
Our comfort was near if we ever were crost;
But the comfort, the blessings, and wealth that we had,
We slighted them all,--and our birth-right was lost. [6]
Oh, ill-judging sire of an innocent son 25
Who must now be a wanderer! but peace to that strain!
Think of evening's repose when our labour was done,
The sabbath's return; and its leisure's soft chain!
And in sickness, if night had been sparing of sleep,
How cheerful, at sunrise, the hill where I stood, [7] 30
Looking down on the kine, and our treasure of sheep
That besprinkled the field; 'twas like youth in my blood!
Now I cleave to the house, and am dull as a snail;
And, oftentimes, hear the church-bell with a sigh,
That follows the thought--We've no land in the vale, 35
Save six feet of earth where our forefathers lie!
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1820.
the delight of our day, MS.
O fools that we were--we had land which we sold MS.
O fools that we were without virtue to hold MS.
The fields that together contentedly lay
Would have done us more good than another man's gold MS.
