]
[Footnote C:
"Its thick foliage of a dark green colour is flowered over with large
milk-white, fragrant blossoms, .
[Footnote C:
"Its thick foliage of a dark green colour is flowered over with large
milk-white, fragrant blossoms, .
William Wordsworth
1800.
]
[Variant 3: This stanza was added in the edition of 1802. ]
[Variant 4:
1827.
She pass'd her time; and in this way
Grew up to Woman's height. 1802. ]
[Variant 5:
1836.
Ah no! . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 6:
1805.
. . . bare . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 7:
1836.
He spake of plants divine and strange
That ev'ry day their blossoms change,
Ten thousand lovely hues! 1800.
. . . every hour . . . 1802. ]
[Variant 8:
Of march and ambush, siege and fight,
Then did he tell; and with delight
The heart of Ruth would ache;
Wild histories they were, and dear:
But 'twas a thing of heaven to hear
When of himself he spake!
Only in the editions of 1802 and 1805.
The following is the order of the stanzas in the edition of 1802.
The first, fifth, and last had not appeared before.
Sometimes most earnestly he said;
"O Ruth! I have been worse than dead:
False thoughts, thoughts bold and vain
Encompass'd me on every side
When I, in thoughtlessness and pride,
Had cross'd the Atlantic Main.
Whatever in those Climes I found
Irregular in sight or sound
Did to my mind impart
A kindred impulse, seem'd allied
To my own powers, and justified
The workings of my heart.
Nor less to feed unhallow'd thought
The beauteous forms of nature wrought,
Fair trees and lovely flowers;
The breezes their own languor lent;
The stars had feelings which they sent
Into those magic bowers.
Yet, in my worst pursuits, I ween,
That often there did intervene
Pure hopes of high intent;
My passions, amid forms so fair
And stately, wanted not their share
Of noble sentiment.
So was it then, and so is now:
For, Ruth! with thee I know not how
I feel my spirit burn
Even as the east when day comes forth;
And to the west, and south, and north,
The morning doth return.
It is a purer better mind:
O Maiden innocent and kind
What sights I might have seen!
Even now upon my eyes they break! "
--And he again began to speak
Of Lands where he had been.
The last stanza is only in the editions of 1802-1805. [a]]
[Variant 9:
1836.
And then he said "How sweet it were 1800. ]
[Variant 10:
1845.
A gardener in the shade,
Still wandering with an easy mind
To build . . . 1800.
In sunshine or through shade
To wander with an easy mind;
And build . . . 1836. ]
[Variant 11:
1836.
. . . sweet . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 12:
1832.
Dear . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 13:
1820.
Sweet Ruth alone at midnight shed 1800. ]
[Variant 14:
1800.
. . . unhallow'd . . . 1802 and MS.
The edition of 1805 returns to the reading of 1800. ]
[Variant 15:
1845.
. . . lovely . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 16:
1845.
. . . magic . . . 1800.
. . . gorgeous . . . 1815. ]
[Variant 17:
1800.
That often . . . 1802.
The text of 1805 returns to that of 1800. ]
[Variant 18:
1800.
For passions, amid forms so fair
And stately, wanted not their share 1802.
The text of 1805 returns to that of 1800. ]
[Variant 19:
1800.
Ill did he live . . . 1802.
The text of 1805 returns to that of 1800. ]
[Variant 20:
1805.
When I, in thoughtlessness and pride,
Had crossed . . . 1802.
When first, in confidence and pride,
I crossed . . . 1820.
C. , and the edition of 1840, revert to the reading of 1805. ]
[Variant 21:
1840 and C.
"It was a fresh and glorious world,
A banner bright that was unfurled
Before me suddenly: 1805.
A banner bright that shone unfurled 1836. ]
[Variant 22: Lines 163-168, and 175-180, were added in 1802. Lines
169-174 were added in 1805. All these were omitted in 1815, but were
restored in 1820. ]
[Variant 23:
1845
So was it then, and so is now:
For, Ruth! with thee I know not how
I feel my spirit burn 1802.
"But wherefore speak of this? for now,
Sweet Ruth! with thee, . . . 1805.
Dear Ruth! with thee . . . 1836. ]
[Variant 24:
1836.
Even as the east when day comes forth;
And to the west, and south, and north, 1802. ]
[Variant 25:
It is my purer better mind
O maiden innocently kind
What sights I might have seen!
Even now upon my eyes they break!
And then the youth began to speak
Of lands where he had been. MS. ]
[Variant 26:
1845.
But now the pleasant dream was gone, 1800.
Full soon that purer mind . . . 1820. ]
[Variant 27:
1836.
And there, exulting in her wrongs,
Among the music of her songs
She fearfully carouz'd. [b] 1800.
And there she sang tumultuous songs,
By recollection of her wrongs,
To fearful passion rouzed. 1820. ]
[Variant 28:
1836.
wild brook . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 29:
1802.
And to the pleasant Banks of Tone
She took her way, to dwell alone 1800. ]
[Variant 30:
1802.
. . . grief, . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 31:
1805.
(And in this tale we all agree) 1800. ]
[Variant 32:
1805.
The neighbours grieve for her, and say
That she will . . . 1802. ]
[Variant 33: This stanza first appeared in the edition of 1802. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: Taken from the portrait of the chief in Bartram's
frontispiece. --Ed. ]
[Footnote B:
"The tall aspiring Gordonia lacianthus . . . gradually changing colour,
from green to golden yellow, from that to a scarlet, from scarlet to
crimson, and lastly to a brownish purple, . . . so that it may be said
to change and renew its garments every morning throughout the year. "
See 'Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East Florida,
the Cherokee Country', etc. , by William Bartram (1791), pp. 159,
160. --Ed.
]
[Footnote C:
"Its thick foliage of a dark green colour is flowered over with large
milk-white, fragrant blossoms, . . . renewed every morning, and that in
such incredible profusion that the tree appears silvered over with
them, and the ground beneath covered with the fallen flowers. It, at
the same time, continually pushes forth new twigs, with young buds on
them. "
(Bartram's 'Travels', etc. , p. 159. )--Ed. ]
[Footnote D: Magnolia grandiflora. --W. W. 1800; and Bartram's 'Travels',
p. 8. --Ed. ]
[Footnote E:
"The Cypressus distichia stands in the first order of North American
trees. Its majestic stature, lifting its cumbrous top towards the
skies, and casting a wide shade upon the ground, as a dark intervening
cloud," etc.
(Bartram's 'Travels', p. 88). --Ed. ]
[Footnote F: The splendid appearance of these scarlet flowers, which are
scattered with such profusion over the Hills in the Southern parts of
North America is frequently mentioned by Bartram in his 'Travels'. --W.
W. 1800. ]
[Footnote G: Mr. Ernest Coleridge tells me he
"has traced, to a note-book of Coleridge's in the British Museum, the
source from which Wordsworth derived his description of Georgian
scenery in 'Ruth'. He does, I know, refer to Bartram, but the whole
passage is a poetical rendering, and a pretty close one, of Bartram's
poetical narrative. I have a portrait--the frontispiece of Bartram's
'Travels'--of Mico Chlucco, king of the Seminoles, whose feathers nod
in the breeze just as did the military casque of the 'youth from
Georgia's shore. '"
Ed. ]
[Footnote H:
"North and south almost endless green plains and meadows, embellished
with islets and projecting promontories of high dark forests, where
the pyramidal Magnolia grandiflora . . . conspicuously towers. "
(Bartram's 'Travels', p. 145). --Ed. ]
[Footnote I: The Tone is a River of Somersetshire, at no great distance
from the Quantock Hills. These Hills, which are alluded to a few stanzas
below, are extremely beautiful, and in most places richly covered with
Coppice woods. W. W. 1800. ]
* * * * *
SUB-FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Sub-Footnote a: The edition of 1805 substitutes the stanzas beginning,
'It was a fresh and glorious world'
for stanzas 2, 3, and 4 of the above six in this note, but it inserts
these omitted stanzas later on as Nos. 27, 28, 29. --Ed. ]
[Sub-Footnote b: Wordsworth wrote to Barren Field in 1828 that this stanza
"was altered, Lamb having observed that it was not English. I like it
better myself;'
(i. e. the version of 1800)
"but certainly to carouse cups--that is to empty them--is the genuine
English. "
Ed. ]
* * * * *
1800
Towards the close of December 1799, Wordsworth came to live at Dove
Cottage, Town-end, Grasmere. The poems written during the following year
(1800), are more particularly associated with that district of the
Lakes. Two of them were fragments of a canto of 'The Recluse', entitled
"Home at Grasmere," referring to his settlement at Dove Cottage. Others,
such as 'Michael', and 'The Brothers'--classed by him afterwards among
the "Poems founded on the Affections,"--deal with incidents in the rural
life of the dalesmen of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Most of the "Poems
on the Naming of Places" were written during this year; and the "Places"
are all in the neighbourhood of Grasmere. To these were added several
"Pastoral Poems"--such as 'The Idle Shepherd Boys; or, Dungeon-Ghyll
Force'--sundry "Poems of the Fancy," and one or two "Inscriptions. " In
all, twenty-five poems were written in the year 1800; and, with the
exception of the two fragments of 'The Recluse', they were published
during the same year in the second volume of the second edition of
"Lyrical Ballads. " It is impossible to fix the precise date of the
composition of the fragments of 'The Recluse'; but, as they refer to the
settlement at Dove Cottage--where Wordsworth went to reside with his
sister, on the 21st of December 1799--they may fitly introduce the poems
belonging to the year 1800. They were first published in 1851 in the
'Memoirs of Wordsworth' (vol. i. pp. 157 and 155 respectively), by the
poet's nephew, the late Bishop of Lincoln. The entire canto of 'The
Recluse', entitled "Home at Grasmere," will be included in this edition.
The first two poems which follow, as belonging to the year 1800, are
parts of 'The Recluse', viz. "On Nature's invitation do I come," (which
is ll. 71-97, and 110-125), and "Bleak season was it, turbulent and
bleak," (which is ll. 152-167). They are not reprinted from the
'Memoirs' of 1851, because the text there given was, in several
instances, inaccurately reproduced from the original MS. , which has been
re-examined. They were printed here, in 'The Recluse '(1888), and in my
'Life of Wordsworth' (vol. i. 1889). --Ed.
* * * * *
"ON NATURE'S INVITATION DO I COME"
Composed (probably) in 1800. --Published 1851
On Nature's invitation do I come,
By Reason sanctioned. Can the choice mislead,
That made the calmest, fairest spot of earth,
With all its unappropriated good,
My own, and not mine only, for with me 5
Entrenched--say rather peacefully embowered--
Under yon orchard, in yon humble cot,
A younger orphan of a home extinct,
The only daughter of my parents dwells:
Aye, think on that, my heart, and cease to stir; 10
Pause upon that, and let the breathing frame
No longer breathe, but all be satisfied.
Oh, if such silence be not thanks to God
For what hath been bestowed, then where, where then
Shall gratitude find rest? Mine eyes did ne'er 15
Fix on a lovely object, nor my mind
Take pleasure in the midst of happy thoughts,
But either she, whom now I have, who now
Divides with me this loved abode, was there,
Or not far off. Where'er my footsteps turned, 20
Her voice was like a hidden bird that sang;
The thought of her was like a flash of light
Or an unseen companionship, a breath
Or fragrance independent of the wind.
In all my goings, in the new and old 25
Of all my meditations, and in this
Favourite of all, in this the most of all. . . .
Embrace me then, ye hills, and close me in.
Now in the clear and open day I feel
Your guardianship: I take it to my heart; 30
'Tis like the solemn shelter of the night.
But I would call thee beautiful; for mild,
And soft, and gay, and beautiful thou art,
Dear valley, having in thy face a smile,
Though peaceful, full of gladness. Thou art pleased, 35
Pleased with thy crags, and woody steeps, thy lake,
Its one green island, and its winding shores,
The multitude of little rocky hills,
Thy church, and cottages of mountain-stone
Clustered like stars some few, but single most, 40
And lurking dimly in their shy retreats,
Or glancing at each other cheerful looks,
Like separated stars with clouds between.
This Grasmere cottage is identified, much more than Rydal Mount, with
Wordsworth's "poetic prime. " It had once been a public-house, bearing
the sign of the Dove and Olive Bough--and as such is referred to in 'The
Waggoner'--from which circumstance it was for a long time, and is now
usually, called "Dove Cottage. " A small two storied house, it is
described somewhat minutely--as it was in Wordsworth's time--by De
Quincey, in his 'Recollections of the Lakes', and by the late Bishop of
Lincoln, in the 'Memoirs' of his uncle.
"The front of it faces the lake; behind is a small plot of orchard and
garden ground, in which there is a spring and rocks; the enclosure
shelves upwards towards the woody sides of the mountains above it. "
[A]
The following is De Quincey's description of it, as he saw it in the
summer of 1807.
"A white cottage, with two yew trees breaking the glare of its white
walls" (these yews still stand on the eastern side of the cottage). "A
little semi-vestibule between two doors prefaced the entrance into
what might be considered the principal room of the cottage. It was an
oblong square, not above eight and a half feet high, sixteen feet
long, and twelve broad; wainscoted from floor to ceiling with dark
polished oak, slightly embellished with carving. One window there
was--a perfect and unpretending cottage window, with little diamond
panes, embowered at almost every season of the year with roses; and,
in the summer and autumn, with a profusion of jasmine, and other
fragrant shrubs. . . . I was ushered up a little flight of stairs,
fourteen in all, to a little drawing-room, or whatever the reader
chooses to call it. Wordsworth himself has described the fireplace of
this room as his
'Half-kitchen and half-parlour fire. '
It was not fully seven feet six inches high, and in other respects
pretty nearly of the same dimensions as the rustic hall below. There
was, however, in a small recess, a library of perhaps three hundred
volumes, which seemed to consecrate the room as the poet's study and
composing room, and such occasionally it was. But far oftener he both
studied, as I found, and composed on the high road. " [B]
Other poems of later years refer, much more fully than the above, to
this cottage, and its orchard ground, where so many of Wordsworth's
lyrics were composed.
The "orchard ground," which was for the most part in grass, sloped
upwards; but a considerable portion of the natural rock was exposed; and
on its face, some rough stone steps were cut by Wordsworth, helped by a
near neighbour of his--John Fisher--so as more conveniently to reach the
upper terrace, where the poet built for himself a small arbour. All this
garden and orchard ground is not much altered since 1800. The short
terrace walk is curved, with a sloping bank of grass above, shaded by
apple trees, hazel, holly, laburnum, laurel, and mountain ash. Below the
terrace is the well, which supplied the cottage in Wordsworth's time;
and there large leaved primroses still grow, doubtless the successors of
those planted by his own and his sister's hands. Above, and amongst the
rocks, are the daffodils, which they also brought to their
"garden-ground;" the Christmas roses, which they planted near the well,
were removed to the eastern side of the garden, where they flourished
luxuriantly in 1882; but have now, alas! disappeared. The box-wood
planted by the poet grows close to the cottage. The arbour is now gone;
but, in the place where it stood, a seat is erected. The hidden brook
still sings its under-song, as it used to do, "its quiet soul on all
bestowing," and the green linnet may doubtless be seen now, as it used
to be in 1803. The allusions to the garden ground at Dove Cottage, in
the poems which follow, will be noted as they occur. --Ed.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: See the 'Memoirs of Wordsworth', vol. i. p. 156. --Ed. ]
[Footnote B: See 'Recollections of the Lakes', etc. , pp. 130-137, Works,
vol. ii. , edition of 1862. --Ed. ]
* * * * *
"BLEAK SEASON WAS IT, TURBULENT AND BLEAK" [A]
Composed (probably) in 1800. --Published 1851
Bleak season was it, turbulent and bleak,
When hitherward we journeyed, side by side,
Through burst of sunshine and through flying showers,
Paced the long vales, how long they were, and yet
How fast that length of way was left behind, 5
Wensley's rich vale and Sedbergh's naked heights.
The frosty wind, as if to make amends
For its keen breath, was aiding to our steps,
And drove us onward like two ships at sea;
Or, like two birds, companions in mid-air, 10
Parted and reunited by the blast.
Stern was the face of nature; we rejoiced
In that stern countenance; for our souls thence drew
A feeling of their strength. The naked trees,
The icy brooks, as on we passed, appeared 15
To question us, "Whence come ye? To what end? "
This poem refers to a winter journey on foot, which Wordsworth and his
sister took from Sockburn to Grasmere, by Wensleydale and Askrigg; and,
since he has left us an account of this journey, in a letter to
Coleridge, written a few days after their arrival at Grasmere--a letter
in which his characterisation of Nature is almost as happy as it is in
his best poems--some extracts from it may here be appended.
"We left Sockburn last Tuesday morning. We crossed the Tees by
moonlight in the Sockburn fields, and after ten good miles riding came
in sight of the Swale. It is there a beautiful river, with its green
banks and flat holms scattered over with trees. Four miles further
brought us to Richmond, with its huge ivied castle, its friarage
steeple, its castle tower resembling a huge steeple. . . . We were now in
Wensleydale, and D. and I set off side by side to foot it as far as
Kendal. . . . We reached Askrigg, twelve miles, before six in the
evening, having been obliged to walk the last two miles over hard
frozen roads. . . . Next morning the earth was thinly covered with snow,
enough to make the road soft and prevent its being slippery. On
leaving Askrigg we turned aside to see another waterfall. It was a
beautiful morning, with driving snow showers, which disappeared by
fits, and unveiled the east, which was all one delicious pale orange
colour. After walking through two small fields we came to a mill,
which we passed, and in a moment a sweet little valley opened before
us, with an area of grassy ground, and a stream dashing over various
laminae of black rocks close under a bank covered with firs; the bank
and stream on our left, another woody bank on our right, and the flat
meadow in front, from which, as at Buttermere, the stream had retired,
as it were, to hide itself under the shade. As we walked up this
delightful valley we were tempted to look back perpetually on the
stream, which reflected the orange lights of the morning among the
gloomy rocks, with a brightness varying with the agitation of the
current. The steeple of Askrigg was between us and the east, at the
bottom of the valley; it was not a quarter of a mile distant. . . . The
two banks seemed to join before us with a facing of rock common to
them both. When we reached this bottom the valley opened out again;
two rocky banks on each side, which, hung with ivy and moss, and
fringed luxuriantly with brushwood, ran directly parallel to each
other, and then approaching with a gentle curve at their point of
union, presented a lofty waterfall, the termination of the valley. It
was a keen frosty morning, showers of snow threatening us, but the sun
bright and active. We had a task of twenty-one miles to perform in a
short winter's day. . . . On a nearer approach the waters seemed to fall
down a tall arch or niche that had shaped itself by insensible
moulderings in the wall of an old castle. We left this spot with
reluctance, but highly exhilarated. . . . It was bitter cold, the wind
driving the snow behind us in the best style of a mountain storm. We
soon reached an inn at a place called Hardrane, and descending from
our vehicles, after warming ourselves by the cottage fire, we walked
up the brook-side to take a view of a third waterfall. We had not
walked above a few hundred yards between two winding rocky banks
before we came full upon the waterfall, which seemed to throw itself
in a narrow line from a lofty wall of rock, the water, which shot
manifestly to some distance from the rock, seeming to be dispersed
into a thin shower scarcely visible before it reached the bason. We
were disappointed in the cascade itself, though the introductory and
accompanying banks were an exquisite mixture of grandeur and
beauty. . . . After cautiously sounding our way over stones of all
colours and sizes, encased in the clearest water formed by the spray
of the fall, we found the rock, which before had appeared like a wall,
extending itself over our heads, like the ceiling of a huge cave, from
the summit of which the waters shot directly over our heads into a
bason, and among fragments wrinkled over with masses of ice as white
as snow, or rather, as Dorothy says, like congealed froth. The water
fell at least ten yards from us, and we stood directly behind it, the
excavation not so deep in the rock as to impress any feeling of
darkness, but lofty and magnificent; but in connection with the
adjoining banks excluding as much of the sky as could well be spared
from a scene so exquisitely beautiful. The spot where we stood was as
dry as the chamber in which I am now sitting, and the incumbent rock,
of which the groundwork was limestone, veined and dappled with colours
which melted into each other with every possible variety of colour. On
the summit of the cave were three festoons, or rather wrinkles, in the
rock, run up parallel like the folds of a curtain when it is drawn up.
Each of these was hung with icicles of various length, and nearly in
the middle of the festoon, in the deepest valley of the waves that ran
parallel to each other, the stream shot from the rows of icicles in
irregular fits of strength, and with a body of water that varied every
moment. Sometimes the stream shot into the bason in one continued
current; sometimes it was interrupted almost in the midst of its fall,
and was blown towards part of the waterfall at no great distance from
our feet like the heaviest thunder shower. In such a situation you
have at every moment a feeling of the presence of the sky. Large
fleecy clouds drove over our heads above the rush of the water, and
the sky appeared of a blue more than usually brilliant. The rocks on
each side, which, joining with the side of this cave, formed the vista
of the brook, were chequered with three diminutive waterfalls, or
rather courses of water. Each of these was a miniature of all that
summer and winter can produce of delicate beauty. The rock in the
centre of the falls, where the water was most abundant, a deep black,
the adjoining parts yellow, white, purple, and dove colour, covered
with water--plants of the most vivid green, and hung with streaming
icicles, that in some places seem to conceal the verdure of the plants
and the violet and yellow variegation of the rocks; and in some places
render the colours more brilliant. I cannot express to you the
enchanting effect produced by this Arabian scene of colour as the wind
blew aside the great waterfall behind which we stood, and alternately
hid and revealed each of these fairy cataracts in irregular
succession, or displayed them with various gradations of distinctness
as the intervening spray was thickened or dispersed. What a scene too
in summer! In the luxury of our imagination we could not help feeding
upon the pleasure which this cave, in the heat of a July noon, would
spread through a frame exquisitely sensible. That huge rock on the
right, the bank winding round on the left with all its living foliage,
and the breeze stealing up the valley, and bedewing the cavern with
the freshest imaginable spray. And then the murmur of the water, the
quiet, the seclusion, and a long summer day. "
Ed.
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT:
[Footnote A: This is a fragment of 'The Recluse', ll. 152-167; but it
was originally published in the 'Memoirs of Wordsworth' by his nephew
(1851). --Ed. ]
* * * * *
ELLEN IRWIN; OR, THE BRAES OF KIRTLE [A]
Composed 1800. --Published 1800
[It may be worth while to observe that as there are Scotch Poems on this
subject in simple ballad strain, I thought it would be both presumptuous
and superfluous to attempt treating it in the same way; and,
accordingly, I chose a construction of stanza quite new in our language;
in fact, the same as that of Burger's 'Leonora', except that the first
and third lines do not, in my stanzas, rhyme. At the outset I threw out
a classical image to prepare the reader for the style in which I meant
to treat the story, and so to preclude all comparison. --I.
[Variant 3: This stanza was added in the edition of 1802. ]
[Variant 4:
1827.
She pass'd her time; and in this way
Grew up to Woman's height. 1802. ]
[Variant 5:
1836.
Ah no! . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 6:
1805.
. . . bare . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 7:
1836.
He spake of plants divine and strange
That ev'ry day their blossoms change,
Ten thousand lovely hues! 1800.
. . . every hour . . . 1802. ]
[Variant 8:
Of march and ambush, siege and fight,
Then did he tell; and with delight
The heart of Ruth would ache;
Wild histories they were, and dear:
But 'twas a thing of heaven to hear
When of himself he spake!
Only in the editions of 1802 and 1805.
The following is the order of the stanzas in the edition of 1802.
The first, fifth, and last had not appeared before.
Sometimes most earnestly he said;
"O Ruth! I have been worse than dead:
False thoughts, thoughts bold and vain
Encompass'd me on every side
When I, in thoughtlessness and pride,
Had cross'd the Atlantic Main.
Whatever in those Climes I found
Irregular in sight or sound
Did to my mind impart
A kindred impulse, seem'd allied
To my own powers, and justified
The workings of my heart.
Nor less to feed unhallow'd thought
The beauteous forms of nature wrought,
Fair trees and lovely flowers;
The breezes their own languor lent;
The stars had feelings which they sent
Into those magic bowers.
Yet, in my worst pursuits, I ween,
That often there did intervene
Pure hopes of high intent;
My passions, amid forms so fair
And stately, wanted not their share
Of noble sentiment.
So was it then, and so is now:
For, Ruth! with thee I know not how
I feel my spirit burn
Even as the east when day comes forth;
And to the west, and south, and north,
The morning doth return.
It is a purer better mind:
O Maiden innocent and kind
What sights I might have seen!
Even now upon my eyes they break! "
--And he again began to speak
Of Lands where he had been.
The last stanza is only in the editions of 1802-1805. [a]]
[Variant 9:
1836.
And then he said "How sweet it were 1800. ]
[Variant 10:
1845.
A gardener in the shade,
Still wandering with an easy mind
To build . . . 1800.
In sunshine or through shade
To wander with an easy mind;
And build . . . 1836. ]
[Variant 11:
1836.
. . . sweet . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 12:
1832.
Dear . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 13:
1820.
Sweet Ruth alone at midnight shed 1800. ]
[Variant 14:
1800.
. . . unhallow'd . . . 1802 and MS.
The edition of 1805 returns to the reading of 1800. ]
[Variant 15:
1845.
. . . lovely . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 16:
1845.
. . . magic . . . 1800.
. . . gorgeous . . . 1815. ]
[Variant 17:
1800.
That often . . . 1802.
The text of 1805 returns to that of 1800. ]
[Variant 18:
1800.
For passions, amid forms so fair
And stately, wanted not their share 1802.
The text of 1805 returns to that of 1800. ]
[Variant 19:
1800.
Ill did he live . . . 1802.
The text of 1805 returns to that of 1800. ]
[Variant 20:
1805.
When I, in thoughtlessness and pride,
Had crossed . . . 1802.
When first, in confidence and pride,
I crossed . . . 1820.
C. , and the edition of 1840, revert to the reading of 1805. ]
[Variant 21:
1840 and C.
"It was a fresh and glorious world,
A banner bright that was unfurled
Before me suddenly: 1805.
A banner bright that shone unfurled 1836. ]
[Variant 22: Lines 163-168, and 175-180, were added in 1802. Lines
169-174 were added in 1805. All these were omitted in 1815, but were
restored in 1820. ]
[Variant 23:
1845
So was it then, and so is now:
For, Ruth! with thee I know not how
I feel my spirit burn 1802.
"But wherefore speak of this? for now,
Sweet Ruth! with thee, . . . 1805.
Dear Ruth! with thee . . . 1836. ]
[Variant 24:
1836.
Even as the east when day comes forth;
And to the west, and south, and north, 1802. ]
[Variant 25:
It is my purer better mind
O maiden innocently kind
What sights I might have seen!
Even now upon my eyes they break!
And then the youth began to speak
Of lands where he had been. MS. ]
[Variant 26:
1845.
But now the pleasant dream was gone, 1800.
Full soon that purer mind . . . 1820. ]
[Variant 27:
1836.
And there, exulting in her wrongs,
Among the music of her songs
She fearfully carouz'd. [b] 1800.
And there she sang tumultuous songs,
By recollection of her wrongs,
To fearful passion rouzed. 1820. ]
[Variant 28:
1836.
wild brook . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 29:
1802.
And to the pleasant Banks of Tone
She took her way, to dwell alone 1800. ]
[Variant 30:
1802.
. . . grief, . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 31:
1805.
(And in this tale we all agree) 1800. ]
[Variant 32:
1805.
The neighbours grieve for her, and say
That she will . . . 1802. ]
[Variant 33: This stanza first appeared in the edition of 1802. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: Taken from the portrait of the chief in Bartram's
frontispiece. --Ed. ]
[Footnote B:
"The tall aspiring Gordonia lacianthus . . . gradually changing colour,
from green to golden yellow, from that to a scarlet, from scarlet to
crimson, and lastly to a brownish purple, . . . so that it may be said
to change and renew its garments every morning throughout the year. "
See 'Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East Florida,
the Cherokee Country', etc. , by William Bartram (1791), pp. 159,
160. --Ed.
]
[Footnote C:
"Its thick foliage of a dark green colour is flowered over with large
milk-white, fragrant blossoms, . . . renewed every morning, and that in
such incredible profusion that the tree appears silvered over with
them, and the ground beneath covered with the fallen flowers. It, at
the same time, continually pushes forth new twigs, with young buds on
them. "
(Bartram's 'Travels', etc. , p. 159. )--Ed. ]
[Footnote D: Magnolia grandiflora. --W. W. 1800; and Bartram's 'Travels',
p. 8. --Ed. ]
[Footnote E:
"The Cypressus distichia stands in the first order of North American
trees. Its majestic stature, lifting its cumbrous top towards the
skies, and casting a wide shade upon the ground, as a dark intervening
cloud," etc.
(Bartram's 'Travels', p. 88). --Ed. ]
[Footnote F: The splendid appearance of these scarlet flowers, which are
scattered with such profusion over the Hills in the Southern parts of
North America is frequently mentioned by Bartram in his 'Travels'. --W.
W. 1800. ]
[Footnote G: Mr. Ernest Coleridge tells me he
"has traced, to a note-book of Coleridge's in the British Museum, the
source from which Wordsworth derived his description of Georgian
scenery in 'Ruth'. He does, I know, refer to Bartram, but the whole
passage is a poetical rendering, and a pretty close one, of Bartram's
poetical narrative. I have a portrait--the frontispiece of Bartram's
'Travels'--of Mico Chlucco, king of the Seminoles, whose feathers nod
in the breeze just as did the military casque of the 'youth from
Georgia's shore. '"
Ed. ]
[Footnote H:
"North and south almost endless green plains and meadows, embellished
with islets and projecting promontories of high dark forests, where
the pyramidal Magnolia grandiflora . . . conspicuously towers. "
(Bartram's 'Travels', p. 145). --Ed. ]
[Footnote I: The Tone is a River of Somersetshire, at no great distance
from the Quantock Hills. These Hills, which are alluded to a few stanzas
below, are extremely beautiful, and in most places richly covered with
Coppice woods. W. W. 1800. ]
* * * * *
SUB-FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Sub-Footnote a: The edition of 1805 substitutes the stanzas beginning,
'It was a fresh and glorious world'
for stanzas 2, 3, and 4 of the above six in this note, but it inserts
these omitted stanzas later on as Nos. 27, 28, 29. --Ed. ]
[Sub-Footnote b: Wordsworth wrote to Barren Field in 1828 that this stanza
"was altered, Lamb having observed that it was not English. I like it
better myself;'
(i. e. the version of 1800)
"but certainly to carouse cups--that is to empty them--is the genuine
English. "
Ed. ]
* * * * *
1800
Towards the close of December 1799, Wordsworth came to live at Dove
Cottage, Town-end, Grasmere. The poems written during the following year
(1800), are more particularly associated with that district of the
Lakes. Two of them were fragments of a canto of 'The Recluse', entitled
"Home at Grasmere," referring to his settlement at Dove Cottage. Others,
such as 'Michael', and 'The Brothers'--classed by him afterwards among
the "Poems founded on the Affections,"--deal with incidents in the rural
life of the dalesmen of Westmoreland and Cumberland. Most of the "Poems
on the Naming of Places" were written during this year; and the "Places"
are all in the neighbourhood of Grasmere. To these were added several
"Pastoral Poems"--such as 'The Idle Shepherd Boys; or, Dungeon-Ghyll
Force'--sundry "Poems of the Fancy," and one or two "Inscriptions. " In
all, twenty-five poems were written in the year 1800; and, with the
exception of the two fragments of 'The Recluse', they were published
during the same year in the second volume of the second edition of
"Lyrical Ballads. " It is impossible to fix the precise date of the
composition of the fragments of 'The Recluse'; but, as they refer to the
settlement at Dove Cottage--where Wordsworth went to reside with his
sister, on the 21st of December 1799--they may fitly introduce the poems
belonging to the year 1800. They were first published in 1851 in the
'Memoirs of Wordsworth' (vol. i. pp. 157 and 155 respectively), by the
poet's nephew, the late Bishop of Lincoln. The entire canto of 'The
Recluse', entitled "Home at Grasmere," will be included in this edition.
The first two poems which follow, as belonging to the year 1800, are
parts of 'The Recluse', viz. "On Nature's invitation do I come," (which
is ll. 71-97, and 110-125), and "Bleak season was it, turbulent and
bleak," (which is ll. 152-167). They are not reprinted from the
'Memoirs' of 1851, because the text there given was, in several
instances, inaccurately reproduced from the original MS. , which has been
re-examined. They were printed here, in 'The Recluse '(1888), and in my
'Life of Wordsworth' (vol. i. 1889). --Ed.
* * * * *
"ON NATURE'S INVITATION DO I COME"
Composed (probably) in 1800. --Published 1851
On Nature's invitation do I come,
By Reason sanctioned. Can the choice mislead,
That made the calmest, fairest spot of earth,
With all its unappropriated good,
My own, and not mine only, for with me 5
Entrenched--say rather peacefully embowered--
Under yon orchard, in yon humble cot,
A younger orphan of a home extinct,
The only daughter of my parents dwells:
Aye, think on that, my heart, and cease to stir; 10
Pause upon that, and let the breathing frame
No longer breathe, but all be satisfied.
Oh, if such silence be not thanks to God
For what hath been bestowed, then where, where then
Shall gratitude find rest? Mine eyes did ne'er 15
Fix on a lovely object, nor my mind
Take pleasure in the midst of happy thoughts,
But either she, whom now I have, who now
Divides with me this loved abode, was there,
Or not far off. Where'er my footsteps turned, 20
Her voice was like a hidden bird that sang;
The thought of her was like a flash of light
Or an unseen companionship, a breath
Or fragrance independent of the wind.
In all my goings, in the new and old 25
Of all my meditations, and in this
Favourite of all, in this the most of all. . . .
Embrace me then, ye hills, and close me in.
Now in the clear and open day I feel
Your guardianship: I take it to my heart; 30
'Tis like the solemn shelter of the night.
But I would call thee beautiful; for mild,
And soft, and gay, and beautiful thou art,
Dear valley, having in thy face a smile,
Though peaceful, full of gladness. Thou art pleased, 35
Pleased with thy crags, and woody steeps, thy lake,
Its one green island, and its winding shores,
The multitude of little rocky hills,
Thy church, and cottages of mountain-stone
Clustered like stars some few, but single most, 40
And lurking dimly in their shy retreats,
Or glancing at each other cheerful looks,
Like separated stars with clouds between.
This Grasmere cottage is identified, much more than Rydal Mount, with
Wordsworth's "poetic prime. " It had once been a public-house, bearing
the sign of the Dove and Olive Bough--and as such is referred to in 'The
Waggoner'--from which circumstance it was for a long time, and is now
usually, called "Dove Cottage. " A small two storied house, it is
described somewhat minutely--as it was in Wordsworth's time--by De
Quincey, in his 'Recollections of the Lakes', and by the late Bishop of
Lincoln, in the 'Memoirs' of his uncle.
"The front of it faces the lake; behind is a small plot of orchard and
garden ground, in which there is a spring and rocks; the enclosure
shelves upwards towards the woody sides of the mountains above it. "
[A]
The following is De Quincey's description of it, as he saw it in the
summer of 1807.
"A white cottage, with two yew trees breaking the glare of its white
walls" (these yews still stand on the eastern side of the cottage). "A
little semi-vestibule between two doors prefaced the entrance into
what might be considered the principal room of the cottage. It was an
oblong square, not above eight and a half feet high, sixteen feet
long, and twelve broad; wainscoted from floor to ceiling with dark
polished oak, slightly embellished with carving. One window there
was--a perfect and unpretending cottage window, with little diamond
panes, embowered at almost every season of the year with roses; and,
in the summer and autumn, with a profusion of jasmine, and other
fragrant shrubs. . . . I was ushered up a little flight of stairs,
fourteen in all, to a little drawing-room, or whatever the reader
chooses to call it. Wordsworth himself has described the fireplace of
this room as his
'Half-kitchen and half-parlour fire. '
It was not fully seven feet six inches high, and in other respects
pretty nearly of the same dimensions as the rustic hall below. There
was, however, in a small recess, a library of perhaps three hundred
volumes, which seemed to consecrate the room as the poet's study and
composing room, and such occasionally it was. But far oftener he both
studied, as I found, and composed on the high road. " [B]
Other poems of later years refer, much more fully than the above, to
this cottage, and its orchard ground, where so many of Wordsworth's
lyrics were composed.
The "orchard ground," which was for the most part in grass, sloped
upwards; but a considerable portion of the natural rock was exposed; and
on its face, some rough stone steps were cut by Wordsworth, helped by a
near neighbour of his--John Fisher--so as more conveniently to reach the
upper terrace, where the poet built for himself a small arbour. All this
garden and orchard ground is not much altered since 1800. The short
terrace walk is curved, with a sloping bank of grass above, shaded by
apple trees, hazel, holly, laburnum, laurel, and mountain ash. Below the
terrace is the well, which supplied the cottage in Wordsworth's time;
and there large leaved primroses still grow, doubtless the successors of
those planted by his own and his sister's hands. Above, and amongst the
rocks, are the daffodils, which they also brought to their
"garden-ground;" the Christmas roses, which they planted near the well,
were removed to the eastern side of the garden, where they flourished
luxuriantly in 1882; but have now, alas! disappeared. The box-wood
planted by the poet grows close to the cottage. The arbour is now gone;
but, in the place where it stood, a seat is erected. The hidden brook
still sings its under-song, as it used to do, "its quiet soul on all
bestowing," and the green linnet may doubtless be seen now, as it used
to be in 1803. The allusions to the garden ground at Dove Cottage, in
the poems which follow, will be noted as they occur. --Ed.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: See the 'Memoirs of Wordsworth', vol. i. p. 156. --Ed. ]
[Footnote B: See 'Recollections of the Lakes', etc. , pp. 130-137, Works,
vol. ii. , edition of 1862. --Ed. ]
* * * * *
"BLEAK SEASON WAS IT, TURBULENT AND BLEAK" [A]
Composed (probably) in 1800. --Published 1851
Bleak season was it, turbulent and bleak,
When hitherward we journeyed, side by side,
Through burst of sunshine and through flying showers,
Paced the long vales, how long they were, and yet
How fast that length of way was left behind, 5
Wensley's rich vale and Sedbergh's naked heights.
The frosty wind, as if to make amends
For its keen breath, was aiding to our steps,
And drove us onward like two ships at sea;
Or, like two birds, companions in mid-air, 10
Parted and reunited by the blast.
Stern was the face of nature; we rejoiced
In that stern countenance; for our souls thence drew
A feeling of their strength. The naked trees,
The icy brooks, as on we passed, appeared 15
To question us, "Whence come ye? To what end? "
This poem refers to a winter journey on foot, which Wordsworth and his
sister took from Sockburn to Grasmere, by Wensleydale and Askrigg; and,
since he has left us an account of this journey, in a letter to
Coleridge, written a few days after their arrival at Grasmere--a letter
in which his characterisation of Nature is almost as happy as it is in
his best poems--some extracts from it may here be appended.
"We left Sockburn last Tuesday morning. We crossed the Tees by
moonlight in the Sockburn fields, and after ten good miles riding came
in sight of the Swale. It is there a beautiful river, with its green
banks and flat holms scattered over with trees. Four miles further
brought us to Richmond, with its huge ivied castle, its friarage
steeple, its castle tower resembling a huge steeple. . . . We were now in
Wensleydale, and D. and I set off side by side to foot it as far as
Kendal. . . . We reached Askrigg, twelve miles, before six in the
evening, having been obliged to walk the last two miles over hard
frozen roads. . . . Next morning the earth was thinly covered with snow,
enough to make the road soft and prevent its being slippery. On
leaving Askrigg we turned aside to see another waterfall. It was a
beautiful morning, with driving snow showers, which disappeared by
fits, and unveiled the east, which was all one delicious pale orange
colour. After walking through two small fields we came to a mill,
which we passed, and in a moment a sweet little valley opened before
us, with an area of grassy ground, and a stream dashing over various
laminae of black rocks close under a bank covered with firs; the bank
and stream on our left, another woody bank on our right, and the flat
meadow in front, from which, as at Buttermere, the stream had retired,
as it were, to hide itself under the shade. As we walked up this
delightful valley we were tempted to look back perpetually on the
stream, which reflected the orange lights of the morning among the
gloomy rocks, with a brightness varying with the agitation of the
current. The steeple of Askrigg was between us and the east, at the
bottom of the valley; it was not a quarter of a mile distant. . . . The
two banks seemed to join before us with a facing of rock common to
them both. When we reached this bottom the valley opened out again;
two rocky banks on each side, which, hung with ivy and moss, and
fringed luxuriantly with brushwood, ran directly parallel to each
other, and then approaching with a gentle curve at their point of
union, presented a lofty waterfall, the termination of the valley. It
was a keen frosty morning, showers of snow threatening us, but the sun
bright and active. We had a task of twenty-one miles to perform in a
short winter's day. . . . On a nearer approach the waters seemed to fall
down a tall arch or niche that had shaped itself by insensible
moulderings in the wall of an old castle. We left this spot with
reluctance, but highly exhilarated. . . . It was bitter cold, the wind
driving the snow behind us in the best style of a mountain storm. We
soon reached an inn at a place called Hardrane, and descending from
our vehicles, after warming ourselves by the cottage fire, we walked
up the brook-side to take a view of a third waterfall. We had not
walked above a few hundred yards between two winding rocky banks
before we came full upon the waterfall, which seemed to throw itself
in a narrow line from a lofty wall of rock, the water, which shot
manifestly to some distance from the rock, seeming to be dispersed
into a thin shower scarcely visible before it reached the bason. We
were disappointed in the cascade itself, though the introductory and
accompanying banks were an exquisite mixture of grandeur and
beauty. . . . After cautiously sounding our way over stones of all
colours and sizes, encased in the clearest water formed by the spray
of the fall, we found the rock, which before had appeared like a wall,
extending itself over our heads, like the ceiling of a huge cave, from
the summit of which the waters shot directly over our heads into a
bason, and among fragments wrinkled over with masses of ice as white
as snow, or rather, as Dorothy says, like congealed froth. The water
fell at least ten yards from us, and we stood directly behind it, the
excavation not so deep in the rock as to impress any feeling of
darkness, but lofty and magnificent; but in connection with the
adjoining banks excluding as much of the sky as could well be spared
from a scene so exquisitely beautiful. The spot where we stood was as
dry as the chamber in which I am now sitting, and the incumbent rock,
of which the groundwork was limestone, veined and dappled with colours
which melted into each other with every possible variety of colour. On
the summit of the cave were three festoons, or rather wrinkles, in the
rock, run up parallel like the folds of a curtain when it is drawn up.
Each of these was hung with icicles of various length, and nearly in
the middle of the festoon, in the deepest valley of the waves that ran
parallel to each other, the stream shot from the rows of icicles in
irregular fits of strength, and with a body of water that varied every
moment. Sometimes the stream shot into the bason in one continued
current; sometimes it was interrupted almost in the midst of its fall,
and was blown towards part of the waterfall at no great distance from
our feet like the heaviest thunder shower. In such a situation you
have at every moment a feeling of the presence of the sky. Large
fleecy clouds drove over our heads above the rush of the water, and
the sky appeared of a blue more than usually brilliant. The rocks on
each side, which, joining with the side of this cave, formed the vista
of the brook, were chequered with three diminutive waterfalls, or
rather courses of water. Each of these was a miniature of all that
summer and winter can produce of delicate beauty. The rock in the
centre of the falls, where the water was most abundant, a deep black,
the adjoining parts yellow, white, purple, and dove colour, covered
with water--plants of the most vivid green, and hung with streaming
icicles, that in some places seem to conceal the verdure of the plants
and the violet and yellow variegation of the rocks; and in some places
render the colours more brilliant. I cannot express to you the
enchanting effect produced by this Arabian scene of colour as the wind
blew aside the great waterfall behind which we stood, and alternately
hid and revealed each of these fairy cataracts in irregular
succession, or displayed them with various gradations of distinctness
as the intervening spray was thickened or dispersed. What a scene too
in summer! In the luxury of our imagination we could not help feeding
upon the pleasure which this cave, in the heat of a July noon, would
spread through a frame exquisitely sensible. That huge rock on the
right, the bank winding round on the left with all its living foliage,
and the breeze stealing up the valley, and bedewing the cavern with
the freshest imaginable spray. And then the murmur of the water, the
quiet, the seclusion, and a long summer day. "
Ed.
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT:
[Footnote A: This is a fragment of 'The Recluse', ll. 152-167; but it
was originally published in the 'Memoirs of Wordsworth' by his nephew
(1851). --Ed. ]
* * * * *
ELLEN IRWIN; OR, THE BRAES OF KIRTLE [A]
Composed 1800. --Published 1800
[It may be worth while to observe that as there are Scotch Poems on this
subject in simple ballad strain, I thought it would be both presumptuous
and superfluous to attempt treating it in the same way; and,
accordingly, I chose a construction of stanza quite new in our language;
in fact, the same as that of Burger's 'Leonora', except that the first
and third lines do not, in my stanzas, rhyme. At the outset I threw out
a classical image to prepare the reader for the style in which I meant
to treat the story, and so to preclude all comparison. --I.
