With living snow-drops? circlet bright!
How glorious to this orchard-ground!
Who loved the little Rock, and set
Upon its head this coronet?

Was it the humour of a child?

Or rather of some gentle 1 maid,
Whose brows, the day that she was styled
The shepherd-queen, were thus arrayed?
Of man mature, or matron sage ?
Or old man toying with his age?

I asked 'twas whispered; The device
To each and 2 all might well belong :
It is the Spirit of Paradise

That prompts such work, a Spirit strong,
That gives to all the self-same bent
Where life is wise and innocent.

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"IT IS NO SPIRIT WHO FROM HEAVEN HATH FLOWN"

Composed 1803.—Published 1807

[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. I remember the instant my sister S. H., called me to the window of our Cottage, saying, "Look how beautiful is yon star! It has the sky all to itself." I composed the verses immediately.-I. F.]

This was No. XIII. of "Moods of my own Mind,” in the edition of 1807. It was afterwards included among the "Poems of the Imagination."-Ed.

It is no Spirit who from heaven hath flown,

And is descending on his embassy;

Nor Traveller gone from earth the heavens to espy! 'Tis Hesperus-there he stands with glittering crown, First admonition that the sun is down!

For yet it is broad day-light: clouds pass by;

A few are near him still—and now the sky,

He hath it to himself 'tis all his own.

O most ambitious Star! an inquest wrought
Within me when I recognised thy light;

A moment I was startled at the sight:

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And, while I gazed, there came to me a thought
That I might step beyond my natural race

As thou seem'st now to do; might one day trace1
Some ground not mine; and, strong her strength above,
My Soul, an Apparition in the place,
Tread there with steps that no one shall

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reprove!

*

O most ambitious Star! an inquest wrought
Within me when I recognised thy light;

A moment I was startled at the sight:

And, while I gazed, there came to me a thought

That even I beyond my natural race

Might step as thou dost now: might one day trace 1815.

O most ambitious Star! thy Presence brought

A startling recollection to my mind

Of the distinguished few among mankind,
Who dare to step beyond their natural race,

As thou seem'st now to do :-nor was a thought
Denied that even I might one day trace

1820.

The text of 1836 returns to that of 1807.

* Professor Dowden directs attention to the relation between these lines and the poem beginning "If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven."-ED.

MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND

1803

THESE poems were first collected, under the above title, in the edition of 1827. In 1807, nine of them-viz. Rob Roy's Grave, The Solitary Reaper, Stepping Westward, Glen Almain, or, The Narrow Glen, The Matron of Jedborough and her Husband, To a Highland Girl, Sonnet, To the Sons of Burns after visiting the Grave of their Father, Yarrow Unvisited,- -were printed under the title, "Poems written during a Tour in Scotland." This group begins the second volume of the edition of that year. But in 1815 and 1820-when Wordsworth began to arrange his poems in groups-they were distributed with the rest of the series in the several artificial sections. Although some were composed after the Tour was finishedand the order in which Wordsworth placed them is not the order of the Scotch Tour itself—it is advisable to keep to his own method of arrangement in dealing with this particular group, for the same reason that we retain it in such a series as the Duddon Sonnets.-ED.

DEPARTURE FROM THE VALE OF

GRASMERE.

AUGUST, 1803*

Composed 1811.-Published 1827

[Mr. Coleridge, my sister, and myself started together from Town-end to make a tour in Scotland. Poor Coleridge was at that time in bad spirits, and somewhat too much in love with his own dejection; and he departed from us, as is recorded in my Sister's Journal, soon after we left Loch Lomond. The verses that stand foremost among these Memorials were not

* This first poem referring to the Scottish Tour of 1803, was not actually written till 1811. It originally formed the opening paragraph of the Epistle to Sir George Beaumont. Wordsworth himself dated it 1804. It is every way desirable that it should introduce the series of poems referring to the Tour of 1803.-ED.

actually written for the occasion, but transplanted from my Epistle to Sir George Beaumont.—I. F.]

THE gentlest Shade that walked Elysian plains
Might sometimes covet dissoluble chains;
Even for the tenants of the zone that lies
Beyond the stars, celestial Paradise,
Methinks 'twould heighten joy, to overleap
At will the crystal battlements, and peep
Into some other region, though less fair,

To see how things are made and managed there.
Change for the worse might please, incursion bold
Into the tracts of darkness and of cold;
O'er Limbo lake with aëry flight to steer,

And on the verge of Chaos hang in fear.
Such animation often do I find,

Power in my breast, wings growing in my mind,
Then, when some rock or hill is overpast,
Perchance without one look behind me cast,
Some barrier with which Nature, from the birth
Of things, has fenced this fairest spot on earth.
O pleasant transit, Grasmere ! to resign
Such happy fields, abodes so calm as thine;
Not like an outcast with himself at strife ;
The slave of business, time, or care for life,
But moved by choice; or, if constrained in part,
Yet still with Nature's freedom at the heart ;-
To cull contentment upon wildest shores,
And luxuries extract from bleakest moors;

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With prompt embrace all beauty to enfold,

And having rights in all that we behold.

-Then why these lingering steps ?—A bright adieu,
For a brief absence, proves that love is true;
Ne'er can the way be irksome or forlorn

That winds into itself for sweet return.

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The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth's Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland:-" William and I parted from Mary on Sunday afternoon, August 14th, 1803, and William, Coleridge, and I left Keswick on Monday morning, the 15th."—ED.

AT THE GRAVE OF BURNS, 1803. SEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH

Composed 1803.*-Published 1842

[For illustration, see my Sister's Journal. It may be proper to add that the second of these pieces, though felt at the time, was not composed till many years after.-I. F.]

I SHIVER, Spirit fierce and bold,

At thought of what I now behold:

As vapours breathed from dungeons cold
Strike pleasure dead,

So sadness comes from out 1 the mould
Where Burns is laid.

And have I then thy bones so near,
And thou forbidden to appear?

As if it were thyself that's here
I shrink with pain;

And both my wishes and my fear

Alike are vain.

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Off weight-nor press on weight !—away

Dark thoughts !-they came, but not to stay;
With chastened feelings would I pay

The tribute due

To him, and aught that hides his clay

From mortal view.

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* It is dated thus by Wordsworth himself on three occasions, and the year of its composition is also indicated in the title of the poem.-ED.

See in his poem the Ode to Ruin.-ED.