Which foolish birds are caught with. Can, I ask, These spreading towns a cloak for lawless will? 2 IV TO THE RIVER GRETA, NEAR KESWICK GRETA, what fearful listening! when huge stones Combat, while darkness aggravates the groans: ΤΟ 5 * Many years ago, when I was at Greta Bridge, in Yorkshire, the hostess of the inn, proud of her skill in etymology, said, that "the name of the river was taken from the bridge, the form of which, as every one must notice, exactly resembled a great A." Dr. Whitaker has derived it from the word of common occurrence in the North of England, "to greet;" signifying to lament aloud, mostly with weeping: a conjecture rendered more probable from the stony and rocky channel of both the Cumberland and Yorkshire rivers. The Cumberland Greta, though it does not, among the country people, take up that name till within three miles of its disappearance in the River Derwent, may be considered as having its source in the mountain cove of Wythburn, and flowing through Thirlmere, the beautiful features of which lake are known only to those who, travelling between Grasmere and Keswick, have quitted the main road in the vale of Wythburn, and, crossing over to the opposite side of the lake, have proceeded with it on the right hand. The channel of the Greta, immediately above Keswick, has, for the purposes of building, been in a great measure cleared of the immense stones which, by their concussion in high floods, produced the loud and awful noises described in the sonnet. "The scenery upon this river," says Mr. Southey in his Colloquies, "where it passes under the woody side of Latrigg, is of the finest and most rememberable kind :- -'ambiguo lapsu refluitque fluitque, Occurrensque sibi venturas aspicit undas.' W. W. 1835. TO THE River derRWENT Heard on his rueful margin *) thence wert named And the habitual murmur that atones For thy worst rage, forgotten. Oft as Spring 345 Decks, on thy sinuous banks, her thousand thrones, 10 Seats of glad instinct and love's carolling, Compare The Prelude, book i. 1. 269 (vol. iii. p. 140):— "Was it for this That one, the fairest of all rivers, loved To blend his murmurs with my nurse's song, And from his fords and shallows, sent a voice That flowed along my dreams? Make ceaseless music that composed my thoughts ED. V TO THE RIVER DERWENT † AMONG the mountains were we nursed, loved Stream! I, of his bold wing floating on the gale, Faint the beam * The Cocytus was a tributary of the Acheron, in Epirus, but was supposed to have some connection with the underworld, doubtless, as Wordsworth puts it, from the moans Heard on his rueful margin. Compare Homer, Odyssey x. 513, and Virgil, Aenid vi. 295.-ED. This sonnet has already appeared in several editions of the author's poems; but he is tempted to reprint it in this place, as a natural introduction to the two that follow it.-W. W. 1835. It was first published in 1819.-ED. The river Derwent rises in Langstrath valley, Borrowdale, in which is Eagle Crag, so named from its having been the haunt of a bird that is now extinct in Cumberland.-ED. Of human life when first allowed to gleam Of thy soft breath!-Less vivid wreath entwined IO 5 VI IN SIGHT OF THE TOWN OF COCKERMOUTH (Where the Author was born, and his Father's remains are laid.) A POINT of life between my Parents' dust, Death to the innocent is more than just, And meekly bear the ills which bear I must: *The Nemæan games were celebrated every third or fifth year at Nemæa in Argolis. The victor was crowned with a wreath of olive.-ED. + His children, Catherine and Thomas, who died in infancy at the Parsonage, Grasmere, and were buried in Grasmere Churchyard.--ED. NUN'S WELL, BRIGHAM 347 VII ADDRESS FROM THE SPIRIT OF COCKERMOUTH CASTLE "THOU look'st upon me, and dost fondly think, Of light was there ;-and thus did I, thy Tutor, * 5 II Through my green courts; or climbing, a bold suitor Up to the flowers whose golden progeny Still round my shattered brow in beauty wave." † VIII NUN'S WELL, BRIGHAM [So named from the religious House that stood close by. I have rather an odd anecdote to relate of the Nun's Well. One day the landlady of a public-house, a field's length from the well, on the road-side, said to me-"You have been to see the * Compare To a Butterfly (1Ɛ02), vol. ii. p. 284- Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days, + Compare The Prelude, book i. ll. 283-85 The shadow of those towers That yet survive, a shattered monument Of feudal sway. Compare also the sonnet At Furness Abbey, written in 1844.-ED. ED. Nun's Well, Sir?" "The Nun's Well! what is that?" said the Postman, who in his royal livery stopt his mail-car at the door. The landlady and I explained to him what the name meant, and what sort of people the nuns were. A countryman who was standing by, rather tipsy, stammered out-"Aye, those nuns were good people; they are gone; but we shall soon have them back again. The Reform mania was just then at its height.-I. F.] THE cattle crowding round this beverage clear To slake their thirst, with reckless hoofs have trod Yet, o'er the brink, and round the lime-stone cell By hooded Votaresses 1 with saintly cheer; * Looked down with pity upon eyes beguiled 5 IO IX TO A FRIEND ⚫(ON THE BANKS OF THE DERWENT) [My son John, who was then building a parsonage on his small living at Brigham.-I. F.] 1 1837. Votaries 1835. * Attached to the church of Brigham was formerly a chantry, which held a moiety of the manor; and in the decayed parsonage some vestiges of monastic architecture are still to be seen.-W. W. 1835. † See Pope's Eloïsa to Abelard, 1. 224.--ED. John Wordsworth, the poet's son, the subject of this sonnet, was incumbent of Moresby, near Whitehaven, before he went to Brigham. See the |