25 Old household thoughts, in which thou hadst thy share ; 30 35 TO THE DAISY Composed 1805.--Published 1815 Placed by Wordsworth among his " Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."-ED. SWEET Flower! belike one day to have I welcome thee once more : But He, who was on land, at sea, Ah! hopeful, hopeful was the day His wish was gained: a little time 1 1837. For love, that comes to all; the holy sense, 2 1837. The soul Would bring him back in manhood's prime And free for life, these hills to climb; And full of hope day followed day While that stout Ship at anchor lay Beside the shores of Wight; The May had then made all things green; That Ship was goodly to be seen, His pride and his delight! Yet then, when called ashore, he sought To your abodes, bright daisy Flowers! 15 20 25 But hark the word!-the ship is gone ;- 30 -At length delivered from the rock, The deep she hath regained; And through the stormy night they steer; To reach a safer shore 2 Yet not to be attained! 1 1837. -how near, From her long course returns:— 2 1837. Towards a safer shore 1815. 1815. 40 "Silence!" the brave Commander cried ; -A few (my soul oft sees that sight) Six weeks beneath the moving sea To quit the Ship for which he died, And there they found him at her side; Vain service! yet not vainly done For such a gentle Soul and sweet, That neighbourhood of grove and field A meek man and a brave! The birds shall sing and ocean make A mournful murmur for his sake; And Thou, sweet Flower, shalt sleep and wake 1 1837. * -A few appear by morning light, Preserved upon the tall mast's height: 1815. * In the edition of 1827 and subsequent ones, Wordsworth here inserted a footnote, asking the reader to refer to No. vi. of the "Poems on the Naming of Places," beginning "When, to the attractions of the busy world," p. 66. His note of 1837 refers also to the poem which there precedes the present one, viz. the Elegiac Stanzas.-ED. ELEGIAC STANZAS,* SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE OF PEELE CASTLE, IN A STORM, PAINTED BY SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT Composed 1805.-Published 1807 [Sir George Beaumont painted two pictures of this subject, one of which he gave to Mrs. Wordsworth, saying she ought to have it; but Lady Beaumont interfered, and after Sir George's death she gave it to Sir Uvedale Price, at whose house at Foxley I have seen it.-I. F.] Placed by Wordsworth among his "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."-ED. I WAS thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile! So pure the sky, so quiet was the air! How perfect was the calm! it seemed no sleep; Ah! THEN, if mine had been the Painter's hand, 5 ΙΟ 15 1 1807. and add a gleam, The lustre, known to neither sea nor land, 1820. * The original title, in MS., was Verses suggested, etc.-ED. I would have planted thee, thou hoary Pile Thou shouldst have seemed a treasure-house divine1 A Picture had it been of lasting ease, Such, in the fond illusion 2 of my heart, A stedfast peace that might not be betrayed.3 So once it would have been, 'tis so no more; 20 25 30 1 1845. The edition of 1832 returns to the text of 1807.* a treasure-house, a mine * 1807. The whole of this stanza was omitted in the editions of 1820-1843, A faith, a trust, that could not be betray'd. 1807. 1807. * Many years ago Principal Shairp wrote to me, "Have you noted how the two lines, 'The light that never was,' etc., stood in the edition of 1827? I know no other such instance of a change from commonplace to perfection of ideality." The Principal had not remembered at the time that the "perfection of ideality" was in the original edition of 1807. The curious thing is that the prosaic version of 1820 and 1827 ever took its place. Wordsworth's return to his original reading was one of the wisest changes he introduced into the text of 1832.-ED. |