Call thee, though known but for a few fleet years, The heart-affianced sister of our love! RYDAL MOUNT, Feb. 1840. XIX. "WHEN SEVERN'S SWEEPING FLOOD HAD OVERTHROWN." In 1842 a bazaar was held in Cardiff Castle to raise funds for the building of a Church. Wordsworth assisted by contributing this Sonnet, which was printed and sold along with verses by James Montgomery and others (cf. Prof. Knight's note, in his edition of the Poems, Vol. VIII.).—ED. WHEN Severn's sweeping flood had overthrown St. Mary's Church, the preacher then would cry: "Thus, Christian people, God his might hath shown That ye to him your love may testify; Haste, and rebuild the pile."-But not a stone 5 Resumed its place. Age after age went by, And Heaven still lacked its due, though piety In secret did, we trust, her loss bemoan. But now her Spirit hath put forth its claim 9 In Power, and Poesy would lend her voice; Let not our times halt in their better choice. RYDAL MOUNT, Jan. 23, 1842. With thy own scorn of tyrants they For know we not that from celestial advance, spheres, When Time was young, an inspiration Again, again, and yet again, For the Church, the State, the Throne! 105 115 Who deigns to grace our festal rite, XXIII. QUINZAIN CONJECTURALLY ASSIGNED TO WORDSWORTH. [Composed ?.-Published 1802 (Morning Post); never reprinted by W.] A writer (E. H. C.) in the Athenæum of November 4, 1893, suggests that the following lines, which appeared in the Morning Post on February 9, 1802, were probably composed by Wordsworth. "It may be remembered," writes E. H. C.," that the phrase monthly grave' is to be found in Lines to the Moon (1835); and in one of Wordsworth's latest sonnets, that To Lucca Giordano, the aged poet turns with pleasure to the delightful vision of young Endymion, couched on Latmos Hill." The suggestion is undoubtedly a happy one. The rhyme-arrangement of these lines resembles that of the piece beginning. With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb st the Sky, which first appeared in Poems in Two Volumes (1807), but may have been written in or about 1802. Both pieces appear to be experiments in metre. They are neither sonnets nor quatorzains, but quinzains, or stanzas consisting of fifteen lines each; though that published in 1807 was subsequently curtailed OR, Growth of a Poet's Mind; AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POEM. ADVERTISEMENT. [BY THE Editor of 1850.] HR following Poem was commenced in the beginning of the year 1799, and completed in the ummer of 1805 1. The design and occasion of the work are described by the Author in his Preface to the "Excursion," rst published in 1814, where he thus speaks: "Several years ago, when the Author retired to his native mountains with the hope of being abled to construct a literary work that might live, it was a reasonable thing that he should take review of his own mind, and examine how far Nature and Education had qualified him for such a employment. "As subsidiary to this preparation, he undertook to record, in verse, the origin and progress of his wn powers, as far as he was acquainted with them. "That work, addressed to a dear friend, most distinguished for his knowledge and genius, and to hom the Author's intellect is deeply indebted, has been long finished; and the result of the vestigation which gave rise to it, was a determination to compose a philosophical Poem, containing ews of Man, Nature, and Society, and to be entitled the "Recluse;" as having for its principal bject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement. "The preparatory poem is biographical, and conducts the history of the Author's mind to the oint when he was emboldened to hope that his faculties were sufficiently matured for entering upon le arduous labour which he had proposed to himself; and the two works have the same kind of lation to each other, if he may so express himself, as the Ante-chapel has to the body of a Gothic hurch. Continuing this allusion, he may be permitted to add, that his minor pieces, which have sen long before the public, when they shall be properly arranged, will be found by the attentive ader to have such connection with the main work as may give them claim to be likened to the ttle cells, oratories, and sepulchral recesses, ordinarily included in those edifices." Such was the Author's language in the year 1814. It will thence be seen, that the present Poem was intended to be introductory to the "Recluse," ad that the "Recluse," if completed, would have consisted of Three Parts. Of these, the Second art alone, viz. the "Excursion," was finished, and given to the world by the Author. The First Book of the First Part of the "Recluse" still [1850] remains in manuscript; but the hird Part was only planned. The materials of which it would have been formed have, however, sen incorporated, for the most part, in the Author's other Publications, written subsequently to the Excursion." The Friend, to whom the present Poem is addressed, was the late SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, who as resident in Malta, for the restoration of his health, when the greater part of it was composed. Mr. Coleridge read a considerable portion of the Poem while he was abroad; and his feelings, on aring it recited by the Author (after his return to his own country) are recorded in his Verses, dressed to Mr. Wordsworth, which will be found in the "Sibylline Leaves," p. 197, ed. 1817, or Poetical Works, by S. T. Coleridge," vol. i., p. 206. RYDAL MOUNT, July 13th, 1850. For further information regarding the dates of composition of the several Books of The Prelude, see the ronological Table of the Life of Wordsworth, under the years 1799, 1800, 1804, and 1803.—ED. |