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NOTES.

thou indeed derive thy light" (Inscription | advancing to its extreme of wickedness, I had

following title-page).

Fritten (earliest draft) some time after 1813; printed (amongst Poems of Sentiment and lection) in ed. 1827. Expanded (1836), and ced in its present position in ed. 1845.-ED.

GUILT AND SORROW (page 23).

hirty stanzas (xxii.-xxxiv., and xxxviii-1.) Juilt and Sorrow were printed in the Lyrical lads of 1798, under the title of The Female rant. This poem of 1798-much altered n time to time, and ultimately cut down to aty-five stanzas-appeared in successive edd. he Poetical Works from 1815 to 1843. The le, as it now stands, was first printed in vol. entitled Poems, Chiefly of Early and e Years (1842). "Beside the changes made hese stanzas by Wordsworth from the point ew of poetic art, there are others the object which seems to be to moderate the force of ndictment of society" (Dowden).—ED.

And, hovering, round it often did a raven fly" (page 25, L 81).

rom a short MS. poem read to me when an ergraduate, by my schoolfellow and friend, rles Farish, long since deceased. The verses by a brother of his, a man of promising ns, who died young.- -W.

THE BORDERERS (page 37).

is Dramatic Piece, as noticed in its titlewas composed in 1795-6. It lay nearly that time till within the last two or three ths unregarded among my papers, without 5 mentioned even to my most intimate ds. Having, however, impressions upon my I which made me unwilling to destroy the I determined to undertake the responsibility ablishing it during my own life, rather than se upon my successors the task of deciding ite. Accordingly it has been revised with care; but, as it was at first written, and is published, without any view to its exhibiupon the stage, not the slightest alteration been made in the conduct of the story, or composition of the characters; above all, spect to the two leading Persons of the na, I felt no inducement to make any ge. The study of human nature suggests awful truth, that, as in the trials to which ubjects us, sin and crime are apt to start their very opposite qualities, so are there mits to the hardening of the heart, and the rsion of the understanding to which they carry their slaves. During my long resi in France, while the revolution was rapidly

frequent opportunities of being an eye-witness of this process, and it was while that knowledge was fresh upon my memory, that the Tragedy of "The Borderers" was composed.-W.

TO A BUTTERFLY (page 79).

The following pseudonyms occur in Wordsworth's poems:-Emmeline, Emma Dorothy, Dora, the poet's sister; Laura Dora his daughter (until after her death in 1847); Edward= Johnnie, the household name of his eldest born. Each of these poetical substitutes, it will be observed, is the exact metrical or accentual equivalent of the baptismal name for which it stands. The identity of the pseudonym Louisa (Poems Founded on the Affections, No. VI.) has been recently discussed (Athenæum, Sept. 16; Oct. 14, 21, 1894). If Louisa was chosen-as the above-mentioned names undoubtedly were-on the principle of metrical equivalence, then the “young lady" so named by the poet cannot have been either Dorothy his sister, or Mary his wife. It is possible that by Louisa Wordsworth may have intended his wife's sister, the "wild-hearted maid," Joanna Hutchinson; nor should the opening lines of the poem To Joanna-which, rightly understood, amount to nothing more than merry banter-be regarded as constituting a solid argument against this view. The case of Lycoris is irrelevant, and need not be discussed

here.-ED.

THE MOTHER'S RETURN (page 81).

This poem was written by Dorothy Wordsworth at Coleorton, on the eve of the return of Wordsworth and his wife from London where they had spent a month (prob. April) in 1807.-ED.

THE NORMAN BOY (page 91). "Among ancient Trees there are few, I believe, at least in France, so worthy of attention as an Oak which may be seen in the Pays de Caux,' about a league from Yvetot, close to the church, and in the burial-ground of Allonville.

"The height of this Tree does not answer to its girth; the trunk, from the roots to the summit, forms a complete cone; and the inside of this cone is hollow throughout the whole of its height.

"Such is the oak of Allonville, in its state of nature. The hand of Man, however, has endeavoured to impress upon it a character still more interesting, by adding a religious feeling to the respect which its age naturally inspires.

"The lower part of its hollow trunk has been transformed into a Chapel of six or seven feet in diameter, carefully wainscotted and paved, and an open iron gate guards the humble Sanctuary.

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"Leading to it there is a staircase, which twists round the body of the Tree. At certain seasons of the year divine service is performed in this Chapel.

"The summit has been broken off many years, but there is a surface at the top of the trunk, of the diameter of a very large tree, and from it rises a pointed roof, covered with slates, in the form of a steeple, which is surmounted with an iron Cross, that rises in a picturesque manner from the middle of the leaves, like an ancient Hermitage above the surrounding Wood.

"Over the entrance to the Chapel an Inscription appears, which informs us it was erected by the Abbé du Détroit, Curate of Allonville in the year 1696; and over a door is another, dedicating it 'To Our Lady of Peace.'

Vide No. 14, Saturday Magazine.—W.

ΤΟ - (page 110).

No doubt addressed to the Poet's daughter Dora. See The Longest Day, stanza xvi.-ED.

THE EMIGRANT MOTHER (page 120). This poem was written in the orchard, Townend, Grasmere, in the spring of 1802.-ED.

TO THE DAISY (page 157).

This poem, and two others to the same flower, were written in the year 1802; which is mentioned, because in some of the ideas, though not in the manner in which those ideas are connected, and likewise even in some of the expressions, there is a resemblance to passages in a poem (lately published) of Mr. Montgomery's, entitled "A Field Flower." This being said, Mr. Montgomery will not think any apology due to him; I cannot, however, help addressing him in the words of the Father of English Pocts:

"Though it happe me to rehersin

That ye han in your freshe songis saied,
Forberith me, and beth not ill apaied,
Sith that ye se I doe it in the honour
Of Love, and eke in service of the Flour."

1807.-W,

THE SEVEN SISTERS (page 161). The story of this poem is from the German of Frederica Brun [flor. 1765-1835.-ED.].-W.

THE DANISH BOY (page 165).

"These stanzas were designed to introduce a Ballad upon the Story of a Danish Prince who had fled from Battle, and, for the sake of the valuables about him, was murdered by the Inhabitant of a Cottage in which he had taken refuge. The House fell under a curse, and the Spirit of the Youth, it was believed, haunted the Valley where the crime had been committed."W. 1827.

THE WAGGONER (page 173). Several years after the event that forms the subject of the poem, in company with my friend, the late Mr. Coleridge, I happened to fall in with the person to whom the name of Benjamin is given. Upon our expressing regret that we had

not, for a long time, seen upon the road t him or his waggon, he said:"They could no without me; and as to the man who was in my place, no good could come out of him; ) was a man of no ideas."

The fact of my discarded hero's getting horses out of a great difficulty with a as related in the poem, was told me by an witness.-W.

"The buzzing dor-hawk, round and round, in wheeling" (page 178, L 3).

When the poem was first written the mate the bird was thus described:

"The Night-hawk is singing his frog-like tut Twirling his watchman's rattle about-" but from unwillingness to startle the real the outset by so bold a mode of expression passage was altered as it now stands.-W.

After the line, "Can any mortal clog cost her," (p. 178, 1. 28) followed in the MS. an incide which has been kept back. Part of the pressed verses shall here be given as a gr tion of private feeling, which the well-d reader will find no difficulty in excusing. are now printed for the first time.

Can any mortal clog come to her?
It can:

But Benjamin, in his vexation,
Possesses inward consolation;
He knows his ground, and hopes to fal
A spot with all things to his mind,
An upright mural block of stone,
Moist with pure water trickling down.
A slender spring; but kind to man
It is, a true Samaritan;

Close to the highway, pouring out
Its offering from a chink or spout:
Whence all, howe'er athirst, or drooping
With toil, may drink, and without stop

Cries Benjamin "Where is it, where!
Voice it hath none, but must be nest."
-A star, declining towards the west,
Upon the watery surface threw
Its image tremulously imprest,
That just marked out the object and wa
Right welcome service!

ROCK OF NAS Light is the strain, but not unjust To Thee and Thy memorial-trust That once seemed only to express Love that was love in idleness; Tokens, as year hath followed year How changed, alas, in character! For they were graven on thy smooth bra By hands of those my soul loved best; Meek women, men as true and brave As ever went to a hopeful grave: Their hands and mine, when side by sid With kindred zeal and mutual pride,

1 The "Rock of Names" is at Thirlmers right hand of the road a short way past W Upon it were carved the initials of Willin and John Wordsworth, of S. T. Coleridge, and and Sarah Hutchinson.-ED.

We worked until the Initials took
Shapes that defied a scornful look.-
Long as for us a genial feeling
Survives, or one in need of healing,
The power, dear Rock, around thee cast,
Thy monumental power, shall last
For me and mine! O thought of pain,
That would impair it or profane!
Take all in kindness then, as said
With a staid heart but playful head;
And fail not Thou, loved Rock! to keep
keep
Thy charge when we are laid asleep."-W.

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V. wrote as follows to some friends who had eived a copy of Resolution and Independence manuscript: "I will explain to you in prose feelings in writing that poem. ibe myself as having been exalted to the hest pitch of delight by the joyousness and uty of nature; and then as depressed, even the midst of those beautiful objects, to the est dejection and despair. A young poet in midst of the happiness of nature is described Overwhelmed by the thoughts of the miserable erses which have befallen the happiest of all n, viz. poets. I think of this till I am so ply impressed with it, that I consider the nner in which I was rescued from my deion and despair almost as an interposition Providence. A person reading the poem with ings like mine will have been awed and conled, expecting something spiritual or superural. What is brought forward? A lonely ce, a pond by which an old man was, far all house or home:' not stood, nor sat, was the figure presented in the most naked plicity possible. This feeling of spirituality supernaturalness is again referred to as being. ng in my mind in this passage. How came here? thought I, or what can he be doing? en describe him, whether ill or well is not me to judge with perfect confidence; but I can confidently affirm, that though I beGod has given me a strong imagination, nnot conceive a figure more impressive than of an old man like this, the survivor of a and ten children, travelling alone among mountains and all lonely places, carrying him his own fortitude, and the necessities ch an unjust state of society has laid upon -"- Memoirs of Wordsworth, 1. 172, 173.

THE THORN (page 197).

is Poem ought to have been preceded by ntroductory Foem, which I have been preed from writing by never having felt myself mood when it was probable that I should eit well. The character which I have here duced speaking is sufficiently common. The ler will perhaps have a general notion of it,

if he has ever known a man, a captain of a small trading vessel, for example, who being past the middle age of life, had retired upon an annuity or small independent income to some village or country town of which he was not a native, or in which he had not been accustomed to live. Such men, having little to do, become credulous and talkative from indolence; and from the same cause, and other predisposing causes by which it is probable that such men may have been affected, they are prone to superstition. On which account it appeared to me proper to select a character like this to exhibit some of the general laws by which superstition acts upon the mind. Superstitious men are almost always men of slow faculties and deep feelings; their minds are not loose, but adhesive; they have a reasonable share of imagination, by which word I mean the faculty which produces impressive effects out of simple elements; but they are utterly destitute of fancy, the power by which pleasure and surprise are excited by sudden varieties of situation and by accumulated imagery.

It was my wish in this poem to show the manner in which such men cleave to the same

ideas; and to follow the turns of passion, always different, yet not palpably different, by which their conversation is swayed. I had two objects to attain; first, to represent a picture which should not be unimpressive, yet consistent with the character that should describe it; secondly, while I adhered to the style in which such persons describe, to take care that words, which in their minds are impregnated with passion, should likewise convey passion to Readers who are not accustomed to sympathize with men feeling in that manner or using such language. It seemed to me that this might be done by calling in the assistance of Lyrical and rapid Metre. It was necessary that the Poem, to be natural, should in reality move slowly; yet I hoped that, by the aid of the metre, to those who should at all enter into the spirit of the Poem, it would appear to move quickly. The Reader will have the kindness to excuse this note, as I am sensible that an introductory Poem is necessary to give the Poem its full effect.

Upon this occasion I will request permission to add a few words closely connected with 'The Thorn' and many other Poems in these volumes.

There is a numerous class of readers who im

agine that the same words cannot be repeated without tautology: this is a great error: virtual tautology is much oftener produced by using different words when the micaning is exactly the same. Words, a Poet's words more particularly, ought to be weighed in the balance of feeling, and not measured by the space which they occupy upon paner. For the Reader cannot be too often reminded that Poetry is passion it is the history or science of feelings. Now every man must know that an attempt is rarely made to communicate impassioned feelings without something of an accompanying consciousness of the inadequateness of our own powers, or the deficiencies of language. During such efforts there will be a craving in the mind, and as long as it is unsatisfied the speaker will cling to the same words, or words of the same character. There are also various other reasons why repetition and apparent tautology are fre

quently beauties of the highest kind. Among the chief of these reasons is the interest which the mind attaches to words, not only as symbols of the passion, but as things, active and efficient, which are of themselves part of the passion. And further, from a spirit of fondness, exultation, and gratitude, the mind luxuriates in the repetition of words which appear successfully to communicate its feelings. The truth of these remarks might be shown by innumerable passages from the Bible, and from the impassioned poetry of every nation. "Awake, awake, Deborah!" &c. Judges, chap. V., verses 12th, 27th, and part of 28th See also the whole of that tumultuous and wonderful Poem.-W. 1800-1805.

SONG AT THE FEAST, &c. (page 203). Henry Lord Clifford, &c, &c., who is the subject of this poem, was the son of John Lord Clifford, who was slain at Towton Field, which John Lord Clifford, as is known to the reader of English history, was the person who after the battle of Wakefield slew, in the pursuit, the young Earl of Rutland, son of the Duke of York, who had fallen in the battle, "in part of revenge" (say the Authors of the "History of Cumberland and Westmoreland "); "for the Earl's Father had slain his." A deed which worthily blemished the author (saith Speed); but who, as he adds, "dare promise anything temperate of himself in the heat of martial fury? chiefly, when it was resolved not to leave any branch of the York line standing; for so one maketh this Lord to speak." This, no doubt, I would observe by the bye, was an action sufficiently in the vindictive spirit of the times, and yet not altogether so bad as represented; "for the Earl was no child, as some writers would have him, but able to bear arms, being sixteen or seventeen years of age, as is evident from this, (say the Memoirs of the Countess of Pembroke, who was laudably anxious to wipe away, as far as could be, this stigma from the illustrious name to which she was born,) that he was the next child to King Edward the Fourth, which his mother had by Richard Duke of York, and that King was then eighteen years of age: and for the small distance betwixt her children, see Austin Vincent, in his Book of Nobility,' p. 622, where he writes of them all." It may further be observed, that Lord Clifford, who was then himself only twenty-five years of age, had been a leading man and commander two or three years together in the army of Lancaster, before this time; and, therefore, would be less likely to think that the Earl of Rutland might be entitled to mercy from his youth.- But independent of this act, at best a cruel and savage one, the family of Clifford had done enough to draw upon them the vehement hatred of the House of York: so that after the Battle of Towton there was no hope for them but in flight and concealment. Henry, the subject of the poem, was deprived of his estate and honours during the space of twenty-four years; all which time he lived as a shepherd in Yorkshire, or in Cumberland, where the estate of his father-in-law (Sir Lancelot Threlkeld) lay. He was restored to his estate and honours in the first year of Henry the Seventh. It is recorded that, "when called to Parliament, he behaved nobly and

wisely; but otherwise came seldom to lo or the Court; and rather delighted to be the country, where he repaired several of Castles, which had gone to decay during late troubles." Thus far is chiefly collected fr Nicholson and Burn; and I can add, fre own knowledge, that there is a tradition ama in the village of Threlkeld and its neight] hood, his principal retreat, that, in the c of his shepherd-life, he had acquired greates nomical knowledge. I cannot conclude that without adding a word upon the subject of* numerous and noble feudal edifices, spoken d the poem, the ruins of some of which are, TIN day, so great an ornament to that interes country. The Cliffords had always bee tinguished for an honourable pride in Castles; and we have seen that, after the 52 of York and Lancaster, they were rebu the civil wars of Charles the First they again laid waste, and again restored als®] their former magnificence by the cel Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Pe &c., &c. Not more than twenty-five year an this was done, when the estates of Clifford bak passed into the family of Tufton, three of Castles, namely, Brough, Brougham, and dragon, were demolished, and the timber other materials sold by Thomas Earl of TA We will hope that, when this order was the Earl had not consulted the text of Is an 58th chap. 12th verse, to which the insta placed over the gate of Pendragon Cast M the Countess of Pembroke (I believe his ge mother), at the time she repaired that strate refers the reader:-" And they that she thee shall build the old waste places: the raise up the foundations of many generati and thou shalt be called the repairer breach, the restorer of paths to divell in" Earl of Thanet, the present possessor d Estates, with a due respect for the merc his ancestors, and a proper sense of the and beauty of these remains of antiquity, (I am told) given orders that they shall b× FT; served from all depredations.-W.

"Earth helped him with the ery of bloat" (page 204, L 27).

This line is from "The Battle of Bes Field," by Sir John Beaumont (brother t Dramatist), whose poems are written with spirit, elegance, and harmony; and bair lection of English Poets."-W. servedly been reprinted lately in Chalmers

"And both the undying fish that swim Through Bowscale-tarn," &c. (p. 205, 11 12 It is imagined by the people of the that there are two immortal fish, inhabits? | this tarn, which lies in the mountains B from Threlkeld.-Blencathara, mentioned is the old and proper name of the vulgarly called Saddle-back.-W.

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LAODAMIA (page 209).

In 1827 a change of unique importancenounting to an absolute reversal of the central otive of the poem-was made in the penultiate stanza of Laodamia. In edd. 1815, 1820 e heroine's love, while described as, at war th Reason, is expressly declared guiltless; d she is dismissed to the serene region tented by happy Ghosts, there "to gather flowers blissful quiet," &c., &c. In 1827 all this is versed. Love, indulged "in Reason's spite,” now declared a crime; and Laodamia, as inifestly guilty, is "doomed to wander in a osser clime, Apart from happy Ghosts." In 32 the severity of the sentence is mitigated: t now to dateless exile from the presence of r beloved, but to a limited period of exclun-an expiatory or purgatorial term of banment is she sentenced by "the just Gods om no weak pity moves." Changes made subquently to 1832 in no way affect the question of odamia's doom. The several forms successively sumed by this stanza must now be given :Ah, judge her gently who so deeply loved! fer, who, in reason's spite, yet without crime, Vas in a trance of passion thus removed; Delivered from the galling yoke of time And these frail elements-to gather flowers f blissful quiet 'mid unfading bowers.

Edd. 1815, 1820.

y no weak pity might the Gods be moved; he who thus perished not without the crime f Lovers that in Reason's spite have loved, Was doomed to wander in a grosser clime Apart from happy Ghosts-that gather flowers f blissful quiet 'mid unfading bowers.

4,

Ed. 1827.

Id. 1832 and 1836 follow ed. 1827 exactly, except line which in them runs as follows:'Was doomed to wear out her appointed time." he-who, though warned, exhorted, and reproved, Thus died, from passion desperate to a crime3y the just Gods, whom no weak pity moved, Was doomed to wear out her appointed time Apart from happy Ghosts, that gather flowers, &c. Edd. 1840-1843.

Our text follows the version of edd. 1845 and 49. In defence of the change cffected in 1827, ordsworth wrote to his nephew John Wordsrth in 1831:-"As first written, the heroine is dismissed to happiness in Elysium.

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at purpose then the mission of Protesilaus ? e exhorts her to moderate her passion; the hortation is fruitless, and no punishment lows. So it stood: at present she is placed nong unhappy ghosts for disregard of the hortation. Virgil also places her there; but mpare the two passages and give me your inion" (William Wordsworth, by Elizabeth

Wordsworth, p. 131). Thus Laodamia probably owes the mitigated doom subsequently (ed. 1832) pronounced upon her to the interposition of the poet's nephew John Wordsworth.-ED.

DION (page 212).

This poem began with the following stanza, which has been displaced on account of its detaining the reader too long from the subject, and as rather precluding, than preparing for the due effect of the allusion to the genius of Plato: "Fair is the Swan, whose majesty, prevailing," &c., &c., &c.-W.

"Living hill" (page 217, L. 114),

"awhile the living hill

Heaved with convulsive throes, and all was still." DR. DARWIN.-W.

THE WISHING-GATE DESTROYED (page 223).

"In the Vale of Grasmere, by the side of the old highway leading to Ambleside, is a gate which, time out of mind, has been called the Wishing-gate.”

Having been told, upon what I thought good authority, that this gate had been destroyed, and the opening, where it hung, walled up, I gave vent immediately to my feelings in these stanzas. But going to the place some time after, I found, with much delight, my old favourite unmolested.-W.

PETER BELL (page 236).

After line 515 occurred the stanza (immortalised by Shelley) omitted by Wordsworth after 1819: "Is it a party in a parlour?

Cramm'd just as they on earth were cramm'd-
Some sipping punch, some sipping tea,
But, as you by their faces see,

All silent and all damn'd!"

In Crabb Robinson's Diary, June 6, 1812, we find: "Mrs. Basil Montagu told me she had no doubt she had suggested this image to Wordsworth by relating to him an anecdote. A person, walking in a friend's garden, looking in at a window, saw a company of ladies at a table near the window with countenances fixed. In an instant he was aware of their condition, and broke the window. He saved them from incipient suffocation.”—ED.

MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS (page 250).

Through the kindness of the author, Professor Edward Dowden, I am enabled to print at length the following valuable note upon the grouping of the Miscellaneous Sonnets The note originally appeared in the Aldine Edition of Wordsworth's Poems, vol. iii., p. 327 (ed. 1892).-ED.

"A group of Miscellaneous Sonnets was first published by Wordsworth in the 'Poems in two volumes,' 1807. In subsequent editions the number of Sonnets was increased, and the arrangement was altered. It seems to me evident that although these poems were written at various widely-parted times, they were finally arranged so as to illustrate one another, and form not indeed a linked chain of sonnets but a sequence as far as a sequence can be made from disconnected pieces by happy ordering. Let me try to show that this is the case with at least the thirtysix sonnets of Part I.

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