The bird, who ceased, with fading light, to thread Above yon eastern hill,3 where darkness broods 1 1836. The bird, with fading light who ceas'd to thread 325 330 335 1793. The bird, who ceased, with fading light, to thread 1815. 2 1836. Salute with boding note the rising moon, And pouring deeper blue to Æther's bound; 1793. The last two lines occur only in the edition of 1793. Thus Hope, first pouring from her blessed horn Even now she decks for me a distant scene, 3 But now the clear bright Moon her zenith gains, And, rimy without speck, extend the plains: The deepest cleft the mountain's front displays Scarce hides a shadow from her searching rays; From the dark-blue faint silvery threads divide The hills, while gleams below the azure tide; Time softly treads; throughout the landscape breathes A peace enlivened, not disturbed, by wreaths Of charcoal-smoke, that o'er the fallen wood, Steal down the hill, and spread along the flood.4 340 345 350 355 360 The deepest dell the mountain's breast displays, 1793. 1820. 4 1836. The scene is waken'd, yet its peace unbroke, By silver'd wreaths of quiet charcoal smoke, That, o'er the ruins of the fallen wood, Steal down the hills, and spread along the flood. 1793. * The song of mountain-streams, unheard by day, 1 1836. 3 But the soft murmur of swift-gushing rills, (Unheard till now, and now scarce heard), proclaim'd All things at rest. This Dr. John Brown-a singularly versatile English divine (1717-1766) — was one of the first, as Wordsworth pointed out, to lead the way to a true estimate of the English Lakes. His description of the Vale of Keswick, in a letter to a friend, is as fine as anything in Gray's Journal. Wordsworth himself quotes the lines given in this footnote in the first section of his Guide through the District of the Lakes.-ED. 375 370 365 LINES WRITTEN WHILE SAILING IN A BOAT AT EVENING Composed 1789.-Published 1798 [This title is scarcely correct. It was during a solitary walk on the banks of the Cam that I was first struck with this appearance, and applied it to my own feelings in the manner here expressed, changing the scene to the Thames, near Windsor. This, and the three stanzas of the following poem, Remembrance of Collins, formed one piece; but, upon the recommendation of Coleridge, the three last stanzas were separated from the other.-I. F.] The title of the poem in 1798, when it consisted of five stanzas, was Lines written near Richmond, upon the Thames, at Evening. When, in the edition of 1800, it was divided, the title of the first part was, Lines written when sailing in a Boat at Evening; that of the second part was Lines written near Richmond upon the Thames. From 1815 to 1843, both poems were placed by Wordsworth among those "of Sentiment and Reflection." In 1845 they were transferred to "Poems written in Youth.”—ED. How richly glows the water's breast And see how dark the backward stream! 5 A little moment past so smiling! Such views the youthful Bard allure; Who would not cherish dreams so sweet, ΙΟ 15 REMEMBRANCE OF COLLINS COMPOSED UPON THE THAMES NEAR RICHMOND * GLIDE gently, thus for ever glide,† As now, fair river! come to me. O glide, fair stream! for ever so, Vain thought!-Yet be as now thou art, The image of a poet's heart, How bright, how solemn, how serene! 5 ΙΟ 1 1800. Such heart did once the poet bless, 1798. * The title in the editions 1802-1815 was Remembrance of Collins, written upon the Thames near Richmond.-ED. + Compare the After-thought to "The River Duddon. A Series of Sonnets": VOL. I Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide.-ED. D |