Of rural England's cultivated vales Or Cambrian solitudes.* A youth-(he bore At large and unrestrained, nor damped too soon He deemed that my pursuits and labours lay Having now Told what best merits mention, further pains I said unto the life which I had lived, 355 360 365 370 375 380 *After leaving London, he went to the Isle of Wight and to Salisbury Plain with Calvert; then to Bristol, the Valley of the Wye, and Tintern Abbey, alone on foot; thence to Jones' residence in North Wales at Plas-ynllan in Denbighshire; with him to other places in North Wales, thence to Halifax; and with his sister to Kendal, Grasmere, Keswick, Whitehaven, and Penrith.-ED. Raisley Calvert.-ED. His friend, dying in January 1795, bequeathed to Wordsworth a legacy of £900. Compare the sonnet, in vol. iv., beginning Calvert! it must not be unheard by them, and the Life of Wordsworth in this edition.-ED. And was; and hence this Song, which like a lark All gratulant, if rightly understood. Whether to me shall be allotted life, 385 And, with life, power to accomplish aught of worth, That will be deemed no insufficient plea 390 For having given the story of myself, Is all uncertain: but, beloved Friend! When, looking back, thou seest, in clearer view 395 400 Murmuring of him who, joyous hap, was found, 405 Near the loud waterfall; * or her who sate * In misery near the miserable Thorn; To thee, in memory of that happiness, It will be known, by thee at least, my Friend! 410 * The Wordsworths went to Alfoxden in the end of July, 1797. It was in the autumn of that year that, with Coleridge, Upon smooth Quantock's airy ridge they roved when the latter chaunted his Ancient Mariner and Christabel, and Wordsworth composed The Idiot Boy and The Thorn. The plan of a joint publication was sketched out in November 1797. (See the Fenwick note to We are Seven, vol. i. p. 228.)—ED. Is labour not unworthy of regard: To thee the work shall justify itself. The last and later portions of this gift Have been prepared, not with the buoyant spirits But, under pressure of a private grief,* 415 Keen and enduring, which the mind and heart, 420 Have been laid open, needs must make me feel From hope that thou art near, and wilt be soon Oh! yet a few short years of useful life, And all will be complete, thy race be run, Thy monument of glory will be raised; Then, though (too weak to tread the ways of truth) This age fall back to old idolatry, Though men return to servitude as fast 425 430 435 As the tide ebbs, to ignominy and shame (Should Providence such grace to us vouchsafe) Of their deliverance, surely yet to come. Prophets of Nature, we to them will speak 445 By reason, blest by faith: what we have loved, *The death of his brother John. Compare the Elegiac Verses in memory of him, p. 58.-ED. Others will love, and we will teach them how; And fears of men, doth still remain unchanged) Of quality and fabric more divine. 450 FROM THE ITALIAN OF MICHAEL ANGELO Translated 1805 ?-Published 1807 [Translations from Michael Angelo, done at the request of Mr. Duppa, whose acquaintance I made through Mr. Southey. Mr. Duppa was engaged in writing the life of Michael Angelo, and applied to Mr. Southey and myself to furnish some specimens of his poetic genius.—I. F.] Compare the two sonnets entitled At Florence-from Michael Angelo, in the "Memorials of a Tour in Italy " in 1837. The following extract from a letter of Wordsworth's to Sir George Beaumont, dated October 17, 1805, will cast light on the next three sonnets. "I mentioned Michael Angelo's poetry some time ago; it is the most difficult to construe I ever met with, but just what you would expect from such a man, shewing abundantly how conversant his soul was with great things. There is a mistake in the world concerning the Italian language; the poetry of Dante and Michael Angelo proves, that if there be little majesty and strength in Italian verse, the fault is in the authors, and not in the tongue. I can translate, and have translated two books of Ariosto, at the rate, nearly, of one hundred lines a day; but so much meaning has been put by Michael Angelo into so little room, and that meaning sometimes so excellent in itself, that I found the difficulty of translating him insurmountable. I attempted, at least, fifteen of the sonnets, but could not anywhere succeed. I have sent you the only one I was able to finish; it is far from being the best, or most characteristic, but the others were too much for me." The last of the three sonnets probably belongs to the year 1804, as it is quoted in a letter to Sir George Beaumont, dated Grasmere, August 6. The year is not given, but I think it must have been 1804, as he says that "within the last month," he had written, ". '700 additional lines" of The Prelude; and that poem was finished in May 1805. The titles given to them make it necessary to place these Sonnets in the order which follows. One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED. I YES! hope may with my strong desire keep pace, For if of our affections none finds 1 grace In sight of Heaven, then, wherefore hath God made Love cannot have, than that in loving thee As hallows and makes pure all gentle hearts. FROM THE SAME Translated 1805?-Published 1807 One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-Ed. II No mortal object did these eyes behold 5 ΙΟ |