Forth-startled from the fern where she lay couched;

Unthought-of, unexpected, as the stir

Of the soft breeze ruffling the meadow-flowers,

Or from before it chasing wantonly

The many-coloured images imprest

20

Upon the bosom of a placid lake.

On February 28, 1810, Dorothy Wordsworth wrote to Lady Beaumont, "Catherine is the only funny child in the family; the rest of the children are lively, but Catherine is comical in every look and motion. Thomas perpetually forces a tender smile by his simplicity, but Catherine makes you laugh outright, though she can hardly say a dozen words, and she joins in the laugh, as if sensible of the drollery of her appearance.”—ED.

SPANISH GUERILLAS, 1811

Composed 1811. - Published 1815

Classed among the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."-ED.

THEY seek, are sought; to daily battle led,
Shrink not, though far outnumbered by their Foes,
For they have learnt to open and to close
The ridges of grim war; * and at their head
Are captains such as erst their country bred
Or fostered, self-supported chiefs, -like those
Whom hardy Rome was fearful to oppose;
Whose desperate shock the Carthaginian fled.

5

In One who lived unknown a shepherd's life
Redoubted Viriatus breathes again ;*
And Mina, nourished in the studious shade, †
With that great Leader | vies, who, sick of strife
And bloodshed, longed in quiet to be laid
In some green island of the western main.

"THE POWER OF ARMIES IS A VISIBLE THING"

Composed 1811.—Published 1815

One of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."

THE power of Armies is a visible thing, §
Formal, and circumscribed in time and space; 1
But who the limits of that power shall trace 2

* Viriatus, for eight or fourteen years leader of the Lusitanians in the war with the Romans in the middle of the second century B.c. He defeated many of the Roman generals, including Q. Pompeius. Some of the historians say that he was originally a shepherd, and then a robber or guerilla chieftain. (See Livy, books 52 and 54.)-ED.

† "Whilst the chief force of the French was occupied in Portugal and Andalusia, and there remained in the interior of Spain only a few weak corps, the Guerilla system took deep root, and in the course of 1811 attained its greatest perfection. Left to itself the boldest and most enterprising of its members rose to command, and the mode of warfare best adapted to their force and habits was pursued. Each province boasted of a hero, in command of a formidable band-Old Castile, Don Julian Sanches; Aragon, Longa; Navarre, Esprez y Mina, with innumerable others, whose deeds spread a lustre over every part of the kingdom. Mina and Longa headed armies of 6000 or 8000 men with distinguished ability, and displayed manœuvres oftentimes for months together, in baffling the pursuit of more numerous bodies of French, which would reflect credit on the most celebrated commanders." Mina had been trained for clerical life. (See Account of the War in Spain and Portugal, and in the south of France, from 1808 to 1814 inclusive, by Lieut.-Colonel John T. Jones. London, 1818.)--ED.

Sertorius.-W. W. 1827. See note to The Prelude, book i. vol. iii. p. 138.

-ED.

§ Compare Aubrey de Vere's Picturesque Sketches of Greece and Turkey, vol. i. chap. viii. p. 204.-ED.

Which a brave People into light can bring
Or hide, at will, -for freedom combating
By just revenge inflamed? No foot may chase, 1

5

No eye can follow, to a fatal 2 place

That power, that spirit, whether on the wing
Like the strong wind, or sleeping like the wind
Within its awful caves.--From year to year
Springs this indigenous produce far and near;
No craft this subtle element can bind,
Rising like water from the soil, to find

10

In every nook a lip that it may cheer.

"HERE PAUSE: THE POET CLAIMS AT LEAST THIS PRAISE"

Composed 1811. Published 1815

Included among the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty." In 1815 it was called Conclusion, as ending this series of poems in that edition. In all editions it was headed by the date 1811.—ED.

HERE pause: the poet claims at least this praise,
That virtuous Liberty hath been the scope
Of his pure song, which did not shrink from hope
In the worst moment of these evil days;
From hope, the paramount duty that Heaven lays,
For its own honour, on man's suffering heart.*
Never may from our souls one truth depart-

5

1 1827.

can chase,

1815.

2 The word "fatal" was italicised in the editions of 1815-43.

* Compare The Excursion (book iv. 1. 763)

We live by Admiration, Hope, and Love,

and S. T. C. in The Friend (vol. i. p. 172). "What an awful duty, what a nurse of all others, the fairest virtues, does not Hope become! We are bad ourselves, because we despair of the goodness of others."-ED.

That an accursed 1 thing it is to gaze

On prosperous tyrants with a dazzled eye;
Nor-touched with due abhorrence of their guilt
For whose dire ends tears flow, and blood is spilt,
And justice labours in extremity-
Forget thy weakness, upon which is built,
O wretched man, the throne of tyranny !

EPISTLE

TO SIR GEORGE HOWLAND BEAUMONT, BART. FROM THE SOUTH-WEST COAST OF CUMBERLAND.-1811

Composed 1811.-Published 1842

[This poem opened, when first written, with a paragraph that has been transferred as an introduction to the first series of my Scotch Memorials. The journey, of which the first part is here described, was from Grasmere to Bootle on the south-west coast of Cumberland, the whole among mountain roads through a beautiful country; and we had fine weather. The verses end with our breakfast at the head of Yewdale in a yeoman's house, which, like all the other property in that sequestered vale, has passed or is passing into the hands of Mr. James Marshall of Monk Coniston-in Mr. Knott's, the late owner's, time called Waterhead. Our hostess married a Mr. Oldfield, a lieutenant in the Navy. They lived together for some time at Hacket, where she still resides as his widow. It was in front of that house, on the mountain side, near which stood the peasant who, while we were passing at a distance, saluted us, waving a kerchief in her hand as described in the poem.* (This matron and her husband were then residing at the Hacket. The house and its inmates are referred to in the fifth book of The Excursion, in the passage beginning

You behold,

High on the breast of yon dark mountain, dark
With stony barrenness, a shining speck.-J.C.) *

The dog which we met with soon after our starting belonged to
Mr. Rowlandson, who for forty years was curate of Grasmere
in place of the rector who lived to extreme old age in a state of
insanity. Of this Mr. R. much might be said, both with
reference to his character, and the way in which he was
regarded by his parishioners. He was a man of a robust frame,
had a firm voice and authoritative manner, of strong natural
talents, of which he was himself conscious, for he has been
heard to say (it grieves me to add) with an oath -" If I had
been brought up at college I should have been a bishop."
Two vices used to struggle in him for mastery, avarice and the
love of strong drink; but avarice, as is common in like cases,
always got the better of its opponent; for, though he was often
intoxicated, it was never I believe at his own expense. As has
been said of one in a more exalted station, he would take any
given quantity. I have heard a story of him which is worth
the telling. One summer's morning, our Grasmere curate,
after a night's carouse in the vale of Langdale, on his return
home, having reached a point near which the whole of the vale
of Grasmere might be seen with the lake immediately below
him, stepped aside and sat down on the turf. After looking
for some time at the landscape, then in the perfection of its
morning beauty, he exclaimed
"Good God, that I should
have led so long such a life in such a place!" This no doubt
was deeply felt by him at the time, but I am not authorised to
say that any noticeable amendment followed. Penuriousness
strengthened upon him as his body grew feebler with age.
had purchased property and kept some land in his own hands,
but he could not find in his heart to lay out the necessary hire
for labourers at the proper season, and consequently he has
often been seen in half-dotage working his hay in the month of
November by moonlight, a melancholy sight which I myself
have witnessed. Notwithstanding all that has been said, this
man, on account of his talents and superior education, was
looked up to by his parishioners, who without a single exception
lived at that time (and most of them upon their own small
inheritances) in a state of republican equality, a condition

He

* i.e. John Carter, Wordsworth's confidential clerk, who saw the edition of 1857 through the press. The sentence enclosed within brackets and signed J. C. is his.-ED.

VOL. IV

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