TO THE POET, JOHN DYER

Composed 1811.-Published 1815

Classed among the "Miscellaneous Sonnets." In the edition

of 1815 the title was, To the Poet, Dyer.-ED.

BARD of the Fleece, whose skilful genius made

That work a living landscape fair and bright;

Nor hallowed less with musical delight

Than those soft scenes through which thy childhood

strayed,

Those southern tracts of Cambria, "deep embayed,
With green hills fenced, with 1 ocean's murmur lull'd;
Though hasty Fame hath many a chaplet culled
For worthless brows, while in the pensive shade
Of cold neglect she leaves thy head ungraced,
Yet pure and powerful minds, hearts meek and still,
A grateful few, shall love thy modest Lay,
Long as the shepherd's bleating flock shall stray
O'er naked Snowdon's wide aërial waste;
Long as the thrush shall pipe on Grongar Hill!

John Dyer, author of Grongar Hill (1726), and The Fleece (1757), was born at Aberglasney, in Caermarthenshire, in 1698, and died in 1758. Both Akenside and Gray, before Wordsworth's time, had signalised his merit, in opposition to the dicta of Johnson and Horace Walpole. The passage which Wordsworth quotes is from The Fleece, in which Dyer is referring to his own ancestors, who were weavers, and "fugitives from superstition's rage," and who brought the art of weaving "from Devon " to

that soft tract

Of Cambria, deep-embayed, Dimetian land,
By green hills fenced, by ocean's murmur lulled.

It will be observed that Wordsworth quotes this last line of Dyer accurately in the edition of 1815, but changed it in 1827. This sonnet was possibly written before 1811, as in a letter to Lady Beaumont, dated November 20, 1811, he speaks of it as written "some time ago." In that letter Wordsworth writes thus of Dyer :-“ His poem is in several places dry and heavy, but its beauties are innumerable, and of a high order. In point of imagination and purity of style, I am not sure that he is not superior to any writer of verse since the time of Milton." He then transcribes his sonnet, and adds "In the above is one whole line from The Fleece, and also other expressions. When you read The Fleece, you will recognise them."-ED.

1812

THE years 1812 and 1813 were poetically even less productive than 1811 had been. The first of them was saddened by domestic losses, which deprived the poet, for a time, of the power of work, and almost of any interest in the labour to which his life was devoted. Three short pieces are all that belong to 1812 and 1813 respectively.--ED.

SONG FOR THE SPINNING WHEEL

FOUNDED UPON A BELIEF PREVALENT AMONG THE PASTORAL VALES OF WESTMORELAND

Composed 1812. - Published 1820

[The belief on which this is founded I have often heard expressed by an old neighbour of Grasmere.-I. F.]

One of the "Poems of the Fancy. "-ED.

SWIFTLY turn the murmuring wheel !
Night has brought the welcome hour,
When the weary fingers feel
Help, as if from faery power;

Dewy night o'ershades the ground;
Turn the swift wheel round and round!

5

Now, beneath the starry sky,

Couch 1 the widely-scattered sheep ;-
Ply the pleasant labour, ply !

For the spindle, while they sleep,
Runs with speed more smooth and fine,
Gathering 2 up a trustier line.

Short-lived likings may be bred
By a glance from fickle eyes ;
But true love is like the thread
Which the kindly wool supplies,
When the flocks are all at rest

Sleeping on the mountain's breast.

10

15

It was for Sarah Hutchinson that this Song was written. She lived, for the most part, either at Brinsop Court Herefordshire, or at Rydal Mount Westmoreland, or at Greta Hall Keswick. When living at Greta Hall, she acted as Southey's amanuensis. She also frequently transcribed poems for Wordsworth, at Grasmere, Coleorton, and Rydal Mount.

Compare the sonnet addressed To S. H. in the "Miscellaneous Sonnets," I. xx. -ED.

COMPOSED ON THE EVE OF THE MARRIAGE

OF A FRIEND IN THE VALE OF GRASMERE,
1812

Composed 1812. - Published 1815
Classed among the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

WHAT need of clamorous bells, or ribands gay,
These humble nuptials to proclaim or grace ?

Angels of love, look down upon the place ;
Shed on the chosen vale a sun-bright day!
Yet no proud gladness would the Bride display
Even for such promise : 1-serious is her face,
Modest her mien; and she, whose thoughts keep pace
With gentleness, in that becoming way

5

Will thank you. Faultless does the Maid appear;

No disproportion in her soul, no strife :

10

But, when the closer view of wedded life

Hath shown that nothing human can be clear

From frailty, for that insight may the Wife
To her indulgent Lord become more dear.

This refers to the marriage of Thomas Hutchinson (Mrs. Wordsworth's brother) to Mary Monkhouse, sister of the Mr. Monkhouse with whom Wordsworth afterwards travelled on the Continent. The marriage took place on November 1, 1812. They lived at Nadnorth for eighteen years, and afterwards at Brinsop Court, Herefordshire, for twenty-one years. To their son-the Rev. Thomas Hutchinson of Kimbolton, Leominster, Herefordshire-and to their daughter - Miss Elizabeth Hutchinson of Rock Villa, West Malvern-I am indebted for much information in reference to their uncle and aunts. The portrait of Wordsworth in his forty-seventh year, by Richard Carruthers, is in Mr. Hutchinson's possession at the Rectory, Kimbolton.-ED.

WATER-FOWL*

Composed 1812. - Published 1827

"Let me be allowed the aid of verse to describe the evolutions which these visitants sometimes perform, on a fine day

1 1827.

Even for such omen would the Bride display
No mirthful gladness :-.

1815.

* This is part of the canto of The Recluse, entitled "Home at Grasmere."

-ED.