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What boots the inquiry?-Neither friend nor foe
She cares for; let her travel where she may,
She finds familiar names, a beaten way
Ever before her, and a wind to blow.
Yet still I ask, what haven is her mark?
And, almost as it was when ships were rare,
(From time to time, like Pilgrims, here and there
Crossing the waters) doubt, and something dark,
Of the old Sea some reverential fear,
Is with me at thy farewell, joyous Bark!

5

10

TO SLEEP

Composed 1806.-Published 1807

Placed among the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

O Gentle SLEEP! do they belong to thee,
These twinklings of oblivion? Thou dost love
To sit in meekness, like the brooding Dove,
A captive never wishing to be free.
This tiresome night, O Sleep! thou art to me
A Fly, that up and down himself doth shove
Upon a fretful rivulet, now above

Now on the water vexed with mockery.

I have no pain that calls for patience, no; *
Hence am 11 cross and peevish as a child :
Am 2 pleased by fits to have thee for my foe,

5

10

1 1807.

I am

2 1807.

And

1815.

The text of 1827 returns to that of 1807. 1815. The text of 1827 returns to that of 1807.

* Compare" Et c'est encore ce qui me fâche, de n'etre pas même en droit de.

fâcher."-Rousseau, La Nouvelle Héloïse.
"Vixque tenet lacrymas; quia nil lacrymabile cernit."

Ovid, Metamorphoses, lib. ii. 1. 796.-ED.

Yet ever willing to be reconciled :
O gentle Creature ! do not use me so,
But once and deeply let me be beguiled.

TO SLEEP

Composed 1806. -Published 1807

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

FOND words have oft been spoken to thee, Sleep!
And thou hast had thy store of tenderest names;
The very sweetest, Fancy culls or frames, 1
When thankfulness of heart is strong and deep!
Dear Bosom-child we call thee, that dost steep
In rich reward all suffering; Balm that tames
All anguish; Saint that evil thoughts and aims
Takest away, and into souls dost creep,

Like to a breeze from heaven.

Shall I alone,

I surely not a man ungently made,
Call thee worst Tyrant by which Flesh is crost?
Perverse, self-willed to own and to disown,
Mere slave of them who never for thee prayed,
Still last to come where thou art wanted most!

5

10

TO SLEEP

Composed 1806.—Published 1807

Classed among the "Miscellaneous Sonnets.”—ED.

A FLOCK of sheep that leisurely pass by,
One after one; the sound of rain, and bees
Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas,
Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky;

1 1837.

The very sweetest words that fancy frames

1807.

I have thought of all by turns, and yet do lie 1
Sleepless *! and soon the small birds' melodies
Must hear, first uttered from my orchard trees;
And the first cuckoo's melancholy cry.
Even thus last night, and two nights more, I lay,
And could not win thee, Sleep! by any stealth :
So do not let me wear to-night away:
Without Thee what is all the morning's wealth?
Come, blessed barrier between 2 day and day,
Dear mother of fresh thoughts and joyous health !

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Compare Ovid, Metamorphoses, book xi. 1. 623; Macbeth, act II. scene ii. 1. 39; King Henry IV., Part II., act III. scene i. 1.5; Midsummer Night's Dream, act III. scene ii. 1. 435.—ED.

TO THE MEMORY OF RAISLEY CALVERT

Composed 1806. - Published 1807

[This young man, Raisley Calvert, to whom I was so much indebted, died at Penrith, 1795.-I. F.]

Classed among the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

CALVERT! it must not be unheard by them
Who may respect my name, that I to thee
Owed many years of early liberty.

1 1845.

I've thought of all by turns; and still I lie
By turns have all been thought of; yet I lie
I thought of all by turns, and yet I lie

1807.

1827.

1837.

I have thought.

1838.

2 1832.

betwixt

1807.

between night and day,

MS.

* Compare The Faërie Queene, book 1. canto i. stanza 41-
And more to lulle him in his slumber soft,
A trickling streame from high rock tumbling downe,
And ever-drizling raine upon the loft,
Mixt with a murmuring winde, much like the sowne
Of swarming Bees, did cast him in a swowne.

ED.

This care was thine when sickness did condemn
Thy youth to hopeless wasting, root and stem-
That I, if frugal and severe, might stray
Where'er I liked; and finally array

5

My temples with the Muse's diadem.

Hence, if in freedom I have loved the truth ;

10

If there be aught of pure, or good, or great,
In my past verse; or shall be, in the lays
Of higher mood, which now I meditate ;—
It gladdens me, O worthy, short-lived, Youth !
To think how much of this will be thy praise.

Raisley Calvert was the son of R. Calvert, steward to the Duke of Norfolk. Writing to Sir George Beaumont, on the 20th February 1805, Wordsworth said, "I should have been forced into one of the professions" (the church or law) “by necessity, had not a friend left me £900. This bequest was from a young man with whom, though I call him friend, I had but little connection; and the act was done entirely from a confidence on his part that I had powers and attainments which might be of use to mankind. Upon the interest of the £900, and £100 legacy to my sister, and £100 more which the 'Lyrical Ballads' have brought me, my sister and I contrived to live seven years, nearly eight." To his friend Matthews he wrote, November 7th, 1794, "My friend" (Calvert) "has every symptom of a confirmed consumption, and I cannot think of quitting him in his present debilitated state." And in January 1795 he wrote to Matthews from Penrith (where Calvert was staying), "I have been here for some time. I am still much engaged with my sick friend; and am sorry to add that he worsens daily he is barely alive." In a letter to Dr. Joshua Stanger of Keswick, written in the year 1842, Wordsworth referred thus to Raisley Calvert. Dr. Calverta nephew of Raisley, and son of the W. Calvert whom the poet accompanied to the Isle of Wight and Salisbury in 1793-had just died. "His removal (Dr. Calvert's) has naturally thrown my mind back as far as Dr. Calvert's grandfather, his father, and sister (the former of whom was, as you know, among my intimate friends), and his uncle Raisley, whom I have so much cause to remember with gratitude for his testamentary remembrance of me, when the greatest part of my patrimony was kept back from us by injustice. It may be satisfactory to your wife for me to declare that my friend's bequest enabled me to devote myself to literary pursuits, independent of any necessity to look at pecuniary emolument, so that my talents, such as they might be, were free to take their natural course. Your brothers Raisley and William were both so well known to me, and I have so many reasons to respect them, that I cannot forbear saying, that my sympathy with this last bereavement is deepened by the remembrance that they both have been taken from you. ." On October 1, 1794, Wordsworth wrote from Keswick to Ensign William Calvert about his brother Raisley. (The year is not given in the letter, but it must have been 1794.) He tells him that Raisley was determined to set out for Lisbon; but that he (Wordsworth) could not brook the idea of his going alone; and that he wished to accompany his friend and stay with him, till his health was re-established. He adds, "Reflecting that his return is uncertain, your brother requests me to inform you that he has drawn out his will, which he means to get executed in London. The purport of his will is to leave you all his property, real and personal, chargeable with a legacy of £600 to me, in case that, on inquiry into the state of our affairs in London, he should think it advisable to do so. It is at my request that this information is communicated to you." Calvert did not live to go south; and he changed the sum left to Wordsworth from £600 to £900. The relationship of the two men suggests the somewhat parallel one between Spinoza and Simon de Vries.—ED.

"METHOUGHT I SAW THE FOOTSTEPS
OF A THRONE"

Composed 1806.-Published 1807

[The latter part of this sonnet was a great favourite with my sister S. H. When I saw her lying in death, I could not resist the impulse to compose the Sonnet that follows it.-I. F.]

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

METHOUGHT I saw the footsteps of a throne
Which mists and vapours from mine eyes did shroud-

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