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Nor view of who might sit 1 thereon allowed ;
But all the steps and ground about were strown
With sights the ruefullest that flesh and bone

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Ever put on; a miserable crowd,

Sick, hale, old, young, who cried before that cloud, "Thou art our king, O Death! to thee we groan." Those steps I clomb; the mists before me gave 2

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Smooth way; and I beheld the face of one

Sleeping alone within a mossy cave,

With her face up to heaven; that seemed to have
Pleasing remembrance of a thought foregone;

A lovely Beauty in a summer grave !

"The Sonnet that follows," referred to in the Fenwick note,

is one belonging to the year 1836, beginning

Even so for me a Vision sanctified.

See the note to that sonnet. - ED.

LINES

Composed at Grasmere, during a walk one Evening, after a stormy day, the Author having just read in a Newspaper that the dissolution of Mr. Fox was hourly expected.

Composed September 1806.-Published 1807

This poem was ranked among the "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."-ED.

Loud is the Vale! the Voice is up

With which she speaks when storms are gone,

1 1815.

of him who sate

2 1845.

1807.

I seem'd to mount those steps; the vapours gave 1807.

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A mighty unison of streams !
Of all her Voices, One !

Loud is the Vale; this inland Depth
In peace is roaring like the Sea;
Yon star upon the mountain-top
Is listening quietly.

Sad was I, even to pain deprest,
Importunate and heavy load!*
The Comforter hath found me here,
Upon this lonely road;

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And many thousands now are sad-
Wait the fulfilment of their fear;
For he must die who is their stay,
Their glory disappear.

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A Power is passing from the earth
To breathless Nature's dark abyss;
But when the great and good depart 1
What is it more than this-

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That Man, who is from God sent forth,
Doth yet again to God return ?
Such ebb and flow must ever be,
Then wherefore should we mourn ?

Charles James Fox died September 13, 1806. He was Minister for Foreign Affairs at the time, having assumed office on the 5th February, shortly after the death of William Pitt. Wordsworth's sadness on this occasion, his recognition of Fox as great and good, and as "a Power" that was "passing from the earth," may have been due partly to personal and political sympathy, but also probably to Fox's appreciation of the better

1 1837.

But when the Mighty pass away

1807.

* Importuna e grave salma. (Michael Angelo.)-W. W. 1807.

side of the French Revolution, and to his welcoming the pacific proposals of Talleyrand, perhaps also to his efforts for the abolition of slavery.

The "lonely road" referred to in these Lines, was, in all likelihood, the path from Town-end towards the Swan Inn past the Hollins, Grasmere. A "mighty unison of streams " may be heard there any autumn evening after a stormy day, and especially after long continued rain, the sound of waters from Easdale, from Greenhead Ghyll, and the slopes of Silver How, blending with that of the Rothay in the valley below. Compare Dorothy Wordsworth's Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland, in 1803, p. 229 (edition 1874).—ED.

NOVEMBER, 1806

Composed 1806.-Published 1807

Classed among the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty," renamed in 1845, "Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty."-ED.

ANOTHER year!-another deadly blow !

Another mighty Empire overthrown !
And We are left, or shall be left, alone;
The last that dare1 to struggle with the Foe.
'Tis well! from this day forward we shall know
That in ourselves our safety must be sought ;
That by our own right hands it must be wrought;
That we must stand unpropped, or be laid low.
O dastard whom such foretaste 2 doth not cheer!

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We shall exult, if they who rule the land

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Be men who hold its many blessings dear,
Wise, upright, valiant; not a servile band,

1 1827.

2 1807.

3 1820.

VOL. IV

dares

knowledge

1807.

MS.

venal

1807. E

Who are to judge of danger which they fear,
And honour which they do not understand.*

Napoleon won the battle of Jena on the 14th October 1806, entered Potsdam on the 25th, and Berlin on the 28th; Prince Hohenlohe laid down his arms on the 6th November; Blücher surrendered at Lübeck on the 7th; Magdeburg was taken on the 8th; on the 14th the French occupied Hanover; and on the 21st Napoleon issued his Berlin decree for the blockade of England.-ED.

ADDRESS TO A CHILD

DURING A BOISTEROUS WINTER EVENING

BY MY SISTER

Composed 1806.-Published 1815

[Written at Town-end, Grasmere.-I. F.]

One of the "Poems referring to the Period of Childhood." -ED.

WHAT way does the Wind come? What way does he go?

He rides over the water, and over the snow,
Through wood, and through vale; and, o'er rocky height
Which the goat cannot climb, takes his sounding flight;
He tosses about in every bare tree,

As, if you look up, you plainly may see;

But how he will come, and whither he goes,

There's never a scholar in England knows.

* Who are to judge of danger which they fear
And honour which they do not understand.

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These two lines from Lord Brooke's Life of Sir Philip Sydney.-W. W. 1807.

"Danger which they fear, and honour which they understand not." Words in Lord Brooke's Life of Sir P. Sidney.-W. W. 1837.

He will suddenly stop in a cunning nook,
And ring 1 a sharp 'larum ;-but, if you should look,
There's nothing to see but a cushion of snow
Round as a pillow, and whiter than milk,
And softer than if it were covered with silk.

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Sometimes he'll hide in the cave of a rock,
Then whistle as shrill as the buzzard cock;
-Yet seek him, and what shall you find in the place?

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Nothing but silence and empty space;

Save, in a corner, a heap of dry leaves,

That he's left, for a bed, to 2 beggars or thieves!

As soon as 'tis daylight to-morrow, with me

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You shall go to the orchard, and then you will see
That he has been there, and made a great rout,
And cracked the branches, and strewn them about;
Heaven grant that he spare but that one upright twig
That looked up at the sky so proud and big
All last summer, as well you know,

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Studded with apples, a beautiful show!

Hark! over the roof he makes a pause,
And growls as if he would fix his claws
Right in the slates, and with a huge rattle
Drive them down, like men in a battle :
-But let him range round; he does us no harm,
We build up the fire, we're snug and warm ;
Untouched by his breath see the candle shines bright,
And burns with a clear and steady light;

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e:

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Books have we to read, but that half-stifled knell,
Alas! 'tis the sound of the eight o'clock bell.

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