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The Fenwick note is inaccurate. These lines were written by Dorothy Wordsworth at Coleorton, on the eve of her brother and sister's return from London, in the spring of 1807, whither they had gone for a month-Dorothy remaining at Coleorton, in charge of the children. Previous to 1845, the poem was attributed to "a female Friend of the Author.”—ED.

GIPSIES

Composed 1807.-Published 1807

[Composed at Coleorton. I had observed them, as here described, near Castle Donnington, on my way to and from Derby.-I. F.]

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

YET are they here the same unbroken knot
Of human Beings, in the self-same spot!

Men, women, children, yea the frame
Of the whole spectacle the same!
Only their fire seems bolder, yielding light,
Now deep and red, the colouring of night;
That on their Gipsy-faces falls,
Their bed of straw and blanket-walls.

-Twelve hours, twelve bounteous hours are gone, while I
Have been a traveller under open sky,

Much witnessing of change and cheer,
Yet as I left I find them here!

The weary Sun betook himself to rest ;-
Then issued Vesper from the fulgent west,
Outshining like a visible God

The glorious path in which he trod.
And now, ascending, after one dark hour
And one night's diminution of her power,
Behold the mighty Moon! this way
She looks as if at them but they

VOL. IV

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F

Regard not her :-oh better wrong and strife
(By nature transient) than this torpid life;
Life which the very stars reprove *
As on their silent tasks they move! 1 †
Yet, witness all that stirs in heaven or 2 earth !
In scorn I speak not;-they are what their birth
And breeding suffer them to be;

Wild outcasts of society! 4

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See S. T. Coleridge's criticism of this poem in his Biographia Literaria, vol. ii. p. 156 (edition 1847). -ED.

1 1836.

Regard not her:-oh better wrong and strife
Better vain deeds or evil than such life!

The silent Heavens have goings on ; ‡
The stars have tasks-but these have none.

1807.

wrong and strife,

(By nature transient) than such torpid life !

The silent Heavens have goings-on ;
The stars have tasks-but these have none !

1820.

(By nature transient) than such torpid life;

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* Compare the Ode to Duty, 1. 47 (vol. iii. p. 41).-ED.

† Compare, in the Ode to Duty, 1. 48

And the most ancient heavens, through Thee, are fresh and strong.-ED.

‡ Compare, in the Fragment, vol. viii., beginning "No doubt if you in

terms direct had asked," the phrase

the goings on

Of earth and sky.

ED.

"Ο NIGHTINGALE! THOU SURELY ART"

Composed 1807 (probably). -Published 1807

[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. (Mrs. W. says, in a note, -"At Coleorton.")-I. F.]

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

O NIGHTINGALE! thou surely art
A creature of a "fiery heart : "___ * 1
These notes of thine-they pierce and pierce ;

Tumultuous harmony and fierce !

Thou sing'st as if the God of wine

Had helped thee to a Valentine; †

A song in mockery and despite
Of shades, and dews, and silent night;
And steady bliss, and all the loves
Now sleeping in these peaceful groves.

I heard a Stock-dove sing or say
His homely tale, this very day;
His voice was buried among trees,
Yet to be come-at by the breeze :
He did not cease; but cooed
And somewhat pensively he wooed :
He sang of love, with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;

1 1807.

A Creature of ebullient heart :

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10

and cooed;

15

1815.

The text of 1820 returns to that of 1807.

* See Shakespeare's King Henry VI., Part III., act 1. scene iv. 1. 87.-ED. † Compare the lines in The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, vol. ii. p. 255

I heard the lusty Nightingale so sing,

That her clear voice made a loud rioting,

Echoing through all the green wood wide.

ED.

‡ Henry Crabb Robinson, in his Diary (May 9, 1815), anticipates this return to the text of 1807.-ED.

Of serious faith, and inward glee ;
That was the song-the song for me!

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Mrs. Wordsworth corrected her husband's note to Miss Fenwick, by adding in the MS., "at Coleorton"; and at Coleorton the Wordsworths certainly spent the winter of 1806, the Town-end Cottage at Grasmere being too small for their increasing household. It is more likely that Wordsworth wrote the poem at Coleorton than at Grasmere, and it looks as if it had been an evening impromptu, after hearing both the nightingale and the stock-dove. There are no nightingales at Grasmere, they are not heard further north than the Trent valley, while they used to abound in the "peaceful groves" of Coleorton. If the locality was as Mrs. Wordsworth states—Coleorton, and if the lines were written after hearing the nightingale, the year would be 1807, and not 1806 (the poet's own date). The nightingale is a summer visitor in this country, and could not have been heard by Wordsworth at Coleorton in 1806, as he did not go south to Leicestershire till November in that year. But it is quite possible that it was "the stock-dove's voice " that alone suggested the lines, and that they were written either in 1806, or (as I think more likely), very early in 1807. In the month of January Wordsworth was corresponding with Scott about the poems in this edition of 1807.-ED.

"THOUGH NARROW BE THAT OLD MAN'S CARES, AND NEAR”

Composed 1807.--Published 1807

"gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name."

[Written at Coleorton. This old man's name was Mitchell. He was, in all his ways and conversation, a great curiosity, both individually and as a representative of past times. His chief employment was keeping watch at night by pacing round the house, at that time building, to keep off depredators. He has often told me gravely of having seen the Seven Whistlers, and the Hounds as here described.. Among the groves of Coleorton, where I became familiar with the habits and notions of old Mitchell, there was also a labourer of whom, I regret, I had no personal knowledge; for, more than forty years after, when he was become an old man, I learned that while I was composing verses, which I usually did aloud, he took much pleasure, unknown to me, in following my steps that he might catch the words I uttered; and, what is not a little remarkable, several lines caught in this way kept their place in his memory. My volumes have lately been given to him by my informant, and surely he must have been gratified to meet in print his old acquaintances.-I. F.]

In 1815 this sonnet was one of the "Poems belonging to the Period of Old Age"; in 1820 it was transferred to the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."-ED.

THOUGH narrow be that old Man's cares, and near,
The poor old Man is greater than he seems :
For he hath waking empire, wide as dreams ;
An ample sovereignty of eye and ear.
Rich are his walks with supernatural cheer ;

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The region of his inner spirit teems
With vital sounds and monitory gleams
Of high astonishment and pleasing fear.
He the seven birds hath seen, that never part,
Seen the SEVEN WHISTLERS in their nightly rounds,
And counted them: and oftentimes will start-
For overhead are sweeping Gabriel's HOUNDS *
Doomed, with their impious Lord, the flying Hart
To chase for ever, on aërial grounds!

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To bring all the poems referring to Coleorton together, so far as possible, this and the next sonnet are transferred from their places in the chronological list, and placed beside the Coleorton "Inscriptions."

I am indebted to Mr. William Kelly of Leicester for the following note on the Leicestershire superstition of the Seven Whistlers.

* Both these superstitions are prevalent in the midland Counties of England: that of "Gabriel's Hounds" appears to be very general over Europe; being the same as the one upon which the German Poet, Bürger, has founded his Ballad of The Wild Huntsman.-W. W. 1807.

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