The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume Ii Part 20

[Variant 5:

1827.

... of peats ... 1800.]

[Variant 6:

1820.

Dan once ... 1800.]

[Variant 7:

1800.

'Twas a smooth pleasant pathway, a gentle descent, And leisurely down it, and down it, he went. MS. 1798.]

[Variant 8:

1802.

... street ... 1800.]

[Variant 9:

1837.

... is both leader and led; 1800.]

[Variant 10:

1837.

For grey-headed Dan ... 1800.

The grey-headed Sire ... 1820.]

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: Thomas Bewick, the wood engraver, born at Cherryburn, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1753, died 1828. He revived the art of wood engraving in England. His ill.u.s.trations--drawn for the 'General History of British Quadrupeds' (1790), and for his own 'History of British Birds' (1797 and 1804)--were unrivalled in their way.--Ed.]

[Footnote B: Charles Lamb, writing to Wordsworth in 1815, spoke of

"that delicacy towards aberrations from the strict path, which is so fine in the 'Old Thief and the Boy by his side,' which always brings water into my eyes."

(See 'Letters of Charles Lamb', edited by Alfred Ainger, vol. i. p.

287.)--Ed.]

WRITTEN WITH A SLATE PENCIL UPON A STONE, THE LARGEST OF A HEAP LYING NEAR A DESERTED QUARRY, UPON ONE OF THE ISLANDS [A] AT RYDAL

Composed 1798.--Published 1800

Included among the "Inscriptions."--Ed.

Stranger! this hillock of mis-shapen stones Is not a Ruin spared or made by time, [1]

Nor, as perchance thou rashly deem'st, the Cairn Of some old British Chief: 'tis nothing more Than the rude embryo of a little Dome 5 Or Pleasure-house, once destined to be built [2]

Among the birch-trees of this rocky isle. [3]

But, as it chanced, Sir William having learned That from the sh.o.r.e a full-grown man might wade, And make himself a freeman of this spot 10 At any hour he chose, the prudent Knight [4]

Desisted, and the quarry and the mound Are monuments of his unfinished task.

The block on which these lines are traced, perhaps, Was once selected as the corner-stone 15 Of that [5] intended Pile, which would have been Some quaint odd plaything of elaborate skill, So that, I guess, the linnet and the thrush, And other little builders who dwell here, Had wondered at the work. But blame him not, 20 For old Sir William was a gentle Knight, Bred in this vale, to which he appertained [6]

With all his ancestry. Then peace to him, And for the outrage which he had devised Entire forgiveness!--But if thou art one 25 On fire with thy impatience to become An inmate of these mountains,--if, disturbed By beautiful conceptions, thou hast hewn Out of the quiet rock the elements Of thy trim Mansion destined soon to blaze 30 In snow white splendour, [B] [7]--think again; and, taught By old Sir William and his quarry, leave Thy fragments to the bramble and the rose; There let the vernal slow warm sun himself, And let the redbreast hop from stone to stone. 35

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1837.