The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume I Part 19

[Footnote S: The quotation is from Collins' 'The Pa.s.sions', l. 60.

Compare 'Personal Talk', l. 26.--Ed.]

[Footnote T: Alluding to this pa.s.sage of Spenser:

... Her angel face As the great eye of Heaven shined bright, And made a sunshine in that shady place. W. W. 1793.

This pa.s.sage is in 'The Fairy Queen', book I. canto iii. stanza 4.--Ed.]

[Footnote U: Compare Dr. John Brown:

But the soft murmur of swift-gushing rills, Forth issuing from the mountain's distant steep (Unheard till now, and now scarce heard), proclaim'd All things at rest.

This Dr. John Brown--a singularly versatile English divine (1717-1766)--was one of the first, as Wordsworth pointed put, to lead the way to a true estimate of the English Lakes. His description of the Vale of Keswick, in a letter to a friend, is as fine as anything in Gray's 'Journal'. Wordsworth himself quotes the lines given in this footnote in the first section of his 'Guide through the District of the Lakes'.--Ed.]

LINES WRITTEN WHILE SAILING IN A BOAT AT EVENING

Composed 1789.--Published 1798

[This t.i.tle is scarcely correct. It was during a solitary walk on the banks of the Cam that I was first struck with this appearance, and applied it to my own feelings in the manner here expressed, changing the scene to the Thames, near Windsor. This, and the three stanzas of the following poem, 'Remembrance of Collins', formed one piece; but, upon the recommendation of Coleridge, the three last stanzas were separated from the other.--I. F.]

The t.i.tle of the poem in 1798, when it consisted of five stanzas, was 'Lines written near Richmond, upon the Thames, at Evening'. When, in the edition of 1800, it was divided, the t.i.tle of the first part was, 'Lines written when sailing in a Boat at Evening'; that of the second part was 'Lines written near Richmond upon the Thames'.

From 1815 to 1843, both poems were placed by Wordsworth among those "of Sentiment and Reflection." In 1845 they were transferred to "Poems written in Youth."--Ed.

THE POEM

How richly glows the water's breast Before us, tinged with evening hues, [1]

While, facing thus the crimson west, The boat her silent course [2] pursues!

And see how dark the backward stream! 5 A little moment past so smiling!

And still, perhaps, with faithless gleam, Some other loiterers [3] beguiling.

Such views the youthful Bard allure; But, heedless of the following gloom, 10 He deems their colours shall endure Till peace go with him to the tomb.

--And let him nurse his fond deceit, And what if he must die in sorrow!

Who would not cherish dreams so sweet, 15 Though grief and pain may come to-morrow?

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1815.

How rich the wave, in front, imprest With evening-twilight's summer hues, 1798.]

[Variant 2:

1802.

... path ... 1798.]

[Variant 3:

1815.

... loiterer ... 1798.]

REMEMBRANCE OF COLLINS

COMPOSED UPON THE THAMES NEAR RICHMOND [A]

Composed 1789.--Published 1798