The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume Ii Part 84

(See 'The Topographical Dictionary of England', by Samuel Lewis, vol.

ii. p. 1831.)--Ed.]

[Footnote F: There is a slight inconsistency here. The conversation is represented as taking place in the evening (see l. 227).--Ed.]

[Footnote G: It may be proper to inform some readers, that a sheep-fold in these mountains is an unroofed building of stone walls, with different divisions. It is generally placed by the side of a brook, for the convenience of washing the sheep; but it is also useful as a shelter for them, and as a place to drive them into, to enable the shepherds conveniently to single out one or more for any particular purpose.--W.

W. 1800.]

From the Fenwick note it will be seen that Michael's sheep-fold, in Green-head Ghyll, existed--at least the remains of it--in 1843. Its site, however, is now very difficult to identify. There is a sheep-fold above Boon Beck, which one pa.s.ses immediately on entering the common, going up Green-head Ghyll. It is now "finished," and used when required.

There are remains of walling, much higher up the ghyll; but these are probably the work of miners, formerly engaged there. Michael's cottage had been destroyed when the poem was written, in 1800. It stood where the coach-house and stables of "the Hollins" now stand. But one who visits Green-head Ghyll, and wishes to realize Michael in his old age--as described in this poem--should ascend the ghyll till it almost reaches the top of Fairfield; where the old man, during eighty years,

'had learned the meaning of all winds, Of blasts of every tone,'

and where he

'had been alone, Amid the heart of many thousand mists, That came to him, and left him, on the heights.'

By so doing he will be better able to realize the spirit of the poem, than by trying to identify the site either of the "unfinished sheep-fold," or of the house named the "Evening Star." What Wordsworth said to the Hon. Mr. Justice Coleridge in reference to 'The Brothers'

has been quoted in the note to that poem, p. 203. On the same occasion he remarked, in reference to 'Michael':

"'Michael' was founded on the son of an old couple having become dissolute, and run away from his parents; and on an old shepherd having been seven years in building up a sheep-fold in a solitary valley."

('Memoirs of Wordsworth', by the late Bishop of Lincoln, vol. ii. p.

305.)

The following extracts from Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal, show the carefulness with which the poem 'Michael' was composed, and the frequent revisions which it underwent:

'Oct. 11 [1800.] "We walked up Green-head ghyll in search of a sheepfold.... The sheepfold is falling away. It is built nearly in the form of a heart unequally divided."

13. "William composing in the evening."

15. "W. composed a little." ... "W. again composed at the sheepfold after dinner."

18. "W. worked all the morning at the sheepfold, but in vain. He lay down till 7 o'clock, but did not sleep."

19. "William got to work."

20. "W. worked in the morning at the sheepfold."

21. "W. had been unsuccessful in the morning at the sheepfold."

22. "W. composed, without much success, at the sheepfold."

23. "W. was not successful in composition in the evening."

24. "W. was only partly successful in composition."

26. "W. composed a good deal all the morning."

28. "W. could not compose much; fatigued himself with altering."

30. "W. worked at his poem all the morning."

Nov. 10. "W. at the sheepfold."

12. "W. has been working at the sheepfold."

Dec. 9. "W. finished his poem to-day."'

It is impossible to say with certainty that the entry under Dec. 9 refers to 'Michael', but if it does, it is evident that Wordsworth wrought continuously at this poem for nearly two months.

On April 9, 1801, Wordsworth wrote to Thomas Poole:

"In writing it" ('Michael'), "I had your character often before my eyes; and sometimes thought that I was delineating such a man as you yourself would have been, under the same circ.u.mstances."

The following is part of a letter written by Wordsworth to Charles James Fox in 1802, and sent with a copy of "Lyrical Ballads":

"In the two poems, 'The Brothers' and 'Michael', I have attempted to draw a picture of the domestic affections, as I know they exist amongst a cla.s.s of men who are now almost confined to the north of England. They are small independent 'proprietors' of land, here called 'statesmen,' men of respectable education, who daily labour on their own little properties. The domestic affections will always be strong amongst men who live in a country not crowded with population; if these men are placed above poverty. But, if they are proprietors of small estates which have descended to them from their ancestors, the power which these affections will acquire amongst such men, is inconceivable by those who have only had an opportunity of observing hired labourers, farmers, and the manufacturing poor. Their little tract of land serves as a kind of permanent rallying point for their domestic feelings, as a tablet on which they are written, which makes them objects of memory in a thousand instances, when they would otherwise be forgotten. It is a fountain fitted to the nature of social man, from which supplies of affection as pure as his heart was intended for, are daily drawn. This cla.s.s of men is rapidly disappearing.... The two poems that I have mentioned were written with a view to show that men who do not wear fine clothes can feel deeply.

'Pectus enim est quod disertos facit, et vis mentis. Ideoque imperitis quoque, si modo sint aliquo affectu concitati, verba non desunt.' The poems are faithful copies from nature; and I hope whatever effect they may have upon you, you will at least be able to perceive that they may excite profitable sympathies in many kind and good hearts; and may in some small degree enlarge our feelings of reverence for our species, and our knowledge of human nature, by showing that our best qualities are possessed by men whom we are too apt to consider, not with reference to the points in which they resemble us, but to those in which they manifestly differ from us." (See 'Correspondence of Sir Thomas Hanmer', by Sir Henry Burnbury, p. 436.)

A number of fragments, originally meant to be parts of 'Michael',--or at least written with such a possibility in view,--will be found in the Appendix to the eighth volume of this edition.--Ed.

1801

'The Sparrow's Nest', and the sonnet on Skiddaw, along with some translations from Chaucer, belong to the year 1801. During this year, however, 'The Excursion' was in progress. In its earlier stages, and before the plan of 'The Recluse' was matured, the introductory part was familiarly known, and talked of in the Wordsworth household, by the name of "The Pedlar." The following extracts from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal of 1801 will show the progress that was being made with it:

"Dec. 21.--Wm. sate beside me, and wrote 'The Pedlar.' 22nd.--W.

composed a few lines of 'The Pedlar.' 23rd.--William worked at 'The Ruined Cottage'" (this was the name of the first part of 'The Excursion', in which 'The Pedlar' was included), "and made himself very ill," etc.

Ed.