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Glide gently, thus for ever glide,[B]
O Thames! that other bards may see As lovely visions by thy side As now, fair river! come to me.
O glide, fair stream! for ever so, 5 Thy quiet soul on all bestowing, Till all our minds for ever flow As thy deep waters now are flowing.
Vain thought!--Yet be as now thou art, That in thy waters may be seen 10 The image of a poet's heart, How bright, how solemn, how serene!
Such as did once the Poet bless, [1]
Who murmuring here a later [C] ditty, [2]
Could find no refuge from distress 15 But in the milder grief of pity.
Now let us, as we float along, [3]
For _him_ [4] suspend the dashing oar; [D]
And pray that never child of song May know that Poet's sorrows more. [5] 20 How calm! how still! the only sound, The dripping of the oar suspended!
--The evening darkness gathers round By virtue's holiest Powers attended.
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1800.
Such heart did once the poet bless, 1798.]
[Variant 2:
1815.
Who, pouring here a _later_ [i] ditty, 1798.]
[Variant 3:
1802.
Remembrance, as we glide along, 1798.
... float ... 1800.]
[Variant 4:
1802.
For him ... 1798.]
[Variant 5:
1802.
May know his freezing sorrows more. 1798.]
[Sub-Footnote i: The italics only occur in the editions of 1798 and 1800.--Ed.]
FOOTNOTES TO THE TEXT
[Footnote A: The t.i.tle in the editions 1802-1815 was 'Remembrance of Collins, written upon the Thames near Richmond'.--Ed.]
[Footnote B: Compare the 'After-thought' to "The River Duddon. A Series of Sonnets":
Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide.
Ed.]
[Footnote C: Collins's 'Ode on the Death of Thomson', the last written, I believe, of the poems which were published during his life-time. This Ode is also alluded to in the next stanza.--W. W. 1798.]
[Footnote D: Compare Collins's 'Ode on the Death of Thomson', 'The Scene on the Thames near Richmond':
Remembrance oft shall haunt the sh.o.r.e When Thames in summer wreaths is drest.
And oft suspend the dashing oar To bid his gentle spirit rest.
As Mr. Dowden suggests, the _him_ was probably italicised by Wordsworth, "because the oar is suspended not for Thomson but for Collins." The italics were first used in the edition of 1802.--Ed.]
