The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume Ii Part 115

[Sub-Footnote i: Additional variants obtained from this source are inserted as "MS. 1802."--Ed.]

The late Bishop of Lincoln, in the 'Memoirs' of his uncle (vol. i. pp.

172, 173), quotes from a letter, written by Wordsworth "to some friends, which has much interest as bearing on this poem. [C] The following are extracts from it:

"It is not a matter of indifference whether you are pleased with his figure and employment, it may be comparatively whether you are pleased with _this Poem_; but it is of the utmost importance that you should have had pleasure in contemplating the fort.i.tude, independence, persevering spirit, and the general moral dignity of this old man's character." Again, "I will explain to you, in prose, my feelings in writing _that_ poem.... I describe myself as having been exalted to the highest pitch of delight by the joyousness and beauty of nature; and then as depressed, even in the midst of those beautiful objects, to the lowest dejection and despair. A young poet in the midst of the happiness of nature is described as overwhelmed by the thoughts of the miserable reverses which have befallen the happiest of all men, viz.

poets. I think of this till I am so deeply impressed with it, that I consider the manner in which I was rescued from my dejection and despair almost as an interposition of Providence. A person reading the poem with feelings like mine will have been awed and controlled, expecting something spiritual or supernatural. What is brought forward? A lonely place, 'a pond, by which an old man _was_, far from all house or home:' not _stood_, nor _sat_, but _was_--the figure presented in the most naked simplicity possible. This feeling of spirituality or supernaturalness is again referred to as being strong in my mind in this pa.s.sage. How came he here? thought I, or what can he be doing? I then describe him, whether ill or well is not for me to judge with perfect confidence; but this I _can_ confidently affirm, that though I believe G.o.d has given me a strong imagination, I cannot conceive a figure more impressive than that of an old man like this, the survivor of a wife and ten children, travelling alone among the mountains and all lonely places, carrying with him his own fort.i.tude and the necessities which an unjust state of society has laid upon him. You speak of his speech as tedious. Every thing is tedious when one does not read with the feelings of the author. 'The Thorn' is tedious to hundreds; and so is 'The Idiot Boy' to hundreds. It is in the character of the old man to tell his story, which an impatient reader must feel tedious. But, good heavens! such a figure, in such a place; a pious, self-respecting, miserably infirm and pleased old man telling such a tale!"

Ed.

[Footnote A: It is unfortunate that in this, as in many other similar occasions in these delightful volumes by the poet's nephew, the reticence as to names--warrantable perhaps in 1851, so soon after the poet's death--has now deprived the world of every means of knowing to whom many of Wordsworth's letters were addressed. Professor Dowden asks about it--and very naturally:

"Was it the letter to Mary and Sara" (Hutchinson) "about 'The Leech-Gatherer,' mentioned in Dorothy's Journal of 14th June 1802?"

Ed.]

"I GRIEVED FOR BUONAPARTe"

Composed May 21, 1802.--Published 1807 [A]

[In the cottage of Town-end, one afternoon in 1801, my sister read to me the sonnets of Milton. I had long been well acquainted with them, but I was particularly struck on that occasion with the dignified simplicity and majestic harmony that runs through most of them--in character so totally different from the Italian, and still more so from Shakespeare's fine sonnets. I took fire, if I may be allowed to say so, and produced three sonnets the same afternoon, the first I ever wrote, except an irregular one at school. Of these three the only one I distinctly remember is 'I grieved for Buonaparte, etc.'; one of the others was never written down; the third, which was I believe preserved, I cannot particularise.--I.F.]

One of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty," afterwards called "Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty." From the edition of 1815 onwards, it bore the t.i.tle '1801'.--Ed.

I grieved for Buonaparte, with a vain And an unthinking grief! The tenderest mood [1]

Of that Man's mind--what can it be? what food Fed his first hopes? what knowledge could _he_ gain?

'Tis not in battles that from youth we train 5 The Governor who must be wise and good, And temper with the sternness of the brain Thoughts motherly, and meek as womanhood.

Wisdom doth live with children round her knees: Books, leisure, perfect freedom, and the talk 10 Man holds with week-day man in the hourly walk Of the mind's business: these are the degrees By which true Sway doth mount; this is the stalk True Power doth grow on; and her rights are these.

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1837.

... grief! the vital blood Of that man's mind, what can it be? What food Fed his first hopes? what knowledge could he gain? 1802.

... grief! for, who aspires To genuine greatness but from just desires, And knowledge such as _He_ could never gain? 1815.]

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: It had twice seen the light previously in 'The Morning Post', first on September 16, 1802, unsigned, and again on January 29, 1803, when it was signed W. L. D.--Ed.]

Wordsworth's date 1801, in the Fenwick note, should have been 1802. His sister writes, in her Journal of 1802:

"May 21.--W. wrote two sonnets on Buonaparte, after I had read Milton's sonnets to him."

The "irregular" sonnet, written "at school," to which Wordsworth refers, is probably the one published in the 'European Magazine' in 1787, vol.

xi. p. 202, and signed Axiologus.--Ed.

A FAREWELL

Composed May 29, 1802.--Published 1815

[Composed just before my Sister and I went to fetch Mrs. Wordsworth from Gallow-hill, near Scarborough.--I.F.]

This was one of the "Poems founded on the Affections." It was published in 1815 and in 1820 without a t.i.tle, but with the sub-t.i.tle 'Composed in the Year 1802'. In 1827 and 1832 it was called 'A Farewell', to which the sub-t.i.tle was added. The sub-t.i.tle was omitted in 1836, and afterwards.--Ed.

Farewell, thou little Nook of mountain-ground, Thou rocky corner in the lowest stair Of that magnificent temple which doth bound One side of our whole vale with grandeur rare; Sweet garden-orchard, eminently fair, 5 The loveliest spot that man hath ever found, Farewell!--we leave thee to Heaven's peaceful care, Thee, and the Cottage which thou dost surround.

Our boat is safely anch.o.r.ed by the sh.o.r.e, And there will safely ride [1] when we are gone; 10 The flowering shrubs that deck our humble door [2]