THE SMALL CELANDINE ("There is a Flower"). Written in 1804; published in 1807. This was subsequently placed by Wordsworth among "Poems referring to the Period of Old Age." The text is unchanged, except that in 1. 4" himself" in 1837 replaced "itself," and in 1. 17 "cheer” in 1827 replaced "bless." MORNING AMONG THE MOUNTAINS. [From "The Prelude," Bk. iv.] The fourth book of "The Prelude " was written in 1804. The time to which the incident belongs was a summer vacation from studies at Cambridge. The " dear Friend" of the close of the extract was Coleridge, to whom "The Prelude" was addressed. I. ASCENT OF SNOWDON. [From "The Prelude," Bk. xiv.] Those excursions. The excursion referred to was in the summer and autumn of 1793. Wordsworth had explored North Wales previously in 1791. On both occasions he was accompanied by his friend Robert Jones. 3. Cambria, Latin for Wales. 4. Bethgelert, in the county of Carnarvon, six miles from Snowdon. The name means the grave of Gelert," where a priory is said to have been founded by Llewellyn, the last king of Wales, in memory of the hound which had saved his child from a wolf, and was rashly killed by the king. 22. Lurcher, a cross between a shepherd's dog and a greyhound. 47. Main Atlantic, the ocean of mist. 51-53. In Pope's translation of the celebrated moonlight scene in the "Iliad," he fails to recognize the dwindling of the lesser stars in the light of the moon. Wordsworth in his prose "Essay, Supplementary to the Preface to Lyrical Ballads"" points to this passage as showing to what a low state knowledge of the most obvious phenomena of nature had sunk in early eighteenth-century poetry. 86-111. Compare Wordsworth's analysis of the power of the Imagination in his Preface to the edition of 1815. 120. Discursive or intuitive, that is, having relation to processes of reasoning or to direct intuition. Stopford Brooke says of this passage : "It is one of the finest specimens of Wordsworth's grand style. It is as sustained and stately as Milton, but differs from Milton's style in the greater simplicity of diction." THE SIMPLON PASS. Probably written in 1804, the date of “The Prelude,” Bk. vi, from which it is an extract, but dated by Wordsworth 1799, as the year in which "The Prelude" was begun; first published in 1845. Wordsworth crossed the Alps, with his friend Jones, in the University summer vacation of 1790. ९९ १९ 2. "The Prelude" for Pass" reads "strait," and in 1. 4 reads pace" for "step." 18. Characters, etc., the letters of that revelation of the spirit which works in and through nature. MIST OPENING IN THE HILLS. [From "The Excursion," Bk. ii.] The date at which the second book of "The Excursion" was written cannot be certainly determined; but in December, 1804, Wordsworth wrote to Sir George Beaumont of 2000 lines of "The Pedler" as in existence. These probably formed the first two books of "The Excursion." The Solitary has related how an old man, lost by night among the mountains, was found by the peasants amid the ruins of a mountain chapel. The title for the extract I have accepted from Dean Church (Ward's "The English Poets," vol. IV, p. 77). FRENCH REVOLUTION. This extract from "The Prelude," Bk. xi, was probably written in December, 1804, or early in 1805; it was given in The Friend, Oct. 26, 1809, and was reprinted in Wordsworth's Poems, 1815. II. Enchantress in The Friend, 1809, Enchanter." Lines 9 II are very well applicable to Godwin's treatise "Political Justice," in which all professes to be based on reason, while it puts forth the most visionary views of future social progress. 13. The French Revolution spoke of the rights, not of any partic ular country, but of man as man. 15, 16. Before 1832: (To take an image which was felt no doubt It was hardly correct to speak of an "image" as "felt." The reading was found fault with as prosaic and self-conscious in "Guesses at Truth" by the brothers Hare; and Wordsworth, before altering it, had probably heard the criticism. See" Guesses at Truth," second series, p. 108, ed. 1848. 36. Subterranean in 1832 replaced "subterraneous.". 37. Some secreted island, such as Plato's Atlantis or Bacon's New Atlantis. 39, 40. The opposition is not between this life and a future life, but between the real world and a world of the imagination. ODE TO DUTY. Written in 1805; published in 1807. "The ode," says Wordsworth, "is on the model of Gray's 'Ode to Adversity,' which is copied from Horace's 'Ode to Fortune.'" The stanza is the same as that of Gray; and as Gray does honour to the benign character of Adversity, so Wordsworth shows the " benignant grace" of the "stern Lawgiver," Duty. The Ode exists in two states, differing considerably from its final form; one of these is the published text of 1807; the other is a version of the Ode printed for the poems of 1807, but cancelled while those volumes were going through the press. It was discovered by Mr. Tutin of Hull. The published text of 1807 gives a stanza retained in no subsequent edition — which came between the present fifth and sixth stanzas; it dwells on the gain of uniting choice with duty and freedom with law : Yet not the less would I throughout Not seeking in the school of pride No farther than they breed a second Will more wise. The cancelled version agrees in its last four stanzas with the published text of 1807. The first four stanzas are the following: There are who tread a blameless way In purity, and love, and truth, May joy be theirs while life shall last And may a genial sense remain when youth is past. Serene would be our days and bright; And happy would our nature be; If Love were an unerring light; And Joy its own security. And bless'd are they who in the main This creed, even now, do entertain, Do in this spirit live; yet know That Man hath other hopes; strength which elsewhere must grow. 1, loving freedom, and untried; No sport of every random gust, Yet being to myself a guide, Too blindly have reposed my trust; Upon my present happiness, I shov'd unwelcome tasks away: But henceforth I would serve; and strictly if I may. O Power of DUTY! sent from God To enforce on earth his high behest, And keep us faithful to the road Which Conscience hath pronounc'd the best: Thou, who art Victory and Law When empty terrors overawe; From vain temptations dost set free, From Strife, and from Despair, a glorious Ministry! The last of these stanzas became first, with a greatly ennobled text, in the published version. 8. In 1807 (only) the last line was retained from stanza 4 of the cancelled version: "From strife and from despair; a glorious ministry." 15, 16. The final text- 1837 was preceded by two earlier readings; in 1807-20: In 1827-32: May joy be theirs while life shall last! And Thou, if they should totter, teach them to stand fast! Long may the kindly impulse last! But Thou, etc. Wordsworth's sense of the dangers attending the impulsive temperament had grown stronger with his maturer experience. To 21, 22. Before 1827: entertain pression. And bless'd are they who in the main a faith "in the main was not a happy form of ex 24. The text is of 1845. In 1807-32: " Yet find that other strength, according to their need." In 1837: "Yet find thy firm support." 29-31. The text is of 1827. In 1807 the three lines of the cancelled version, given above, were retained: Resolv'd that nothing," etc. In 1815: Full oft when in my heart was heard The task imposed, from day to day; 40. In 1827 "that" replaced "which,” to avoid the misunderstanding "which ever." Compare with the idea of this ode the sonnet "Nuns fret not," and the poem on "The Pass of Kirkstone." TO A SKY-LARK ("Up with me!"). Written in 1805; published in 1807. Wordsworth, after Miss Fenwick's "Rydal Mount,” added a MS. note: "Where there are no skylarks; but the poet is everywhere." The poem reached its final form in 1832. In 1807, after 1. 25 came the following close: Hearing thee, or else some other, As merry a Brother, I on the earth will go plodding on, By myself, chearfully, till the day is done. These lines in 1820 were replaced by the following: What though my course be rugged and uneven, To prickly moors and dusty ways confined, |