Of more refined humanity, thy breath,
Dear Sister! was a kind of gentler spring
That went before my steps. Thereafter came
One whom with thee friendship had early paired;
She came, no more a phantom to adorn
A moment, but an inmate of the heart,
And yet a spirit, there for me enshrined 270
To penetrate the lofty and the low;
Even as one essence of pervading light
Shines, in the brightest of ten thousand stars
And the meek worm that feeds her lonely lamp
Couched in the dewy grass.
With such a theme,
Coleridge! with this my argument, of thee
Shall I be silent? O capacious Soul!
Placed on this earth to love and understand,
And from thy presence shed the light of love,
Shall I be mute, ere thou be spoken of? 280
Thy kindred influence to my heart of hearts
Did also find its way. Thus fear relaxed
Her overweening grasp; thus thoughts and things
In the self-haunting spirit learned to take
More rational proportions; mystery,
The incumbent mystery of sense and soul,
Of life and death, time and eternity,
Admitted more habitually a mild
Interposition—a serene delight
In closelier gathering cares, such as become 290
A human creature, howsoe’er endowed,
Poet, or destined for a humbler name;
And so the deep enthusiastic joy,
The rapture of the hallelujah sent
From all that breathes and is, was chastened, stemmed
And balanced by pathetic truth, by trust
In hopeful reason, leaning on the stay
Of Providence; and in reverence for duty,
Here, if need be, struggling with storms, and there
Strewing in peace life’s humblest ground with herbs, 300
At every season green, sweet at all hours.
And now, O Friend! this history is brought
To its appointed close: the discipline
And consummation of a Poet’s mind,
In everything that stood most prominent,
Have faithfully been pictured; we have reached
The time (our guiding object from the first)
When we may, not presumptuously, I hope,
Suppose my powers so far confirmed, and such
My knowledge, as to make me capable 310
Of building up a Work that shall endure.
Yet much hath been omitted, as need was;
Of books how much! and even of the other wealth
That is collected among woods and fields,
Far more: for Nature’s secondary grace
Hath hitherto been barely touched upon,
The charm more superficial that attends
Her works, as they present to Fancy’s choice
Apt illustrations of the moral world,
Caught at a glance, or traced with curious pains. 320
Finally, and above all, O Friend! (I speak
With due regret) how much is overlooked
In human nature and her subtle ways,
As studied first in our own hearts, and then
In life among the passions of mankind,
Varying their composition and their hue,
Where’er we move, under the diverse shapes
That individual character presents
To an attentive eye. For progress meet,
Along this intricate and difficult path, 330
Whate’er was wanting, something had I gained,
As one of many schoolfellows compelled,
In hardy independence, to stand up
Amid conflicting interests, and the shock
Of various tempers; to endure and note
What was not understood, though known to be;
Among the mysteries of love and hate,
Honour and shame, looking to right and left,
Unchecked by innocence too delicate,
And moral notions too intolerant, 340
Sympathies too contracted. Hence, when called
To take a station among men, the step
Was easier, the transition more secure,
More profitable also; for, the mind
Learns from such timely exercise to keep
In wholesome separation the two natures,
The one that feels, the other that observes.
Yet one word more of personal concern;—
Since I withdrew unwillingly from France,
I led an undomestic wanderer’s life, 350
In London chiefly harboured, whence I roamed,
Tarrying at will in many a pleasant spot
Of rural England’s cultivated vales
Or Cambrian solitudes. A youth—(he bore
The name of Calvert—it shall live, if words
Of mine can give it life,) in firm belief
That by endowments not from me withheld
Good might be furthered—in his last decay
By a bequest sufficient for my needs
Enabled me to pause for choice, and walk 360
At large and unrestrained, nor damped too soon
By mortal cares. Himself no Poet, yet
Far less a common follower of the world,
He deemed that my pursuits and labours lay
Apart from all that leads to wealth, or even
A necessary maintenance insures,
Without some hazard to the finer sense;
He cleared a passage for me, and the stream
Flowed in the bent of Nature.
Having now
Told what best merits mention, further pains 370
Our present purpose seems not to require,
And I have other tasks. Recall to mind
The mood in which this labour was begun,
O Friend! The termination of my course
Is nearer now, much nearer; yet even then,
In that distraction and intense desire,
I said unto the life which I had lived,
Where art thou? Hear I not a voice from thee
Which ‘tis reproach to hear? Anon I rose
As if on wings, and saw beneath me stretched 380
Vast prospect of the world which I had been
And was; and hence this Song, which, like a lark,
I have protracted, in the unwearied heavens
Singing, and often with more plaintive voice
To earth attempered and her deep-drawn sighs,
Yet centring all in love, and in the end
All gratulant, if rightly understood.
Whether to me shall be allotted life,
And, with life, power to accomplish aught of worth,
That will be deemed no insufficient plea 390
For having given the story of myself,
Is all uncertain: but, beloved Friend!
When, looking back, thou seest, in clearer view
Than any liveliest sight of yesterday,
That summer, under whose indulgent skies,
Upon smooth Quantock’s airy ridge we roved
Unchecked, or loitered ‘mid her sylvan combs,
Thou in bewitching words, with happy heart,
Didst chaunt the vision of that Ancient Man,
The bright-eyed Mariner, and rueful woes 400
Didst utter of the Lady Christabel;
And I, associate with such labour, steeped
In soft forgetfulness the livelong hours,
Murmuring of him who, joyous hap, was found,
After the perils of his moonlight ride,
Near the loud waterfall; or her who sate
In misery near the miserable Thorn—
When thou dost to that summer turn thy thoughts,
And hast before thee all which then we were,
To thee,
in memory of that happiness, 410
It will be known, by thee at least, my Friend!
Felt, that the history of a Poet’s mind
Is labour not unworthy of regard;
To thee the work shall justify itself.
The last and later portions of this gift
Have been prepared, not with the buoyant spirits
That were our daily portion when we first
Together wantoned in wild Poesy,
But, under pressure of a private grief,
Keen and enduring, which the mind and heart, 420
That in this meditative history
Have been laid open, needs must make me feel
More deeply, yet enable me to bear
More firmly; and a comfort now hath risen
From hope that thou art near, and wilt be soon
Restored to us in renovated health;
When, after the first mingling of our tears,
‘Mong other consolations, we may draw
Some pleasure from this offering of my love.
Oh! yet a few short years of useful life, 430
And all will be complete, thy race be run,
Thy monument of glory will be raised;
Then, though (too weak to tread the ways of truth)
This age fall back to old idolatry,
Though men return to servitude as fast
As the tide ebbs, to ignominy and shame,
By nations, sink together, we shall still
Find solace—knowing what we have learnt to know,
Rich in true happiness if allowed to be
Faithful alike in forwarding a day 440
Of firmer trust, joint labourers in the work
(Should Providence such grace to us vouchsafe)
Of their deliverance, surely yet to come.
Prophets of Nature, we to them will speak
A lasting inspiration, sanctified
By reason, blest by faith: what we have loved,
Others will love, and we will teach them how;
Instruct them how the mind of man becomes
A thousand times more beautiful than the earth
On which he dwells, above this frame of things 450
(Which, ‘mid all revolution in the hopes
And fears of men, doth still remain unchanged)
In beauty exalted, as it is itself
Of quality and fabric more divine.
1799-1805.
The Poems
Dove Cottage, Grasmere — Wordsworth lived here from 1799 to 1808 with his sister Dorothy and in 1802, after marrying William, Mary Hutchinson arrived. Their three oldest children were born at Dove Cottage and they received visits from Sir Walter Scott and Samuel Taylor Coleridge whilst living here.
LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
LINES WRITTEN AS A SCHOOL EXERCISE AT HAWKSHEAD, ANNO AETATIS 14
EXTRACT FROM THE CONCLUSION OF A POEM, COMPOSED IN ANTICIPATION OF LEAVING SCHOOL
WRITTEN IN VERY EARLY YOUTH
AN EVENING WALK; ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY
LINES WRITTEN WHILE SAILING IN A BOAT AT EVENING
REMEMBRANCE OF COLLINS
DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES TAKEN DURING A PEDESTRIAN TOUR AMONG THE ALPS
GUILT AND SORROW
LINES LEFT UPON A SEAT IN A YEW-TREE, WHICH STANDS NEAR THE LAKE OF ESTHWAITE, ON A DESOLATE PART OF THE SHORE, COMMANDING A BEAUTIFUL PROSPECT.
THE BORDERERS
THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN
THE BIRTH OF LOVE
A NIGHT-PIECE
WE ARE SEVEN
ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS
THE THORN
GOODY BLAKE AND HARRY GILL; A TRUE STORY
HER EYES ARE WILD
SIMON LEE THE OLD HUNTSMAN; WITH AN INCIDENT IN WHICH HE WAS CONCERNED
LINES WRITTEN IN EARLY SPRING
TO MY SISTER
A WHIRL-BLAST FROM BEHIND THE HILL
EXPOSTULATION AND REPLY
THE TABLES TURNED
THE COMPLAINT OF A FORSAKEN INDIAN WOMAN
THE LAST OF THE FLOCK
THE IDIOT BOY
LINES COMPOSED A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY, ON REVISITING THE BANKS OF THE WYE DURING A TOUR. JULY 13, 1798
THE OLD CUMBERLAND BEGGAR
ANIMAL TRANQUILLITY AND DECAY
PETER BELL
THE SIMPLON PASS
INFLUENCE OF NATURAL OBJECTS IN CALLING FORTH AND STRENGTHENING THE IMAGINATION IN BOYHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH
THERE WAS A BOY
NUTTING
STRANGE FITS OF PASSION HAVE I KNOWN
SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS
I TRAVELLED AMONG UNKNOWN MEN
THREE YEARS SHE GREW IN SUN AND SHOWER
A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL
A POET’S EPITAPH
ADDRESS TO THE SCHOLARS OF THE VILLAGE SCHOOL OF —
DIRGE
BY THE SIDE OF THE GRAVE SOME YEARS AFTER
MATTHEW
THE TWO APRIL MORNINGS
THE FOUNTAIN
TO A SEXTON
THE DANISH BOY
LUCY GRAY
RUTH
WRITTEN IN GERMANY ON ONE OF THE COLDEST DAYS OF THE CENTURY
THE BROTHERS
MICHAEL
THE IDLE SHEPHERD-BOYS
THE PET-LAMB
POEMS ON THE NAMING OF PLACES I
POEMS ON THE NAMING OF PLACES II
POEMS ON THE NAMING OF PLACES III
POEMS ON THE NAMING OF PLACES IV
POEMS ON THE NAMING OF PLACES V
THE WATERFALL AND THE EGLANTINE
THE OAK AND THE BROOM
HART-LEAP WELL
TIS SAID, THAT SOME HAVE DIED FOR LOVE
THE CHILDLESS FATHER
SONG: FOR THE WANDERING JEW
RURAL ARCHITECTURE
ELLEN IRWIN
ANDREW JONES
THE TWO THIEVES
A CHARACTER
INSCRIPTIONS FOR THE SPOT WHERE THE HERMITAGE STOOD ON ST. HERBERT’S ISLAND, DERWENTWATER.
INSCRIPTIONS WRITTEN WITH A PENCIL UPON A STONE IN THE WALL OF THE HOUSE (AN OUTHOUSE), ON THE ISLAND AT GRASMERE.
INSCRIPTIONS WRITTEN WITH A SLATE PENCIL UPON A STONE, THE LARGEST OF A HEAP LYING NEAR A DESERTED QUARRY, UPON ONE OF THE ISLANDS AT RYDAL.
THE SPARROW’S NEST
PELION AND OSSA FLOURISH SIDE BY SIDE
THE PRIORESS’S TALE
THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE
TROILUS AND CRESIDA
THE SAILOR’S MOTHER
ALICE FELL
BEGGARS
TO A BUTTERFLY
THE EMIGRANT MOTHER
MY HEART LEAPS UP WHEN I BEHOLD
AMONG ALL LOVELY THINGS MY LOVE HAD BEEN
WRITTEN IN MARCH WHILE RESTING ON THE BRIDGE AT THE FOOT OF BROTHER’S WATER.
THE REDBREAST CHASING THE BUTTERFLY
TO A BUTTERFLY
FORESIGHT
TO THE SMALL CELANDINE
TO THE SAME FLOWER
RESOLUTION AND INDEPENDENCE
I GRIEVED FOR BUONAPARTE
A FAREWELL
THE SUN HAS LONG BEEN SET
COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, SEPT. 3, 1802
COMPOSED BY THE SEA-SIDE, NEAR CALAIS, AUGUST 1802
CALAIS, AUGUST 1802
COMPOSED NEAR CALAIS, ON THE ROAD LEADING TO ARDRES, AUGUST 7, 1802
CALAIS, AUGUST 15, 1802
IT IS A BEAUTEOUS EVENING, CALM AND FREE
ON THE EXTINCTION OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC
THE KING OF SWEDEN
TO TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE
COMPOSED IN THE VALLEY NEAR DOVER, ON THE DAY OF LANDING
SEPTEMBER 1, 1802
NEAR DOVER, SEPTEMBER 1802
WRITTEN IN LONDON, SEPTEMBER 1802
LONDON, 1802
GREAT MEN HAVE BEEN AMONG US
IT IS NOT TO BE THOUGHT OF
WHEN I HAVE BORNE IN MEMORY
COMPOS
ED AFTER A JOURNEY ACROSS THE HAMBLETON HILLS, YORKSHIRE
STANZAS WRITTEN IN MY POCKET-COPY OF THOMSON’S CASTLE OF INDOLENCE
TO H. C.
TO THE DAISY
TO THE SAME FLOWER
TO THE DAISY
THE GREEN LINNET
YEW-TREES
WHO FANCIED WHAT A PRETTY SIGHT
IT IS NO SPIRIT WHO FROM HEAVEN HATH FLOWN
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 I.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 II.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 III.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 IV.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 V.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 VI.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 VII.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 VIII.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 IX.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 X.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 XI.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 XII.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 XIII.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 XIV.
MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803 XV.
OCTOBER 1803
THERE IS A BONDAGE WORSE, FAR WORSE, TO BEAR
OCTOBER 1803
ENGLAND! THE TIME IS COME WHEN THOU SHOULD’ST WEAN
OCTOBER 1803
TO THE MEN OF KENT OCTOBER 1803
IN THE PASS OF KILLICRANKY
ANTICIPATION, OCTOBER 1803
LINES ON THE EXPECTED INVASION, 1803
THE FARMER OF TILSBURY VALE
TO THE CUCKOO
SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT
I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
THE AFFLICTION OF MARGARET —
THE FORSAKEN
REPENTANCE
THE SEVEN SISTERS
ADDRESS TO MY INFANT DAUGHTER, DORA ON BEING REMINDED THAT SHE WAS A MONTH OLD THAT DAY, SEPTEMBER 16
THE KITTEN AND FALLING LEAVES
TO THE SPADE OF A FRIEND
THE SMALL CELANDINE
AT APPLETHWAITE, NEAR KESWICK
TO THE SUPREME BEING
ODE TO DUTY
TO A SKY-LARK
FIDELITY
INCIDENT CHARACTERISTIC OF A FAVOURITE DOG
TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF THE SAME DOG
TO THE DAISY
ELEGIAC STANZAS SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE OF PEELE CASTLE, IN A STORM, PAINTED BY SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT
ELEGIAC STANZAS IN MEMORY OF MY BROTHER, JOHN WORDSWORTH, COMMANDER OF THE E. I. COMPANY’S SHIP THE EARL OF ABERGAVENNY IN WHICH HE PERISHED BY CALAMITOUS SHIPWRECK, FEB. 6, 1805.
WHEN TO THE ATTRACTIONS OF THE BUSY WORLD.
LOUISA
TO A YOUNG LADY WHO HAD BEEN REPROACHED FOR TAKING LONG WALKS IN THE COUNTRY
VAUDRACOUR AND JULIA
THE COTTAGER TO HER INFANT
THE WAGGONER
FRENCH REVOLUTION AS IT APPEARED TO ENTHUSIASTS AT ITS COMMENCEMENT.
Delphi Complete Works of William Wordsworth Page 134