Delphi Complete Works of William Wordsworth

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by William Wordsworth


  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.

 

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