



Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Jane Robins and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net






    +-------------------------------------------+
    |                 Note:                     |
    |                                           |
    | = around word indicates bold =CAPSULE.=   |
    | _ around word indicated italics _Erebus_  |
    +-------------------------------------------+





    THE POETICAL WORKS

    OF

    WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

    VOL. V

[Illustration: _William Wordsworth_

_after Margaret Gillies_

_Printed by Wittmann Paris_]




    THE POETICAL WORKS

    OF

    WILLIAM WORDSWORTH


    EDITED BY

    WILLIAM KNIGHT


    VOL. V

[Illustration]

    London
    MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
    NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO.
    1896

_All rights reserved_




CONTENTS


                                                   PAGE
    THE EXCURSION--
        PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1814               20
        BOOK FIRST--THE WANDERER                     26
        BOOK SECOND--THE SOLITARY                    67
        BOOK THIRD--DESPONDENCY                     105
        BOOK FOURTH--DESPONDENCY CORRECTED          142
        BOOK FIFTH--THE PASTOR                      195
        BOOK SIXTH--THE CHURCH-YARD AMONG
            THE MOUNTAINS                           235
        BOOK SEVENTH--THE CHURCH-YARD AMONG
            THE MOUNTAINS--_Continued_              283
        BOOK EIGHTH--THE PARSONAGE                  326
        BOOK NINTH--DISCOURSE OF THE WANDERER,
            AND AN EVENING VISIT TO THE LAKE        352
        NOTES                                       383

    APPENDIX

    NOTE A                                          391
    NOTE B                                          392
    NOTE C                                          393
    NOTE D                                          396
    NOTE E                                          398




WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS




THE EXCURSION

Composed 1795-1814.--Published 1814


[Something must now be said of this poem, but chiefly, as has been done
through the whole of these notes, with reference to my personal friends,
and especially to her who has perseveringly taken them down from my
dictation. Towards the close of the first book, stand the lines that were
first written,--beginning "Nine tedious years," and ending "Last human
tenant of these ruined walls." These were composed in 1795, at Racedown;
and for several passages describing the employment and demeanour of
Margaret during her affliction, I was indebted to observations made
in Dorsetshire, and afterwards at Alfoxden, in Somersetshire, where
I resided in 1797 and 1798. The lines towards the conclusion of the
fourth book, "Despondency corrected,"--beginning "For the man who in
this spirit," to the words "intellectual soul,"--were in order of time
composed the next, either at Racedown or Alfoxden, I do not remember
which. The rest of the poem was written in the vale of Grasmere, chiefly
during our residence at Allan Bank. The long poem on my own education
was, together with many minor poems, composed while we lived at the
cottage at Town-end. Perhaps my purpose of giving an additional interest
to these my poems, in the eyes of my nearest and dearest friends, may be
promoted by saying a few words upon the character of the Wanderer, the
Solitary, and the Pastor, and some other of the persons introduced. And
first of the principal one, the Wanderer.

My lamented friend Southey (for this is written a month after his
decease[A]) used to say that had he been born a <DW7>, the course of
life which would in all probability have been his, was the one for which
he was most fitted and most to his mind, that of a Benedictine monk, in
a convent, furnished, as many once were, and some still are, with an
inexhaustible library. _Books_, as appears from many passages in his
writings, and was evident to those who had opportunities of observing his
daily life, were in fact _his passion_; and _wandering_, I can with truth
affirm, was _mine_; but this propensity in me was happily counteracted by
inability from