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THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

VOL. VIII

[Illustration: _William Wordsworth_

_after Thomas Woolner_

_Printed by Ch Wittmann Paris_]




                          THE POETICAL WORKS
                                  OF
                          WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

                               EDITED BY
                            WILLIAM KNIGHT

                               VOL. VIII

                     [Illustration: _Gallow Hill_

                             _Yorkshire_]

                                London
                        MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
                       New York: Macmillan & Co.
                                 1896

                        _All rights reserved._




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE
                                 1834

  Lines suggested by a Portrait from the Pencil of F. Stone            1

  The foregoing Subject resumed                                        6

  To a Child                                                           7

  Lines written in the Album of the Countess of Lonsdale,
      Nov. 5, 1834                                                     8

                                 1835

  “Why art thou silent? Is thy love a plant”                          12

  To the Moon                                                         13

  To the Moon                                                         15

  Written after the Death of Charles Lamb                             17

  Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg                     24

  Upon seeing a  Drawing of the Bird of Paradise
      in an Album                                                     29

  “Desponding Father! mark this altered bough”                        31

  “Four fiery steeds impatient of the rein”                           31

  To ----                                                             32

  Roman Antiquities discovered at Bishopstone, Herefordshire          33

  St. Catherine of Ledbury                                            34

  “By a blest Husband guided, Mary came”                              35

  “Oh what a Wreck! how changed in mien and speech!”                  36

                                 1836

  November 1836                                                       37

  To a Redbreast--(In Sickness)                                       38

                                 1837

  “Six months to six years added he remained”                         39

  Memorials of a Tour in Italy, 1837--To Henry Crabb Robinson         41

      I. Musings near Aquapendente, April, 1837                       42

     II. The Pine of Monte Mario at Rome                              58

    III. At Rome                                                      59

     IV. At Rome--Regrets--in Allusion to Niebuhr and other
             Modern Historians                                        60

      V. Continued                                                    61

     VI. Plea for the Historian                                       61

    VII. At Rome                                                      62

   VIII. Near Rome, in Sight of St. Peter’s                           63

     IX. At Albano                                                    64

      X. “Near Anio’s stream, I spied a gentle Dove”                  65

     XI. From the Alban Hills, looking towards Rome                   65

    XII. Near the Lake of Thrasymene                                  66

   XIII. Near the same Lake                                           67

    XIV. The Cuckoo at Laverna                                        67

     XV. At the Convent of Camaldoli                                  72

    XVI. Continued                                                    73

   XVII. At the Eremite or Upper Convent of Camaldoli                 74

  XVIII. At Vallombrosa                                               75

    XIX. At Florence                                                  78

    XX. Before the Picture of the Baptist, by Raphael,
            in the Gallery at Florence                                79

    XXI. At Florence--From Michael Angelo                             80

   XXII. At Florence--From Michael Angelo                             81

  XXIII. Among the Ruins of a Convent in the Apennines                82

   XXIV. In Lombardy                                                  83

    XXV. After leaving Italy                                          84

   XXVI. Continued                                                    85

  At Bologna, in Remembrance of the late Insurrections,
      1837.--I.                                                       86

      II. Continued                                                   86

      III. Concluded                                                  87

  “What if our numbers barely could defy”                             87

  A Night Thought                                                     88

  The Widow on Windermere Side                                        89

                                 1838

  To the Planet Venus                                                 92

  “Hark! ’tis the Thrush, undaunted, undeprest”                       93

  “’Tis He whose yester-evening’s high disdain”                       94

  Composed at Rydal on May Morning, 1838                              94

  Composed on a May Morning, 1838                                     97

  A Plea for Authors, May 1838                                        99

  “Blest Statesman He, whose Mind’s unselfish will”                  101

  Valedictory Sonnet                                                 102

                                 1839

  Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death--

     I. Suggested by the View of Lancaster Castle (on the
           Road from the South)                                      103

    II. “Tenderly do we feel by Nature’s law”                        104

   III. “The Roman Consul doomed his sons to die”                    105

    IV. “Is _Death_, when evil against good has fought”              106

     V. “Not to the object specially designed”                       106

    VI. “Ye brood of conscience--Spectres! that frequent”            107

   VII. “Before the world had past her time of youth”                107

  VIII. “Fit retribution, by the moral code”                         108

    IX. “Though to give timely warning and deter”                    109

     X. “Our bodily life, some plead, that life the shrine”          109

    XI. “Ah, think how one compelled for life to abide”              110

   XII. “See the Condemned alone within his cell”                    110

  XIII. Conclusion                                                   111

   XIV. Apology                                                      112

  “Men of the Western World! in Fate’s dark book”                    112

                                 1840

  To a Painter                                                       114

  On the same Subject                                                115

  Poor Robin                                                         116

  On a Portrait of the Duke of Wellington upon the Field
      of Waterloo, by Haydon                                         118

                                 1841

  Epitaph in the Chapel-Yard of Langdale, Westmoreland               120

                                 1842

  “Intent on gathering wool from hedge and brake”                    122

  Prelude, prefixed to the Volume entitled “Poems chiefly
      of Early and Late Years”                                       123

  Floating Island                                                    125

  “The Crescent-moon, the Star of Love”                              127

  “_A Poet!_--He hath put his heart to school”                       127

  “The most alluring clouds that mount the sky”                      128

  “Feel for the wrongs to universal ken”                             129

  In Allusion to various Recent Histories and Notices of
      the French Revolution                                          130

      Continued                                                      131

      Concluded                                                      131

  “Lo! where she stands fixed in a saint-like trance”                132

  The Norman Boy                                                     132

  The Poet’s Dream                                                   135

  Suggested by a Picture of the Bird of Paradise                     140

  To the Clouds                                                      142

  Airey-Force Valley                                                 146

  “Lyre! though such power do in thy magic live”                     147

  Love lies Bleeding                                                 148

  “They call it Love lies bleeding! rather say”                      150

  Companion to the Foregoing                                         150

  The Cuckoo-Clock                                                   151

  “Wansfell! this Household has a favoured lot”                      153

  “Though the bold wings of Poesy affect”                            154

  “Glad sight wherever new with old”                                 154

                                 1843

  “While beams of orient light shoot wide and high”                  156

  Inscription for a Monument in Crosthwaite Church, in
      the Vale of Keswick                                            157

  To the Rev. Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., Master of
      Harrow School                                                  162

                                 1844

  “So fair, so sweet, withal so sensitive”                           164

  On the projected Kendal and Windermere Railway                     166

  “Proud were ye, Mountains, when, in times of old”                  167

  At Furness Abbey                                                   168

                                 1845

  “Forth from a jutting ridge, around whose base”                    170

  The Westmoreland Girl                                              172

  At Furness Abbey                                                   176

  “Yes! thou art fair, yet be not moved”                             176

  “What heavenly smiles! O Lady mine”                                177

  To a Lady                                                          177

  To the Pennsylvanians                                              179

  “Young England--what is then become of Old”                        180

                                 1846

  Sonnet                                                             181

  “Where lies the truth? has Man, in wisdom’s creed”                 182

  To Lucca Giordano                                                  183

  “Who but is pleased to watch the moon on high”                     184

  Illustrated Books and Newspapers                                   184

  Sonnet. To an Octogenarian                                         185

  “I know an aged Man constrained to dwell”                          186

  “The unremitting voice of nightly streams”                         187

  “How beautiful the Queen of Night, on high”                        188

  On the Banks of a Rocky Stream                                     188

  Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of
      Early Childhood                                                189

                                 POEMS
                                  BY
                           WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
                                AND BY
                           DOROTHY WORDSWORTH
                  NOT INCLUDED IN THE EDITION OF 1849-50

                                 1787

  Sonnet, on seeing Miss Helen Maria Williams weep at a
      Tale of Distress                                               209

  Lines written by William Wordsworth as a School Exercise
      at Hawkshead, Anno Ætatis 14                                   211

                           1792 (or earlier)

  “Sweet was the walk along the narrow lane”                         214

  “When Love was born of heavenly line”                              215

  The Convict                                                        217

                                 1798

  “The snow-tracks of my friends I see”                              219

  The Old Cumberland Beggar (MS. Variants, not inserted
      in Vol. I.)                                                    220

                                 1800

  Andrew Jones                                                       221

  “There is a shapeless crowd of unhewn stones”                      223

                                 1802

  “Among all lovely things my Love had been”                         231

  “Along the mazes of this song I go”                                233

  “The rains at length have ceas’d, the winds are still’d”           233

  “Witness thou”                                                     234

  Wild-Fowl                                                          234

  Written in a Grotto                                                234

  Home at Grasmere                                                   235

  “Shall he who gives his days to low pursuits”                      257

                                 1803

  “I find it written of Simonides”                                   258

                                 1804

  “No whimsey of the purse is here”                                  258

                                 1805

  “Peaceful our valley, fair and green”                              259

  “Ah! if I were a lady gay”                                         262

                                 1806

  To the Evening Star over Grasmere