JOHN WILSON.

EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, LONDON; JOHN BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY, EDINBURGH; AND JOHN SMITH AND SON, GLASGOW. 1812.

TO GEORGE JARDINE, Esq. PROFESSOR OF LOGIC, AND TO JOHN YOUNG, Esq. PROFESSOR OF THE GREEK LANGUAGE, IN THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW, THIS VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR.

[Pg vii]

CONTENTS.

ISLE OF PALMS. Page. Canto I. 1 Canto II. 41 Canto III. 75 Canto IV. 139 Angler's Tent 181 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. Hermitage 223 Lines on Reading the Memoirs of Miss Smith 234 Hymn to Spring 246 Melrose Abbey 257 Extract from the "Hearth" 264 The French Exile 269 The Three Seasons of Love 277 To a Sleeping Child 280 My Cottage 290 [Pg viii]Lines written on the Banks of Windermere, after Recovery from a dangerous Illness 304 Apology for the little Naval Temple on Storrs' Point, Windermere 312 Picture of a Blind Man 317 Troutbeck Chapel 323 Peace and Innocence 329 Loughrig Tarn 333 Mary 340 Lines written at a little Well by the Roadside, Langdale 345 Lines written on seeing a Picture by Berghem, of an Ass in a Storm-Shower 351 On Reading Mr. Clarkson's History of the Abolition of the Slave Trade 357 The Fallen Oak 362 Nature Outraged 366 Lines written by Moonlight at Sea 378 The Nameless Stream 380 Art and Nature 385 Sonnet I.—Written on the Banks of Wastwater, during a Storm 388 Sonnet II.—Written on the Banks of Wastwater, during a Calm 389

Sonnet III.—Written at Midnight, on Helm-Crag 390 Sonnet IV.—The Voice of the Mountains 391 Sonnet V.—The Evening-Cloud 392 [Pg ix]Sonnet VI.—Written on the Sabbath-Day 393 Sonnet VII.—Written on Skiddaw, during a Tempest 394 Sonnet VIII. 395 Sonnet IX.—Written on the Evening I heard of the Death of my Friend, William Dunlop 396 Lines sacred to the Memory of The Rev. James Grahame, Author of "The Sabbath," &c. 397

[Pg 1]

THE ISLE OF PALMS.

[Pg 3]

CANTO FIRST.

[Pg 41]

CANTO SECOND.

[Pg 75]

CANTO THIRD.

[Pg 139]

CANTO FOURTH.

END OF THE ISLE OF PALMS.

[Pg 181]

THE ANGLER'S TENT.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The following Poem is the narrative of one day, the pleasantest of many pleasant ones, of a little Angling-excursion made three summers ago among the mountains of Westmoreland, Lancashire, and Cumberland. A tent, large panniers filled with its furniture, with provisions, &c. were loaded upon horses, and while the anglers, who separated every morning, pursued each his own sport up the torrents, were carried over the mountains to the appointed place by some lake or stream, where they were to meet again in the evening.

In this manner they visited all the wildest and most secluded scenes of the country. On the first Sunday they passed among the hills, their tent was pitched on the banks of Wast-Water, at the head of that wild and solitary lake, which they had reached by the mountain-path that passes Barn-Moor Tarn from Eskdale. Towards evening the inhabitants of the valley, not exceeding half a dozen families, with some too from the neighbouring glens, drawn by the unusual appearance, came to visit the strangers in their tent. Without, the evening was calm and beautiful; within, were the gaiety and kindness of simple mirth. At a late hour, their guests departed under a most refulgent moon that lighted[Pg 184] them up the surrounding mountains, on which they turned to hail with long-continued shouts and songs the blazing of a huge fire, that was hastily kindled at the door of the tent to bid them a distant farewell.

The images and feelings of these few happy days, and above all, of that delightful evening, the author wished to preserve in poetry. What he has written, while it serves to himself and his friends as a record of past happiness, may, he hopes, without impropriety be offered to the public, since, if at all faithful to its subject, it will have some interest to those who delight in the wilder scenes of Nature, and who have studied with respect and love the character of their simple inhabitants.

[Pg 185]

THE ANGLER'S TENT.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Mr Wordsworth accompanied the author on this excursion.

[2] At that time the residence of Mr Wordsworth's family.

[3] The author's cottage on the banks of Windermere.

[Pg 220]

MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.

[Pg 223]