Wordsworth's Poetical Works

volume 3 edited by William Knight 1896

Table of Contents

Wordsworth's Poetical Works Volume 3: 1804

Edited by William Knight 1896

Table of Contents

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1804

The poems written in 1804 were not numerous; and, with the exception of The Small Celandine, the stanzas beginning "I wandered lonely as a cloud," and "She was a Phantom of delight," they were less remarkable than those of the two preceding, and the three following years. Wordsworth's poetical activity in 1804 is not recorded, however, in Lyrical Ballads or Sonnets, but in The Prelude, much of which was thought out, and afterwards dictated to Dorothy or Mary Wordsworth, on the terrace walk of Lancrigg during that year; while the Ode, Intimations of Immortality was altered and added to, although it did not receive its final form till 1806. In the sixth book of The Prelude, p. 222, the lines occur: '

Four years and thirty, told this very week, Have I been now a sojourner on earth.'

That part of the great autobiographical poem must therefore have been composed in April, 1804.—Ed.

Contents 1804 Main Contents

"She was a Phantom of delight,"

Composed 1804.—Published 1807

The Poem [Written at Town-end, Grasmere. The germ of this poem was four lines composed as a part of the verses on the Highland Girl. Though beginning in this way, it was written from my heart, as is sufficiently obvious.—I. F.] One of the "Poems of the Imagination."—Ed.

The Poem

Variant 1:

From May-time's brightest, liveliest dawn;

The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807. return Variant 2:

... betwixt ...

return Variant 3:

A perfect Woman; ...

return Variant 4:

... of an angel light.

... angel-light.

return

Footnote A: Compare two references to Mary Wordsworth in The Prelude:

'Another maid there was, who also shed A gladness o'er that season, then to me, By her exulting outside look of youth And placid under-countenance, first endeared;'

(Book vi, l. 224).

'She came, no more a phantom to adorn A moment, but an inmate of the heart, And yet a spirit, there for me enshrined To penetrate the lofty and the low;'

(Book xiv, l. 268).—Ed. return to footnote mark Footnote B: The poet expressly told me that these verses were on his wife.—H. C. R. return

Note: It is not easy to say what were the "four lines composed as a part of the verses on the Highland Girl" which the Fenwick note tells us was "the germ of this poem." They may be lines now incorporated in those To a Highland Girl, vol. ii. p. 389, or they may be lines in the present poem, which Wordsworth wrote at first for the Highland Girl, but afterwards transferred to this one. They may have been the first four lines of the later poem. The two should be read consecutively, and compared. After Wordsworth's death, a writer in the Daily News, January 1859—then understood to be Miss Harriet Martineau —wrote thus:

"In the Memoirs, by the nephew of the poet, it is said that these verses refer to Mrs. Wordsworth; but for half of Wordsworth's life it was always understood that they referred to some other phantom which 'gleamed upon his sight' before Mary Hutchinson."

This statement is much more than improbable; it is, I think, disproved by the Fenwick note. They cannot refer to the "Lucy" of the Goslar poems; and Wordsworth indicates, as plainly as he chose, to whom they actually do refer. Compare the Hon. Justice Coleridge's account of a conversation with Wordsworth (Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 306), in which the poet expressly said that the lines were written on his wife. The question was, however, set at rest in a conversation of Wordsworth with Henry Crabb Robinson, who wrote in his Diary on

"May 12 (1842).—Wordsworth said that the poems 'Our walk was far among the ancient trees' [vol. ii. p. 167], then 'She was a Phantom of delight,'B and finally the two sonnets To a Painter, should be read in succession as exhibiting the different phases of his affection to his wife."

(Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, vol. iii. p. 197.) The use of the word "machine," in the third stanza of the poem, has been much criticised, but for a similar use of the term, see the sequel to The Waggoner (p. 107):

'Forgive me, then; for I had been On friendly terms with this Machine.'

See also Hamlet (act II. scene ii. l. 124):

'Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him.'

The progress of mechanical industry in Britain since the beginning of the present century has given a more limited, and purely technical, meaning to the word, than it bore when Wordsworth used it in these two instances.—Ed.

Contents 1804 Main Contents

"I wandered lonely as a cloud"

Composed 1804.—Published 1807

The Poem [Town-end, 1804. The two best lines in it are by Mary. The daffodils grew, and still grow, on the margin of Ullswater, and probably may be seen to this day as beautiful in the month of March, nodding their golden heads beside the dancing and foaming waves.—I.F.] This was No. VII. in the series of Poems, entitled, in the edition of 1807, "Moods of my own Mind." In 1815, and afterwards, it was classed by Wordsworth among his "Poems of the Imagination."—Ed.

The Poem

Variant 1:

... dancing ...

return Variant 2:

Along the Lake, beneath the trees, Ten thousand dancing in the breeze.

return Variant 3: This stanza was added in the edition of 1815. return Variant 4:

... be but gay,

The 1840 edition returns to the text of 1807. return Variant 5:

... laughing ...

return Footnote A: It was The Reverie of Poor Susan.—Ed. return to footnote mark Footnote B: This is an error in the original printed text. Evidently a year before the above-mentioned publication in 1815: one of 1810-1815. text Ed. return

Note: The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, under date, Thursday, April 15, 1802:

"When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the sea had floated the seeds ashore, and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more, and yet more; and, at last, under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones, about and above them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake. They looked so gay, ever glancing, ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little knot, and a few stragglers higher up; but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity, unity, and life of that one busy highway. We rested again and again. The bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances, and in the

middle of the water, like the sea...."

In the edition of 1815 there is a footnote to the lines

'They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude'

to the following effect:

"The subject of these Stanzas is rather an elementary feeling and simple impression (approaching to the nature of an ocular spectrum) upon the imaginative faculty, than an exertion of it. The one which followsA is strictly a Reverie; and neither that, nor the next after it in succession, Power of Music, would have been placed here except for the reason given in the foregoing note."

The being "placed here" refers to its being included among the "Poems of the Imagination." The "foregoing note" is the note appended to 'The Horn of Egremont Castle'; and the "reason given" in it is "to avoid a needless multiplication of the Classes" into which Wordsworth divided his poems. This note of 181?B, is reprinted mainly to show the difficulties to which Wordsworth was reduced by the artificial method of arrangement referred to. The following letter to Mr. Wrangham is a more appropriate illustration of the poem of "The Daffodils." It was written, the late Bishop of Lincoln says, "sometime afterwards." (See Memoirs of Wordsworth, vol. i. pp. 183, 184); and, for the whole of the letter, see a subsequent volume of this edition.

"Grasmere, Nov. 4. "My Dear Wrangham,—I am indeed much pleased that Mrs. Wrangham and yourself have been gratified by these breathings of simple nature. You mention Butler, Montagu's friend; not Tom Butler, but the conveyancer: when I was in town in spring, he happened to see the volumes lying on Montagu's mantelpiece, and to glance his eye upon the very poem of The Daffodils. 'Aye,' says he, 'a fine morsel this for the Reviewers.' When this was told me (for I was not present) I observed that there were 'two lines' in that little poem which, if thoroughly felt, would annihilate nine-tenths of the reviews of the kingdom, as they would find no readers. The lines I alluded to were these: 'They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude.'"

These two lines were composed by Mrs. Wordsworth. In 1877 the daffodils were still growing in abundance on the shore of Ullswater, below Gowbarrow Park. Compare the last four lines of James Montgomery's poem, The Little Cloud:

'Bliss in possession will not last: Remembered joys are never past: At once the fountain, stream, and sea, They were—they are—they yet shall be.'

Ed.

Contents 1804 Main Contents

The Affliction of Margaret—A

Composed 1804.—Published 1807

The Poem [Written at Town-end, Grasmere. This was taken from the case of a poor widow who lived in the town of Penrith. Her sorrow was well known to Mrs. Wordsworth, to my sister, and, I believe, to the whole town. She kept a shop, and when she saw a stranger passing by, she was in the habit of going out into the street to enquire of him after her son.—I.F.] Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems founded on the Affections."—Ed.

The Poem

Variant 1:

To have despair'd, and have believ'd, And be for evermore beguil'd;

return Variant 2:

What power hath even ...

return Variant 3:

Betwixt ...

return

Footnote A: In the edition of 1807, the title was The Affliction of Margaret—of—; in 1820, it was The Affliction of Margaret; and in 1845, it was as above. In an early MS. it was The Affliction of Mary—of—. For an as yet unpublished Preface to it, see volume viii. of this edition.—Ed. return to footnote mark

Contents 1804 Main Contents

The Forsaken

Composed 1804.—Published 1842

The Poem [This was an overflow from 'The Affliction of Margaret', and was excluded as superfluous there, but preserved in the faint hope that it may turn to account by restoring a shy lover to some forsaken damsel. My poetry has been complained of as deficient in interests of this sort,—a charge which the piece beginning, "Lyre! though such power do in thy magic live," will scarcely tend to obviate. The natural imagery of these verses was supplied by frequent, I might say intense, observation of the Rydal torrent. What an animating contrast is the ever-changing aspect of that, and indeed of every one of our mountain brooks, to the monotonous tone and unmitigated fury of such streams among the Alps as are fed all the summer long by glaciers and melting snows. A traveller observing the exquisite purity of the great rivers, such as the Rhone at Geneva, and the Reuss at Lucerne, when they issue out of their respective lakes, might fancy for a moment that some power in nature produced this beautiful change, with a view to make amends for those Alpine sullyings which the waters exhibit

near their fountain heads; but, alas! how soon does that purity depart before the influx of tributary waters that have flowed through cultivated plains and the crowded abodes of men.—I. F.] Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems founded on the Affections."—Ed.

The Poem

Repentance

A Pastoral Ballad

Composed 1804.—Published 1820

The Poem [Written at Town-end, Grasmere. Suggested by the conversation of our next neighbour, Margaret Ashburner.—I. F.] This "next neighbour" is constantly referred to in Dorothy Wordsworth's Grasmere Journal. Included in 1820 among the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection"; in 1827, and afterwards, it was classed with those "founded on the Affections."—Ed.

The Poem

Variant 1:

the delight of our day,

O fools that we were—we had land which we sold

O fools that we were without virtue to hold

The fields that together contentedly lay Would have done us more good than another man's gold

return Variant 2:

When the bribe of the Tempter beset us, said I, Let him come with his bags proudly grasped in his hand. But, Thomas, be true to me, Thomas, we'll die

return Variant 3:

... chose ...

return Variant 4:

When my hand has half-lifted the latch of the gate,

return Variant 5:

... and ...

return Variant 6:

But the blessings, and comfort, and wealth that we had, We slighted them all,—and our birth-right was lost.

But we traitorously gave the best friend that we had For spiritless pelf—as we felt to our cost!

return Variant 7:

When my sick crazy body had lain without sleep, How cheering the sunshiny vale where I stood,

return

Contents 1804 Main Contents

Address to my Infant Daughter, DoraA

On Being Reminded that She was a Month Old that Day, September 16

Composed September 16, 1804.—Published 1815

Included by Wordsworth among his "Poems of the Fancy."—Ed.

The Poem

Footnote A: The title from 1815 to 1845 was Address to my Infant Daughter, on being reminded that she was a Month old, on that Day. After her death in 1847, her name was added to the title.—Ed. return to footnote mark Footnote B: See Dryden's poem, To the pious memory of the accomplished young lady, Mrs. Anne Killigrew, I. l. 15.—Ed. return Note: The text of this poem was never altered.—Ed.

Contents 1804 Main Contents

The Kitten and Falling LeavesA

Composed 1804.—Published 1807

The Poem [Seen at Town-end, Grasmere. The elder-bush has long since disappeared; it hung over the wall near the cottage: and the kitten continued to leap up, catching the leaves as here described. The Infant was Dora.—I. F.] One of the "Poems of the Fancy." In Henry Crabb Robinson's Diary, etc., under date Sept. 10, 1816, we find,

"He" (Wordsworth) "quoted from 'The Kitten and the Falling Leaves' to show he had connected even the kitten with the great, awful, and mysterious powers of Nature."

Ed.

The Poem

Variant 1:

... Darling, ...

return Variant 2:

... silent ...

return Variant 3:

Knows not what she would be at, Now on this side, now on that.

return Variant 4:

One for me, too, as is meet.

return Variant 5:

... or ...

return Variant 6:

... busy ...

return Variant 7:

Hung with head towards the ground,

return Variant 8:

... and ...

return Variant 9:

... glitters ...

return Variant 10:

Laura'sa

return Variant 11:

But I'll take a hint from you, And to pleasure will be true,

return Variant 12:

Be it songs of endless Spring Which the frolic Muses sing, Jest, and Mirth's unruly brood Dancing to the Phrygian mood; Be it love, or be it wine, Myrtle wreath, or ivy twine, Or a garland made of both; Whether then Philosophy That would fill us full of glee Seeing that our breath we draw Under an unbending law, That our years are halting never; Quickly gone, and gone for ever, And would teach us thence to brave The conclusion in the grave; Whether it be these that give Strength and spirit so to live, Or the conquest best be made, By a sober course and staid, I would walk in such a way,

return Variant 13:

... joyousness.

return Variant 14:

From the things by ...

return

Footnote A: In the editions of 1807-1832 the title was The Kitten and the Falling Leaves.—Ed. return to footnote mark

Sub-Footnote a: Dora Wordsworth died in July 1847. Probably the change of text in 1849—one of the latest which the poet made—was due to the wish to connect this poem with memories of his dead daughter's childhood, and her "laughing eye."—Ed. return

Contents 1804 Main Contents