Dear valley, having in thy face a smile, Though peaceful, full of gladness. Thou art pleased, Its one green island, and its winding shores, Thy church, and cottages of mountain-stone 159 CHAPTER XVII. SECOND VOLUME OF "LYRICAL BALLADS." "I AM anxiously eager to have you steadily employed on 'THE RECLUSE,' was the language of S. T. Coleridge, to his friend Wordsworth, in a letter addressed to him in the summer of 1799: and, "My dear friend, I do entreat you go on with 'The Recluse ;' and I wish you would write a poem, in blank verse, addressed to those, who, in consequence of the complete failure of the French Revolution, have thrown up all hopes of the amelioration of mankind, and are sinking into an almost epicurean selfishness, disguising the same under the soft titles of domestic attachment and contempt for visionary philosophes. It would do great good, and might form a part of 'The Recluse,' for in my present mood I am wholly against the publication of any small poems." Again, on Oct. 12. 1799, Coleridge says, "I long to see what you have been doing. O let it be the tailpiece of 'The Recluse!' for of nothing but 'The Recluse' can I hear patiently. That it is to be addressed to me makes me more desirous that it should not be a poem of itself. of itself. To be addressed, as a beloved man, by a thinker, at the close of such a poem as 'The Recluse,' a poem non unius populi, is the only event, I believe, capable of inciting in me an hour's vanity-vanity, nay, it is too good a feeling to be so called; it would indeed be a self-elevation produced ab extra." In Dec. 1799, he says, writing from London, "As to myself, I dedicate my nights and days to Stuart. By all means let me have the tragedy and 'Peter Bell' as soon as possible;" and in Feb. 1800, "I grieve that 'The Recluse' sleeps.' ... Notwithstanding these exhortations from Coleridge (who, it would appear, calls "The Prelude," or poem on the growth of the author's own mind, by the name of "The Recluse"), Wordsworth was now preparing for publication a second volume of smaller poems. first edition of the 12mo. single volume of the "Lyrical Ballads" was exhausted; and it was now to be reprinted, and published as the first volume of the "LYRICAL BALLADS in Two VOLUMES." The Lucy Gray 64 The Idle Shepherd-Boys; or, Dungeon-Gill Force: 69 'Tis said that some have died, &c. 76 Poor Susan 80 Inscription for the Spot where the Hermitage stood To a Sexton 82 84 minor poems already mentioned as composed in Germany, and some others. How little impression had been made on the public mind by Wordsworth's poetry, and how slender were the expectations of popularity for this new publication, may be estimated from the fact that the sum offered by Messrs. Longman for two editions of the two volumes, did not exceed 1007.; and the author's own anticipations were sufficiently indicated by the motto prefixed to this edition, and to the two following ones of 1802, and 1805, Quam nihil ad genium, Papiniane, tuum! The first two months of their residence in the vale of Grasmere were very ungenial: Page Andrew Jones The Two Thieves; or, the last Stage of Avarice A Whirl-blast from behind the Hill Song for the Wandering Jew Ruth 89 92 96 98 103 Lines written with a Slate-pencil on a Stone, &c. The Pet Lamb, a Pastoral Written in Germany on one of the coldest Days in the Century The Childless Father The old Cumberland Beggar, a Description. A Poet's Epitaph A Fragment (Danish Boy) Poems on the naming of Places 177 to 196 199 Notes 226 "Two months unwearied of severest storm, And more than this, it "heard The Poet mutter his prelusive songs The home of the Poet was cheered with the presence of his brother, Captain Wordsworth, already mentioned, with whom he went, on May 14th, on a visit to his friends, the Hutchinsons (who had moved to Gallow Hill, near Broughton), returning to Grasmere on the 7th of June; and, under the joint influence of natural beauty and domestic affection, his muse was in a happy mood. At this time, among other poems, were written The Brothers, The Idle Shepherd Boys, The Pet Lamb, Ruth, Michael, Poems on the naming of Places. In the last-mentioned poems the author associated the names of his friends, as well as his own, with particular spots in his beloved vale. The occasions, and other circumstances of the others, were thus detailed by himself.1 The Brothers2, 1800.-" This poem was composed in a grove at the north-eastern end of Grasmere Lake, which grove was in a great measure destroyed by turning the high road along the side of the water. The few trees that are left were spared at my intercession. The poem arose out of the fact mentioned to me, at Ennerdale, that a shepherd had fallen asleep upon the top of the rock called the "pillar," and perished as here described, his staff being left midway on the rock." 1 MSS. I. F. 2 Vol. i. p 187. |