even in the midst of those beautiful objects, to the lowest dejection and despair. A young poet in the midst of the happiness of nature is described as overwhelmed by the thoughts of the miserable reverses which have befallen the happiest of all men, viz. poets. I think of this till I am so deeply impressed with it, that I consider the manner in which I was rescued from my dejection and despair almost as an interposition of Providence. A person reading the poem with feelings like mine will have been awed and controlled, expecting something spiritual or supernatural. What is brought forward? A lonely place, 66 a pond, by which an old man was, far from all house or home:" not stood, nor sat, but was - the figure presented in the most naked simplicity possible. This feeling of spirituality or supernaturalness is again referred to as being strong in my mind in this passage. How came he here? thought I, or what can he be doing? I then describe him, whether ill or well is not for me to judge with perfect confidence; but this I can confidently affirm, that though I believe God has given me a strong imagination, I cannot conceive a figure more impressive than that of an old man like this, the survivor of a wife and ten children, travelling alone among the mountains and all lonely places, carrying with him his own fortitude and the necessities which an unjust state of society has laid upon him. You speak of his speech as tedious. Every thing is tedious when one does not read with the feelings of the author. The Thorn is tedious to hundreds; and so is the Idiot Boy to hundreds. It is in the character of the old man to tell his story, which an impatient reader must feel tedious. But, good heavens! such a figure, in such a place; a pious, self-respecting, miserably infirm and pleased old man telling such a tale!" "Your feelings upon the 'Mother and the Boy, with the Butterfly,' were not indifferent: it was an affair of whole continents of moral sympathy. "I am for the most part uncertain about my success in altering poems; but in this case," speaking of an insertion, "I am sure I have produced a great improvement." Such is a specimen of an authentic report of the inward feelings with which these poems were composed. The author, it is clear, who wrote them, was not to be disturbed by the opinions pronounced on them by the world, especially as those opinions were remarkably inconsistent with each other; of which he gives the following amusing evidence at the close of a note sent by the waggon (Benjamin's waggon), which served as a post-mail, to his friend Coleridge, at Keswick. "HARMONIES OF CRITICISM. Another edition of the "Lyrical Ballads" was published in 1802. Two of the poems, printed in the former editions, do not appear in this, viz., "The Dungeon," and "A Character." A new edition followed in 1805. All these editions are in 12mo. CHAPTER XVIII. RESIDENCE AT GRASMERE. SHORT VISIT TO FRANCE. DAY after day passed on at the cottage, Grasmere, with little variation, except what was derived from seeing new scenes and composing new poems. The following brief notes, extracted from a diary kept by Miss Wordsworth, may serve to give a correct idea of the life there. This journal is full of vivid descriptions of natural beauty, as observed at Grasmere. In perusing these extracts the reader will observe notices of the occasions on which several of Mr. Wordsworth's poems were composed. "Friday, October 3. 1800.-- Very rainy all the morning. William walked to Ambleside after dinner; I went with him part of the way. His "When William and I returned from accompanying Jones, we met an old man almost double. face was interesting. He was of Scotch parents, but had been born in the army. He had had a wife, 'a good woman, and it pleased God to bless us with ten children;' all these were dead but one, of whom he had not heard for many years, a sailor. His trade was to gather leeches, but now leeches were scarce, and he had not strength for it. He had been hurt in driving a cart, his leg broke, his body driven over, his skull fractured; he felt no pain till he recovered from his first insensibility. It was then late in the evening when the light was just going away." "Oct. 10. 1801.- Coleridge went to Keswick. — 11. Mr. and Mrs. Sympson came in after tea and supped with us. [This Mr. Sympson was the clergyman of Wytheburn, a very interesting person. His character is drawn in the description of the graves of the Churchyard among the Mountains, in "The Excursion." "Oct. 24. Went to Greenhead Ghyll, and the Sheepfold. [Described in "Michael.”] "Nov. 6. — Coleridge came. ... "Nov. 9. Walked with Coleridge to Keswick. "Nov. 18. - William walked to Rydal. . . . The lake of Grasmere beautiful. The church an image of peace; he wrote some lines upon it. . . . The mountains 1 The following note concerning one of this family is from Mr. Wordsworth's pen (vol. iii. p. 252.). "There bloomed the strawberry of the wilderness, The trembling eyebright showed her sapphire blue. "These two lines are in a great measure taken from 'The Beauties of Spring, a Juvenile Poem,' by the Rev. Joseph Sympson. He was a native of Cumberland, and was educated in the vale of Grasmere, and at Hawkshead school. His poems are little known, but they contain passages of splendid description; and the versification of his 'Vision of Alfred' is harmonious and animated. In describing the motions of the sylphs, that constitute the strange machinery of his Poem, he uses the following illustrative simile: 'Glancing from their plumes A changeful light the azure vault illumes. That wavering to and fro their radiance shed On Bothnia's gulf with glassy ice o'erspread,' &c. &c. "He was a man of ardent feeling, and his faculties of mind, particularly his memory, were extraordinary. Brief notices of his life ought to find a place in the History of Westmoreland." |