TO THE LADY FLEMING, etc. Written in 1823; begun in December, 1822; a copy, with inferior readings (recorded by Knight) was sent to Lady Beaumont, February 5, 1823; published in 1827. The Fleming family," writes Professor Knight, "is descended from Sir Michael le Fleming, a relative of Baldwin, Earl of Flanders, a brother-in-law of William the Conqueror." In the Fenwick note Wordsworth expressed regret that the architect of the chapel did not furnish an elevation better suited to the site in a narrow mountain pass, and that the interior was not better constructed for purposes of worship. Improvements were effected in 1884. 21. Stanzas 3 and 4 appeared in 1827 in a reverse order. The sequence of ideas in 4 and 5 is closer than between 3 and 5. 21-23. These lines were admirably altered in 1832; in 1827: Even Strangers slackening here their pace, Shall bless this work of pious care Lifting its 35. Wild wandering: before 1837 a hyphen connected these adjectives. 41-46. These lines in 1832 replaced the following of 1827: Not yet the corner stone is laid The tower time-stricken, and in shade Hears, o'er the lake, the warning clock 69, 70. In 1845 Wordsworth wisely restored this, the text of 1827. From 1832 to 1843: Yea, strives for others to bedim The glorious Light too pure for him. 81. From Spenser's description of Archimago, "Faerie Queene," Bk. i, canto i, st. 37, "a bold, bad man." 83. Dark opprobrious den, from "Paradise Lost," Bk. ii, 1. 58, "this dark opprobrious den of shame." 86. This line in 1832 replaced that of 1827: "Through MosedaleCove from Carrock's side." Fairfield is a mountain at Rydal Head, four miles northwest of Ambleside. ΤΟ Written at Rydal Mount in 1824 and published in 1827. Addressed, as Wordsworth told Miss Fenwick, to Mary Wordsworth. 8. Sober certainties, from Milton's "Comus," II. 263–265: But such a sacred and home-felt delight, Such sober certainty of waking bliss, I never heard till now. 9-12. This stanza was altered in 1836; previously, “If a faint sigh . . tell . . . cherish me still . . . uphold me to the end.” The appeal is rather for strength than for tenderness, and so "cherish me still ” gave place to "yet bear me up." WRITTEN ON A BLANK LEAF OF MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN. Written in 1824; published in 1827. The text is unchanged except 1. I which in 1827 was "Oft have I caught from fitful breeze." Wordsworth mentioned to Miss Fenwick that the verses were suggested by apprehensions of the fate of Hartley Coleridge. Compare with this poem "Glen Almain; or the Narrow Glen,” p. 176. Wordsworth's complaint here against Macpherson is for having tricked out and dressed up the Ossianic poetry, and for having manufactured continuous epic poems out of fragments. And this censure justly applies to his "Fingal," "Temora,” and other poems; but in a far less degree to Macpherson's first little volume, "Fragments of Ancient poetry collected in the Highlands of Scotland" (Edinburgh, 1760). In Wordsworth's "Essay, Supplementary to the Preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads," he declaims vigorously against the pretensions of Macpherson's " Ossian." Having had the good fortune," he writes, to be born and reared in a mountainous country, from my very childhood I have felt the falsehood that pervades the volumes imposed upon the world under the name of Ossian. From what I saw with my own eyes, I knew that the imagery was spurious. In nature everything is distinct, yet nothing defined into absolute independent singleness. In Macpherson's work, it is exactly the reverse; everything (that is not stolen) is in this manner defined, insulated, dislocated, deadened—yet " nothing distinct. It will always be so when words are substituted for things." For a sympathetic criticism of Macpherson's "Ossian," see Matthew Arnold "On the Study of Celtic Literature." 39. Of the semi-mythical poet Musæus referred to here we possess a few fragments of doubtful authenticity. The later Musæus, of the 5th century, is the author of the Greek poem "Hero and Leander," Englished by Marlowe and Chapman. 77. Morven's lonely shore. In the "Supplementary Essay," Wordsworth speaks more disrespectfully of Ossianic topography; with the steeps of Morven before his eyes, Macpherson, he says, could talk familiarly of car-borne heroes; "of Morven, which, if one may judge from its appearance at the distance of a few miles, contains scarcely an acre of ground sufficient for a sledge to be trailed along its surface." 79. Son of Fingal, i.e., Ossian. 80. Mæonides, Homer, reputed the son of Mæon. 82. Referring to Milton's invocation of the muse in "Paradise Lost," VII, 1, "Descend from Heaven, Urania," and 30, 31: Still govern thou my song, Urania, and fit audience find, though few. TO A SKY-LARK ("Ethereal Minstrel !"). Written at Rydal Mount in 1825 and published in 1827, then consisting of three stanzas. One of these stanzas -the second- beginning "To the last point of vision was transferred in 1845 to the poem "A Morning Exercise." Wordsworth desired that the last five stanzas of this latter poem should be read with "To a Sky-lark"; accordingly we place them in our text after the "Skylark." 8. Compare Shelley's "Sky-lark," "Like a Poet hidden In the light of thought." IO. The 1827 text (only) read rapture" for "instinct." The idea of this poem may be found in "The Prelude," Bk. xiv, 11. 382-387: and hence this Song, which like a lark I have protracted, in the unwearied heavens ୨, ୧ Compare Hogg's "The Lark,' Thy lay is in heaven - thy love is on earth." ९९ १९ THE DAISY SLEEPS." (A FRAGMENT.) Written at Rydal Mount in 1828 and first printed in 1832, being the last six stanzas of A Morning Exercise." See note to the preceding poem, "To a Sky-lark." ९९ TO MAY. This poem is dated by Wordsworth 1826-34; it was published in 1835. The text is unchanged. It is connected with "Ode composed on May Morning," which Wordsworth placed next to it. Both poems originated in 11. 81-88, How delicate the leafy vale," etc. "My daughter and I," said Wordsworth (Fenwick note), "left Rydal Mount upon a tour through our mountains with Mr. and Mrs. Carr in the month of May, 1826, and as we were going up the vale of Newlands, I was struck with the appearance of the little chapel gleaming through the veil of half-opened leaves; and the feeling that was then conveyed to my mind was expressed in the stanza referred to above. As in the case of Liberty' and 'Humanity' my first intention was to write only one poem, but subsequently I broke it into two, making additions to each part so as to produce a consistent and appropriate whole." Some of these additions were probably made in the tame and manufacturedisfigured county of Lancashire" in the late autumn of 1830, when the faded leaves reminded Wordsworth (as he mentions in a letter to W. Rowan Hamilton) of spring. 59. Rathe primrose, early primrose, from Milton's "Lycidas." Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies. THE WISHING-GATE. Written at Rydal Mount in 1828; published in an annual, "The Keepsake," 1829, and again in Wordsworth's " Poetical Works " in 1832. A second poem, "The Wishing-Gate Destroyed," was written probably between 1837 and 1842, on a rumour, happily false, that the gate had been removed and the walls closed up. In this later poem Wordsworth mourns over the gate of happy superstition, but finds consolation in the thought that man is not Fortune's slave, and that a sense of the true law of life will suffice to glorify mountain and vale. The text of "The Wishing-Gate" is unaltered, except that in 1. 31 "Yea" replaced "Yes" of the "Keepsake" version, and that in 1. 64, thirst" in 1836 replaced "yearn." ee 40. Local Genius, the tutelar spirit of the place. "IN THESE FAIR VALES HATH MANY A TREE." Wordsworth dates this "Inscription 1830; it was published in 1835. Possibly the date is 1831, for on September 9 of that year Wordsworth sent a copy (differing slightly in 11. 6, 7) to John Kenyon. The inscription, he says, was intended for "a field [named 'Dora's field'] adjoining our garden which I purchased two or three years ago. Under the shade of some pollard oaks, and on a green terrace in that field, we have lived no small part of the long bright days of the summers gone by; and in a hazel nook of this favourite piece of ground is a Stone, for which I wrote one day the following serious Inscription." The lines were engraved, during Wordsworth's absence in Italy, 1837, upon a brass plate inserted in the Stone. ee I, 2. Compare, as regards Wordsworth's desire to preserve trees, the sonnet beginning " Degenerate Douglas!" and "The Pine of Monte Mario." In his "Description of the Scenery of the Lakes" he writes: The want most felt, however, is that of timber trees. There are few magnificent ones to be found near any of the lakes; and unless greater care be taken, there will, in a short time, scarcely be left an ancient oak that would repay the cost of felling. The neighbourhood of Rydal, notwithstanding the havoc which has been made, is yet nobly distinguished." 6, 7. In the text of 1835 the following appears: To let it rest in peace; and here (Heaven knows how soon) the tender-hearted But this is cancelled in errata, and the present reading is substituted. THE PRIMROSE OF THE ROCK. Written at Rydal Mount in 1831; published in 1835. The text is unchanged. "The rock,” said Wordsworth, "stands on the right hand a little way leading up the middle road from Rydal to Grasmere. We have been in the habit of calling it the Glow-worm Rock from the number of |