The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. II. by William Wordsworth

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THE POETICAL WORKS

OF

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

EDITED BY
WILLIAM KNIGHT

VOL. II

1896

CONTENTS

Peter Bell

Lines, composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the Banks
of the Wye during a tour, July 13, 1798

There was a Boy

The Two Thieves; or, the Last Stage of Avarice

Written with a Slate Pencil upon a Stone, the largest of a Heap lying
near a Deserted Quarry, upon one of the Islands at Rydal

1799

Influence of Natural Objects in calling forth and strengthening the
Imagination in Boyhood and Early Youth

The Simplon Pass

Nutting

Written in Germany, on one of the Coldest Days of the Century

A Poet's Epitaph

"Strange fits of passion have I known"

"She dwelt among the untrodden ways"

"I travelled among unknown men"

"Three years she grew in sun and shower"

"A slumber did my spirit seal"

Address to the Scholars of the Village School of----

Matthew

The Two April Mornings

The Fountain

To a Sexton

The Danish Boy

Lucy Gray; or, Solitude

Ruth

1800

"On Nature's invitation do I come"

"Bleak season was it, turbulent and bleak"

Ellen Irwin; or, The Braes of Kirtle

Hart-Leap Well

The Idle Shepherd-Boys; or, Dungeon-Ghyll Force

The Pet-Lamb

The Farmer of Tilsbury Vale

Poems on the Naming of Places:

"It was an April morning: fresh and clear"

To Joanna

"There is an Eminence,--of these our hills"

"A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags"

To M. H.

The Waterfall and the Eglantine

The Oak and the Broom

"'Tis said, that some have died for love"

The Childless Father

Song for the Wandering Jew

The Brothers

The Seven Sisters; or, The Solitude of Binnorie

Rural Architecture

A Character

Inscription for the spot where the Hermitage stood on St. Herbert's
Island, Derwent-Water

Written with a Pencil upon a Stone in the Wall of the House (an
Out-House), on the Island at Grasmere

Michael

1801

The Sparrow's Nest

"Pelion and Ossa flourish side by side"

Selections from Chaucer Modernised:

The Prioress' Tale

The Cuckoo and the Nightingale

Troilus and Cresida

1802

The Sailor's Mother

Alice Fell; or, Poverty

Beggars

Sequel to the Foregoing

To a Butterfly

The Emigrant Mother

To the Cuckoo

"My heart leaps up when I behold"

Written in March, while resting on the Bridge at the Foot of Brothers
Water

The Redbreast chasing the Butterfly

To a Butterfly

Foresight

To the Small Celandine

To the Same Flower

Stanzas written in my Pocket Copy of Thomson's "Castle of Indolence"

Resolution and Independence

"I grieved for Buonaparte"

A Farewell

"The sun has long been set"

Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802

Composed by the Sea-side, near Calais, August, 1802

Calais, August, 1802

Composed near Calais, on the Road leading to Ardres, August 7, 1802

Calais, August 15, 1802

"It is a beauteous evening, calm and free"

On the Extinction of the Venetian Republic

The King of Sweden

To Toussaint L'Ouverture

Composed in the Valley near Dover, on the Day of Landing

September 1, 1802

September, 1802, near Dover

Written in London, September, 1802

London, 1802

"Great men have been among us; hands that penned"

"It is not to be thought of that the Flood"

"When I have borne in memory what has tamed"

Composed after a Journey across the Hambleton Hills, Yorkshire

To H. C.

To the Daisy

To the Same Flower

To the Daisy

Louisa

To a Young Lady, who had been Reproached for taking Long Walks in the
Country

1803

The Green Linnet

Yew-Trees

"Who fancied what a pretty sight"

"It is no Spirit who from heaven hath flown"

Memorials of a Tour in Scotland:

Departure from the Vale of Grasmere. August, 1803

At the Grave of Burns, 1803. Seven Years after his Death

Thoughts suggested the Day following, on the Banks of Nith, near the
Poet's Residence

To the Sons of Burns, after Visiting the Grave of their Father

To a Highland Girl

Glen-Almain; or, The Narrow Glen

Stepping Westward

The Solitary Reaper

Address to Kilchurn Castle

Rob Roy's Grave

Sonnet composed at----Castle

Yarrow Unvisited

The Matron of Jedborough and her Husband

"Fly, some kind Harbinger, to Grasmere-dale"

The Blind Highland Boy

October, 1803

"There is a bondage worse, far worse, to bear"

October, 1803

"England! the time is come when thou should'st wean"

October, 1803

To the Men of Kent. October, 1803

In the Pass of Killicranky

Anticipation. October, 1803

Lines on the Expected Invasion, 1803

* * * * *

WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS

* * * * *

PETER BELL: A TALE [A]

Composed 1798. [B]--Published 1819.

'What's in a Name?' [C]

'Brutus will start a Spirit as soon as Caesar!' [D]

To ROBERT SOUTHEY, ESQ., P.L., ETC., ETC.

MY DEAR FRIEND--The Tale of 'Peter Bell', which I now introduce to
your notice, and to that of the Public, has, in its Manuscript state,
nearly survived its _minority_:--for it first saw the light in the
summer of 1798. During this long interval, pains have been taken at
different times to make the production less unworthy of a favourable
reception; or, rather, to fit it for filling _permanently_ a station,
however humble, in the Literature of our Country. This has, indeed,
been the aim of all my endeavours in Poetry, which, you know, have
been sufficiently laborious to prove that I deem the Art not lightly
to be approached; and that the attainment of excellence in it, may
laudably be made the principal object of intellectual pursuit by any
man, who, with reasonable consideration of circumstances, has faith in
his own impulses.

The Poem of 'Peter Bell', as the Prologue will show, was composed
under a belief that the Imagination not only does not require for its
exercise the intervention of supernatural agency, but that, though
such agency be excluded, the faculty may be called forth as
imperiously and for kindred results of pleasure, by incidents, within
the compass of poetic probability, in the humblest departments of
daily life. Since that Prologue was written, _you_ have exhibited most
splendid effects of judicious daring, in the opposite and usual
course. Let this acknowledgment make my peace with the lovers of the
supernatural; and I am persuaded it will be admitted, that to you, as
a Master in that province of the art, the following Tale, whether from
contrast or congruity, is not an unappropriate offering. Accept it,
then, as a public testimony of affectionate admiration from one with
whose name yours has been often coupled (to use your own words) for
evil and for good; and believe me to be, with earnest wishes that life
and health may be granted you to complete the many important works in
which you are engaged, and with high respect, Most faithfully yours,

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.

RYDAL MOUNT, April 7, 1819.

[Written at Alfoxden. Founded upon an anecdote which I read in a
newspaper, of an ass being found hanging his head over a canal in a
wretched posture. Upon examination a dead body was found in the water,
and proved to be the body of its master. The countenance, gait, and
figure of Peter were taken from a wild rover with whom I walked from
Builth, on the river Wye, downwards, nearly as far as the town of Hay.
He told me strange stories. It has always been a pleasure to me through
life, to catch at every opportunity that has occurred in my rambles of
becoming acquainted with this class of people. The number of Peter's
wives was taken from the trespasses, in this way, of a lawless creature,
who lived in the county of Durham, and used to be attended by many
women, sometimes not less than half a dozen, as disorderly as himself,
and a story went in the country that he had been heard to say, while
they were quarrelling, "Why can't ye be quiet, there's none so many of
you?" Benoni, or the child of sorrow, I knew when I was a schoolboy. His
mother had been deserted by a gentleman in the neighbourhood, she
herself being a gentlewoman by birth. The circumstances of her story
were told me by my dear old dame, Ann Tyson, who was her confidante. The
lady died broken-hearted. In the woods of Alfoxden I used to take great
delight in noticing the habits, tricks, and physiognomy of asses; and I
have no doubt that I was thus put upon writing the poem out of liking
for the creature that is often so dreadfully abused. The crescent moon,
which makes such a figure in the prologue, assumed this character one
evening while I was watching its beauty in front of Alfoxden House. I
intended this poem for the volume before spoken of, but it was not
published for more than twenty years afterwards. The worship of the
Methodists, or Ranters, is often heard during the stillness of the
summer evening, in the country, with affecting accompaniments of rural
beauty. In both the psalmody and voice of the preacher there is, not
unfrequently, much solemnity likely to impress the feelings of the
rudest characters under favourable circumstances.--I. F.]

Classed by Wordsworth among his "Poems of the Imagination."--ED.

PROLOGUE

There's something in a flying horse,
There's something [1] in a huge balloon;
But through the clouds I'll never float
Until I have a little Boat,
Shaped like [2] the crescent-moon. 5

And now I _have_ a little Boat,
In shape a very crescent-moon:
Fast through the clouds my boat can sail;
But if perchance your faith should fail,
Look up--and you shall see me soon! 10

The woods, my Friends, are round you roaring,
Rocking and roaring like a sea;
The noise of danger's in [3] your ears,
And ye have all a thousand fears
Both for my little Boat and me! 15

Meanwhile untroubled I admire [4]
The pointed horns of my canoe;
And, did not pity touch my breast,
To see how ye are all distrest,
Till my ribs ached, I'd laugh at you! 20

Away we go, my Boat and I--
Frail man ne'er sate in such another;
Whether among the winds we strive,
Or deep into the clouds [5] we dive,
Each is contented with the other. 25

Away we go--and what care we
For treasons, tumults, and for wars?
We are as calm in our delight
As is the crescent-moon so bright
Among the scattered stars. 30

Up goes my Boat among [6] the stars
Through many a breathless field of light,
Through many a long blue field of ether,
Leaving ten thousand stars beneath her:
Up goes my little Boat so bright! 35

The Crab, the Scorpion, and the Bull--
We pry among them all; have shot
High o'er the red-haired race of Mars,
Covered from top to toe with scars;
Such company I like it not! 40

The towns in Saturn are decayed,
And melancholy Spectres throng them;--[7]
The Pleiads, that appear to kiss
Each other in the vast abyss,
With joy I sail among [8] them, 45

Swift Mercury resounds with mirth,
Great Jove is full of stately bowers;
But these, and all that they contain,
What are they to that tiny grain,
That little Earth [9] of ours? 50

Then back to Earth, the dear green Earth:--
Whole ages if I here should roam,
The world for my remarks and me
Would not a whit the better be;
I've left my heart at home. 55

See! there she is, [10] the matchless Earth!
There spreads the famed Pacific Ocean!
Old Andes thrusts yon craggy spear
Through the grey clouds; the Alps are here,
Like waters in commotion! 60

Yon tawny slip is Libya's sands
That silver thread the river Dnieper;
And look, where clothed in brightest green
Is a sweet Isle, of isles the Queen;
Ye fairies, from all evil keep her! 65

And see the town where I was born!
Around those happy fields we span
In boyish gambols;--I was lost
Where I have been, but on this coast
I feel I am a man. 70

Never did fifty things at once
Appear so lovely, never, never;--
How tunefully the forests ring!
To hear the earth's soft murmuring
Thus could I hang for ever! 75

"Shame on you!" cried my little Boat,
"Was ever such a homesick [11] Loon,
Within a living Boat to sit,
And make no better use of it;
A Boat twin-sister of the crescent-moon! 80

[12]

"Ne'er in the breast of full-grown Poet
Fluttered so faint a heart before;--
Was it the music of the spheres
That overpowered your mortal ears?
--Such din shall trouble them no more. 85

"These nether precincts do not lack
Charms of their own;--then come with me;
I want a comrade, and for you
There's nothing that I would not do;
Nought is there that you shall not see. 90

"Haste! and above Siberian snows
We'll sport amid the boreal morning;
Will mingle with her lustres gliding
Among the stars, the stars now hiding,
And now the stars adorning. 95

"I know the secrets of a land
Where human foot did never stray;
Fair is that land [13] as evening skies,
And cool, though in the depth it lies
Of burning Africa. 100

"Or we'll into the realm of Faery,
Among the lovely shades of things;
The shadowy forms of mountains bare,
And streams, and bowers, and ladies fair,
The shades of palaces and kings! 105

"Or, if you thirst with hardy zeal
Less quiet regions to explore,
Prompt voyage shall to you reveal
How earth and heaven are taught to feel
The might of magic lore!" 110

"My little vagrant Form of light,
My gay and beautiful Canoe,
Well have you played your friendly part;
As kindly take what from my heart
Experience forces--then adieu! 115

"Temptation lurks among your words;
But, while these pleasures you're pursuing
Without impediment or let,
No wonder if you quite forget [14]
What on the earth is doing. 120

"There was a time when all mankind
Did listen with a faith sincere
To tuneful tongues in mystery versed;
_Then_ Poets fearlessly rehearsed
The wonders of a wild career. 125

"Go--(but the world's a sleepy world,
And 'tis, I fear, an age too late)
Take with you some ambitious Youth!
For, restless Wanderer! I, in truth, [15]
Am all unfit to be your mate. 130

"Long have I loved what I behold,
The night that calms, the day that cheers;
The common growth of mother-earth
Suffices me--her tears, her mirth,
Her humblest mirth and tears. 135

"The dragon's wing, the magic ring,
I shall not covet for my dower,
If I along that lowly way
With sympathetic heart may stray,
And with a soul of power. 140

"These given, what more need I desire
To stir, to soothe, or elevate?
What nobler marvels than the mind
May in life's daily prospect find,
May find or there create? 145

"A potent wand doth Sorrow wield;
What spell so strong as guilty Fear!
Repentance is a tender Sprite;
If aught on earth have heavenly might,
'Tis lodged within her silent tear. 150

"But grant my wishes,--let us now
Descend from this ethereal height;
Then take thy way, adventurous Skiff,
More daring far than Hippogriff,
And be thy own delight! 155

"To the stone-table in my garden,
Loved haunt of many a summer hour, [E]
The Squire is come: his daughter Bess
Beside him in the cool recess
Sits blooming like a flower. 160

"With these are many more convened;
They know not I have been so far;--
I see them there, in number nine,
Beneath the spreading Weymouth-pine!
I see them--there they are! 165

"There sits the Vicar and his Dame;
And there my good friend, Stephen Otter;
And, ere the light of evening fail,
To them I must relate the Tale
Of Peter Bell the Potter." 170

Off flew the Boat--away she flees,
Spurning her freight with indignation! [16]
"And I, as well as I was able,
On two poor legs, toward my stone-table
Limped on with sore vexation. [17] 175

"O, here he is!" cried little Bess--
She saw me at the garden-door;
"We've waited anxiously and long,"
They cried, and all around me throng,
Full nine of them or more! 180

"Reproach me not--your fears be still--
Be thankful we again have met;--
Resume, my Friends! within the shade
Your seats, and quickly [18] shall be paid
The well-remembered debt." 185

I spake with faltering voice, like one
Not wholly rescued from the pale
Of a wild dream, or worse illusion;
But, straight, to cover my confusion,
Began the promised Tale. [19] 190

PART FIRST

All by the moonlight river side
Groaned the poor Beast--alas! in vain;
The staff was raised to loftier height,
And the blows fell with heavier weight
As Peter struck--and struck again. [20] 195

[21]

"Hold!" cried the Squire, "against the rules
Of common sense you're surely sinning;
This leap is for us all too bold; [22]
Who Peter was, let that be told,
And start from the beginning." 200

--"A Potter, [F] Sir, he was by trade,"
Said I, becoming quite collected;
"And wheresoever he appeared,
Full twenty times was Peter feared
For once that Peter was respected. 205

"He two-and-thirty years or more,
Had been a wild and woodland rover;
Had heard the Atlantic surges roar
On farthest Cornwall's rocky shore,
And trod the cliffs of Dover. 210

"And he had seen Caernarvon's towers,
And well he knew the spire of Sarum;
And he had been where Lincoln bell
Flings o'er the fen that ponderous knell--
A far-renowned alarum. [23] 215

"At Doncaster, at York, and Leeds,
And merry Carlisle had he been;
And all along the Lowlands fair,
All through the bonny shire of Ayr;
And far as Aberdeen. 220

"And he had been at Inverness;
And Peter, by the mountain-rills,
Had danced his round with Highland lasses;
And he had lain beside his asses
On lofty Cheviot Hills: 225

"And he had trudged through Yorkshire dales,
Among the rocks and winding _scars_;
Where deep and low the hamlets lie
Beneath their little patch of sky
And little lot of stars: 230

"And all along the indented coast,
Bespattered with the salt-sea foam;
Where'er a knot of houses lay
On headland, or in hollow bay;--
Sure never man like him did roam! 235

"As well might Peter, in the Fleet,
Have been fast bound, a begging debtor;--
He travelled here, he travelled there;--
But not the value of a hair
Was heart or head the better. 240

"He roved among the vales and streams,
In the green wood and hollow dell;
They were his dwellings night and day,--
But nature ne'er could find the way
Into the heart of Peter Bell. 245

"In vain, through every changeful year,
Did Nature lead him as before;
A primrose by a river's brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
And it was nothing more. 250

"Small change it made in Peter's heart
To see his gentle panniered train
With more than vernal pleasure feeding,
Where'er the tender grass was leading
Its earliest green along the lane. 255

"In vain, through water, earth, and air,
The soul of happy sound was spread,
When Peter on some April morn,
Beneath the broom or budding thorn,
Made the warm earth his lazy bed. 260

"At noon, when, by the forest's edge
He lay beneath the branches high,
The soft blue sky did never melt
Into his heart; he never felt
The witchery of the soft blue sky! 265

"On a fair prospect some have looked
And felt, as I have heard them say,
As if the moving time had been
A thing as steadfast as the scene
On which they gazed themselves away. 270

"Within the breast of Peter Bell
These silent raptures found no place; [24]
He was a Carl as wild and rude
As ever hue-and-cry pursued,
As ever ran a felon's race. 275

"Of all that lead a lawless life,
Of all that love their lawless lives,
In city or in village small,
He was the wildest far of all;--
He had a dozen wedded wives. 280

"Nay, start not!--wedded wives--and twelve!
But how one wife could e'er come near him,
In simple truth I cannot tell;
For, be it said of Peter Bell,
To see him was to fear him. 285

"Though Nature could not touch his heart
By lovely forms, and silent [25] weather,
And tender sounds, yet you might see
At once, that Peter Bell and she
Had often been together. 290

"A savage wildness round him hung
As of a dweller out of doors;
In his whole figure and his mien
A savage character was seen
Of mountains and of dreary moors. 295

"To all the unshaped half-human thoughts
Which solitary Nature feeds
'Mid summer storms or winter's ice,
Had Peter joined whatever vice
The cruel city breeds. 300

"His face was keen as is the wind
That cuts along the hawthorn-fence;
Of courage you saw little there,
But, in its stead, a medley air
Of cunning and of impudence. 305

"He had a dark and sidelong walk,
And long and slouching was his gait;
Beneath his looks so bare and bold,
You might perceive, his spirit cold
Was playing with some inward bait. 310

"His forehead wrinkled was and furred;
A work, one half of which was done
By thinking of his '_whens_,' and '_hows_';
And half, by knitting of his brows
Beneath the glaring sun. 315

"There was a hardness in his cheek,
There was a hardness in his eye,
As if the man had fixed his face,
In many a solitary place,
Against the wind and open sky!" 320

* * * * *

One night, (and now my little Bess!
We've reached at last the promised Tale;)
One beautiful November night,
When the full moon was shining bright
Upon the rapid river Swale, 325

Along the river's winding banks
Peter was travelling all alone;
Whether to buy or sell, or led
By pleasure running in his head,
To me was never known. 330

He trudged along through copse and brake,
He trudged along o'er hill and dale;
Nor for the moon cared he a tittle,
And for the stars he cared as little,
And for the murmuring river Swale. 335

But, chancing to espy a path
That promised to cut short the way;
As many a wiser man hath done,
He left a trusty guide for one
That might his steps betray. 340

To a thick wood he soon is brought
Where cheerily [26] his course he weaves,
And whistling loud may yet be heard,
Though often buried, like a bird
Darkling, among the boughs and leaves. 345

But quickly Peter's mood is changed,
And on he drives with cheeks that burn
In downright fury and in wrath;--
There's little sign the treacherous path
Will to the road return! 350

The path grows dim, and dimmer still;
Now up, now down, the Rover wends,
With all the sail that he can carry,
Till brought to a deserted quarry--[27]
And there the pathway ends. 355

[28]

He paused--for shadows of strange shape,
Massy and black, before him lay;
But through the dark, and through the cold, [29]
And through the yawning fissures old,
Did Peter boldly press his way 360

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