The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - (Edited by William Knight)
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The two last sentences of this extract give admirable expression to one
feature of Wordsworth's interpretation of Nature. In the deepest poetry,
as in the loftiest music,--in Wordsworth's lyrics as in Beethoven's
sonatas--it is by what they unerringly suggest and not by what they
exhaustively express that their truth and power are known. "In what he
leaves unsaid," wrote Schiller, "I discover the master of style." It
depends, no doubt, upon the vision of the "inward eye," and the
reproductive power of the idealising mind, whether the result is a
travesty of Nature, or the embodiment of a truth higher than Nature
yields. On the other hand, it is equally certain that the identification
of localities casts a sudden light in many instances upon obscure
passages in a poem, and is by far the best commentary that can be given.
It is much to be able to compare the actual scene, with the ideal
creation suggested by it; as the latter was both Wordsworth's reading of
the text of Nature, and his interpretation of it. In his seventy-third
year, he said, looking back on his 'Evening Walk', that there was not an
image in the poem which he had not observed, and that he "recollected
the time and place where most of them were noted." In the Fenwick notes,
we constantly find him saying, "the fact occurred strictly as recorded,"
"the fact was as mentioned in the poem"; and the fact very often
involved the accessories of place.
Any one who has tried to trace out the allusions in the "Poems on the
Naming of Places," or to discover the site of "Michael's Sheepfold," to
identify "Ghimmer Crag," or "Thurston-Mere,"--not to speak of the
individual "rocks" and "recesses" near Blea Tarn at the head of Little
Langdale so minutely described in 'The Excursion',--will admit that
local commentary is an important aid to the understanding of Wordsworth.
If to read the 'Yew Trees' in Borrowdale itself,
in mute repose
To lie, and listen to the mountain flood
Murmuring from Glaramara's inmost caves,
to read 'The Brothers' in Ennerdale, or "The Daffodils" by the shore of
Ullswater, gives a new significance to these "poems of the imagination,"
a discovery of the obscurer allusions to place or scene will deepen our
appreciation of those passages in which his idealism is most pronounced.
Every one knows Kirkstone Pass, Aira Force, Dungeon Ghyll, the Wishing
Gate, and Helm Crag: many persons know the Glowworm Rock, and used to
know the Rock of Names; but where is "Emma's Dell"? or "the meeting
point of two highways," so characteristically described in the twelfth
book of 'The Prelude'? and who will fix the site of the pool in Rydal
Upper Park, immortalised in the poem 'To M. H.'? or identify "Joanna's
Rock"? Many of the places in the English Lake District are undergoing
change, and every year the local allusions will be more difficult to
trace. Perhaps the most interesting memorial of the poet which existed,
viz. the "Rock of Names," on the shore of Thirlmere, is now sunk under
the waters of a Manchester reservoir. Other memorials are perishing by
the wear and tear of time, the decay of old buildings, the alteration of
roads, the cutting down of trees, and the modernising, or "improving,"
of the district generally. All this is inevitable. But it is well that
many of the natural objects, over and around which the light of
Wordsworth's genius lingers, are out of the reach of "improvements," and
are indestructible even by machinery.
If it be objected that several of the places which we try to
identify--and which some would prefer to leave for ever undisturbed in
the realm of imagination--were purposely left obscure, it may be
replied that Death and Time have probably now removed all reasons for
reticence, especially in the case of those poems referring to domestic
life and friendly ties. While an author is alive, or while those are
alive to whom he has made reference in the course of his allusions to
place, it may even be right that works designed for posterity should not
be dealt with after the fashion of the modern "interviewer." But
greatness has its penalties; and a "fierce light" "beats around the
throne" of Genius, as well as round that of Empire. Moreover, all
experience shows that posterity takes a great and a growing interest in
exact topographical illustrations of the works of great authors. The
labour recently bestowed upon the places connected with Shakespeare,
Scott, and Burns sufficiently attests this.
The localities in Westmoreland, which are most permanently associated
with Wordsworth, are these: Grasmere, where he lived during the years of
his "poetic prime," and where he is buried; Lower Easdale, where he
passed so many days with his sister by the side of the brook, and on the
terraces at Lancrigg, and where 'The Prelude' was dictated; Rydal Mount,
where he spent the latter half of his life, and where he found one of
the most perfect retreats in England; Great Langdale, and Blea Tarn at
the head of Little Langdale, immortalised in 'The Excursion'; the upper
end of Ullswater, and Kirkstone Pass; and all the mountain tracks and
paths round Grasmere and Rydal, especially the old upper road between
them, under Nab Scar, his favourite walk during his later years, where
he "composed hundreds of verses." There is scarcely a rock or mountain
summit, a stream or tarn, or even a well, a grove, or forest-side in all
that neighbourhood, which is not imperishably identified with this poet,
who at once interpreted them as they had never been interpreted before,
and added
the gleam,
The light that never was, on sea or land,
The consecration, and the Poet's dream.
It may be worthy of note that Wordsworth himself sanctioned the
principle of tracing out local allusions both by dictating the Fenwick
notes, and by republishing his Essay on the topography of the Lakes,
along with the Duddon Sonnets, in 1820--and also, by itself, in
1822--"from a belief that it would tend materially to illustrate" his
poems.
In this edition the topographical Notes usually follow the Poems to
which they refer. But in the case of the longer Poems, such as 'The
Prelude', 'The Excursion', and others, it seems more convenient to print
them at the foot of the page, than to oblige the reader to turn to the
end of the volume.
From the accident of my having tried long ago--at Principal Shairp's
request--to do what he told me he wished to do, but had failed to carry
out, I have been supposed, quite erroneously, to be an 'authority' on
the subject of "The English Lake District, as interpreted in the Poems
of Wordsworth." The latter, it is true, is the title of one of the books
which I have written about Wordsworth: but, although I visited the Lakes
in 1860,--"as a pilgrim resolute"--and have re-visited the district
nearly every year for more than a quarter of a century, I may say that I
have only a partial knowledge of it. Others, such as Canon Rawnsley, Mr.
Harry Goodwin, and Mr. Rix, for example, know many parts of it much
better than I do; but, as I have often had to compare my own judgment
with that of such experts as the late Dr. Cradock, Principal of
Brasenose College, Oxford, and others, I may add that, when I differ
from them, it has been only after a re-examination of their evidence, at
the localities themselves.
SIXTH. Several Poems, and fragments of poems, hitherto unpublished--or
published in stray quarters, and in desultory fashion--will find a place
in this edition; but I reserve these fragments, and place them all
together, in an Appendix to the last volume of the "Poetical Works." If
it is desirable to print these poems, in such an edition as this, it is
equally desirable to separate them from those which Wordsworth himself
sanctioned in his final edition of 1849-50.
Every great author in the Literature of the World--whether he lives to
old age (when his judgment may possibly be less critical) or dies young
(when it may be relatively more accurate)--should himself determine what
portions of his work ought, and what ought not to survive. At the same
time,--while I do not presume to judge in the case of writers whom I
know less fully than I happen to know Wordsworth and his
contemporaries,--it seems clear that the very greatest men have
occasionally erred as to what parts of their writings might, with most
advantage, survive; and that they have even more frequently erred as to
what MS. letters, etc.,--casting light on their contemporaries--should,
or should not, be preserved. I am convinced, for example, that if the
Wordsworth household had not destroyed all the letters which Coleridge
sent to them, in the first decade of this century, the world would now
possess much important knowledge which is for ever lost. It may have
been wise, for reasons now unknown, to burn those letters, written by
Coleridge: but the students of the literature of the period would gladly
have them now.
Passing from the question of the preservation of Letters, it is evident
that Wordsworth was very careful in distinguishing between the Verses
which he sent to Newspapers and Magazines, and those Poems which he
included in his published volumes. His anxiety on this point may be
inferred from the way in which he more than once emphasised the fact of
republication, e.g. in 'Peter Bell' (1819) he put the following
prefatory note to four sonnets, which had previously appeared in
'Blackwood's Magazine', and which afterwards (1828) appeared in the
'Poetical Album' of Alaric Watts, "The following Sonnets having lately
appeared in Periodical Publications are here reprinted."
Some of the poems (or fragments of poems), included in the 'addenda' to
Volume viii. of this edition, I would willingly have left out
(especially the sonnet addressed to Miss Maria Williams); but, since
they have appeared elsewhere, I feel justified in now reprinting even
that trivial youthful effusion, signed "Axiologus." I rejoice, however,
that there is no likelihood that the "Somersetshire Tragedy" will ever
see the light. When I told Wordsworth's successor in the Laureateship
that I had burned a copy of that poem, sent to me by one to whom it had
been confided, his delight was great. It is the chronicle of a revolting
crime, with nothing in the verse to warrant its publication. The only
curious thing about it is that Wordsworth wrote it. With this exception,
there is no reason why the fragments which he did not himself republish,
and others which he published but afterwards suppressed, should not now
be printed. The suppression of some of these by the poet himself is as
unaccountable, as is his omission of certain stanzas in the earlier
poems from their later versions. Even the Cambridge 'Installation Ode',
which is so feeble, will be reprinted. [16] 'The Glowworm', which only
appeared in the edition of 1807, will be republished in full. 'Andrew
Jones',--also suppressed after appearing in "Lyrical Ballads" of 1800,
1802, and 1805,--will be replaced, in like manner. The youthful 'School
Exercise' written at Hawkshead, the translation from the 'Georgics' of
Virgil, the poem addressed 'To the Queen' in 1846, will appear in their
chronological place in vol. viii. There are also a translation of some
French stanzas by Francis Wrangham on 'The Birth of Love'-a poem
entitled 'The Eagle and the Dove', which was privately printed in a
volume, consisting chiefly of French fragments, and called 'La petite
Chouannerie, ou Historie d'un College Breton sous l'Empire'--a sonnet on
the rebuilding of a church at Cardiff--an Election Squib written during
the Lowther and Brougham contest for the representation of the county of
Cumberland in 1818--some stanzas written in the Visitors' Book at the
Ferry, Windermere, and other fragments. Then, since Wordsworth published
some verses by his sister Dorothy in his own volumes, other unpublished
fragments by Miss Wordsworth may find a place in this edition. I do not
attach much importance, however, to the recovery of these unpublished
poems. The truth is, as Sir Henry Taylor--himself a poet and critic of
no mean order--remarked [17],
"In these days, when a great man's path to posterity is likely to be
more and more crowded, there is a tendency to create an obstruction,
in the desire to give an impulse. To gather about a man's work all the
details that can be found out about it is, in my opinion, to put a
drag upon it; and, as of the Works, so of the Life."
The industrious labour of some editors in disinterring the trivial works
of great men is not a commendable industry. All great writers have
occasionally written trifles--this is true even of Shakespeare--and if
they wished them to perish, why should we seek to resuscitate them?
Besides, this labour--whether due to the industry of admiring friends,
or to the ambition of the literary resurrectionist--is futile; because
the verdict of Time is sure, and posterity is certain to consign the
recovered trivialities to kindly oblivion. The question which should
invariably present itself to the editor of the fragments of a great
writer is, "_Can these bones live_?" If they cannot, they had better
never see the light. Indeed the only good reason for reprinting the
fragments which have been lost (because the author himself attached no
value to them), is that, in a complete collection of the works of a
great man, some of them may have a biographic or psychological value.
But have we any right to reproduce, from an antiquarian motive, what--in
a literary sense--is either trivial, or feeble, or sterile?
We must, however, distinguish between what is suitable for an edition
meant either to popularise an author, or to interpret him, and an
edition intended to bring together all that is worthy of preservation
for posterity. There is great truth in what Mr. Arnold has lately said
of Byron:
"I question whether by reading everything which he gives us, we are so
likely to acquire an admiring sense, even of his variety and
abundance, as by reading what he gives us at his happier moments.
Receive him absolutely without omission and compromise, follow his
whole outpouring, stanza by stanza, and line by line, from the very
commencement to the very end, and he is capable of being tiresome."
[18]
This is quite true; nevertheless, English literature demands a complete
edition of all the works of Byron: and it may be safely predicted that,
for weightier reasons and with greater urgency, it will continue to call
for the collected works of Wordsworth.
It should also be noted that the fact of Wordsworth's having dictated to
Miss Fenwick (so late as 1843) a stanza from 'The Convict' in his note
to 'The Lament of Mary Queen of Scots' (1817), justifies the inclusion
of the whole of that (suppressed) poem in such an edition as this.
The fact that Wordsworth did not republish all his Poems, in his final
edition of 1849-50, is not conclusive evidence that he thought them
unworthy of preservation, and reproduction. It must be remembered that
'The Prelude' itself was a posthumous publication; and also that the
fragmentary canto of 'The Recluse', entitled "Home at Grasmere"--as well
as the other canto published in 1886, and entitled (most prosaically)
"Composed when a probability existed of our being obliged to quit Rydal
Mount as a residence"--were not published by the poet himself. I am of
opinion that his omission of the stanzas beginning:
Among all lovely things my Love had been,
and of the sonnet on his 'Voyage down the Rhine', was due to sheer
forgetfulness of their existence. Few poets remember all their past,
fugitive, productions. At the same time, there are other
fragments,--written when he was experimenting with his theme, and when
the inspiration of genius had forsaken him,--which it is unfortunate
that he did not himself destroy.
Among the Poems which Wordsworth suppressed, in his final edition, is
the Latin translation of 'The Somnambulist' by his son. This will be
republished, more especially as it was included by Wordsworth himself in
the second edition of his "Yarrow Revisited."
It may be well to mention the 'repetitions' which are inevitable in this
edition,
(1) As already explained, those fragments of 'The Recluse'--which were
issued in all the earlier volumes, and afterwards incorporated in 'The
Prelude'--are printed as they originally appeared.
(2) Short Notes are extracted from Dorothy Wordsworth's 'Recollections
of a Tour made in Scotland' (1803), which illustrate the Poems composed
during that Tour, while the whole text of that Tour will be printed in
full in subsequent volumes.
(3) Other fragments, including the lines beginning,
Wisdom and Spirit of the universe,
will be printed both by themselves in their chronological place, and in
the longer poem of which they form a part, according to the original
plan of their author.
A detail, perhaps not too trivial to mention, is that, in this
edition--at the suggestion of several friends--I have followed the
example of Professor Dowden in his Aldine edition, and numbered the
lines of almost all the poems--even the sonnets. When I have not done
so, the reason will be obvious; viz. either the structure, or the
brevity, of the poem. [19]
In giving the date of each poem, I have used the word "composed," rather
than "written," very much because Wordsworth himself,--and his sister,
in her Journals--almost invariably use the word "composed"; although he
criticised the term as applied to the creation of a poem, as if it were
a manufactured article. In his Chronological Table, Mr. Dowden adopts
the word "composed"; but, in his edition of the Poems, he has made use
of the term" written." [20]
No notice (or almost none) of misprints in Wordsworth's own text is
taken, in the notes to this edition. Sometimes an error occurred, and
was carried on through more than one edition, and corrected in the next:
e.g., in 'The Childless Father', the editions of 1827, 1832, and 1836
have the line:
Fresh springs of green boxwood, not six months before.
In the 'errata' of the edition of 1836 this is corrected to "fresh
sprigs." There are other 'errata', which remained in the edition of
1849-50, e.g., in 'Rob Roy's Grave', "Vools" for "Veols," and mistakes
in quotations from other poets, such as "invention" for "instruction,"
in Wither's poem on the Daisy. These are corrected without mention.
I should perhaps add that, while I have included, amongst the
illustrative notes, extracts from Henry Crabb Robinson's 'Diary', etc.,
many of them are now published for the first time. These voluminous MSS.
of Robinson's have been re-examined with care; and the reader who
compares the three volumes of the 'Diary', etc.--edited by Dr.
Sadler--with the extracts now printed from the original MS., will see
where sentences omitted by the original editor have been included.
As this edition proceeds, my debt to many--who have been so kind as to
put their Wordsworth MSS. and memoranda at my disposal--will be
apparent.
It is difficult to acknowledge duly my obligation to collectors of
autograph Letters--Mr. Morrison, the late Mr. Locker Lampson, the late
Mr. Mackay, of the Grange, Trowbridge, and a score of others--but, I
may say in general, that the kindness of those who possess Wordsworth
MSS. in allowing me to examine them, has been a very genuine evidence of
their interest in the Poet, and his work.
My special thanks are due to Mr. Gordon Wordsworth, who has, in the
kindest manner and for many years, placed everything at my disposal,
which could further my labour on his grandfather's Works.
Finally, I wish to express the great debt I owe to the late Mr. J. Dykes
Campbell, for many suggestions, and for his unwearied interest in this
work,--which I think was second only to his interest in Coleridge--and
also to Mr. W. B. Kinghorn for his valuable assistance in the revision
of proof sheets.
If there are any desiderata, in reference to Wordsworth--in addition to
a new Life, a critical Essay, and such a Bibliography of Criticism as
will be adequate for posterity--a 'Concordance' to his works is one of
them. A correspondent once offered to prepare this for me, if I found a
publisher: and another has undertaken to compile a volume of 'parallel
passages' from the earlier poets of England, and of the world. A
Concordance might very well form part of a volume of 'Wordsworthiana',
and be a real service to future students of the poet.
William Knight.
[Footnote 1: In addition to my own detection of errors in the text and
notes to the editions 1882-9, I acknowledge special obligation to the
late Vice-Chancellor of the Victoria University, Principal Greenwood,
who went over every volume with laborious care, and sent me the result.
To the late Mr. J. Dykes Campbell, to Mr. J. R. Tutin, to the Rev.
Thomas Hutchinson of Kimbolton, and to many others, I am similarly
indebted.]
[Footnote 2: See 'Memoirs of William Wordsworth', ii. pp. 113, 114.]
[Footnote 3: It is however different with the fragments which were
published in all the editions issued in the poet's lifetime, and
afterwards in 'The Prelude', such as the lines on "the immortal boy" of
Windermere. These are printed in their chronological place, and also in
the posthumous poem.]
[Footnote 4: 'Poems of Wordsworth selected and arranged by Matthew
Arnold'. London: Macmillan and Co.]
[Footnote 5: See the 'Life of Sir W. Rowan Hamilton', vol. ii. pp, 132,
135.]
[Footnote 6: See the Preface to the American edition of 1837.]
[Footnote 7: It need hardly be explained that, in the case of a modern
poet, these various readings are not like the conjectural guesses of
critics and commentators as to what the original text was (as in the
case of the Greek Poets, or of Dante, or even of Shakespeare). They are
the actual alterations, introduced deliberately as improvements, by the
hand of the poet himself.]
[Footnote 8: The collection in the British Museum, and those in all the
University Libraries of the country, are incomplete.]
[Footnote 9: The publication of this edition was superintended by Mr.
Carter, who acted as Wordsworth's secretary for thirty-seven years, and
was appointed one of his literary executors.]
[Footnote 10: Let the indiscriminate admirer of "first editions" turn to
this quarto, and perhaps even he may wonder why it has been rescued from
oblivion. I am only aware of the existence of five copies of the edition
of 1793; and although it has a certain autobiographic value, I do not
think that many who read it once will return to it again, except as a
literary curiosity. Here--and not in "Lyrical Ballads" or 'The
Excursion'--was the quarry where Jeffrey or Gifford might have found
abundant material for criticism.]
[Footnote 11: It is unfortunate that the 'Memoirs' do not tell us to
what poem the remark applies, or to whom the letter containing it was
addressed.]
[Footnote 12: It is important to note that the printed text in several
of the editions is occasionally cancelled in the list of 'errata', at
the beginning or the end of the volume: also that many copies of the
early editions (notably those of 1800), were bound up without the full
'errata' list. In this edition there were two such lists, one of them
very brief. But the cancelled words in these 'errata' lists, must be
taken into account, in determining the text of each edition.]
[Footnote 13: I. F. note. See vol. i. p. 5.]
[Footnote 14: I. F. note. See vol. i. p. 32.]
[Footnote 15: Advertisement. See vol. i. p. 78.]
[Footnote 16: How much of this poem was Wordsworth's own has not been
definitely ascertained. I am of opinion that very little, if any of it,
was his. It has been said that his nephew, the late Bishop of Lincoln,
wrote most of it; but more recent evidence tends to show that it was the
work of his son-in-law, Edward Quillinan.]
[Footnote 17: In a letter to the writer in 1882.]
[Footnote 18: 'The Poetry of Byron, chosen and arranged by Matthew
Arnold'. London: Macmillan and Co.]
[Footnote 19: It may not be too trivial a fact to mention that
Wordsworth numbered the lines of his earliest publication, 'An Evening
Walk, in 1793.--Ed.]
[Footnote 20: Another fact, not too trivial to mention, is that in the
original MS. of the 'Lines composed at Grasmere', etc., Wordsworth sent
it to the printer "Lines written," but changed it in proof to "Lines
composed."--Ed.]
* * * * *
EXTRACT FROM THE CONCLUSION OF A POEM, COMPOSED IN ANTICIPATION OF
LEAVING SCHOOL
Composed 1786.--Published 1815
This poem was placed by Wordsworth among his "Juvenile Pieces." The
following note was prefixed to that Series, from 1820 to 1832:
"Of the Poems in this class, "THE EVENING WALK" and "DESCRIPTIVE
SKETCHES" were first published in 1793. They are reprinted with some
unimportant alterations that were chiefly made very soon after their
publication. It would have been easy to amend them, in many passages,
both as to sentiment and expression, and I have not been altogether
able to resist the temptation: but attempts of this kind are made at
the risk of injuring those characteristic features, which, after all,
will be regarded as the principal recommendation of juvenile poems."