قراءة كتاب The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. VI (of 8)

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The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. VI (of 8)

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Wordsworth William

دار النشر: Project Gutenberg

الصفحة رقم: 6

intended by Buonaparte for a Triumphal

Edifice in Milan, now lying by the wayside in the Simplon Pass 356 Stanzas composed in the Simplon Pass 357 Echo, upon the Gemmi 360 Processions. Suggested on a Sabbath Morning in the Vale of Chamouny 363 Elegiac Stanzas 371 Sky-Prospect—From the Plain of France 377 On being Stranded near the Harbour of Boulogne 378 After Landing—the Valley of Dover, Nov. 1820 380 At Dover 381 Desultory Stanzas, upon receiving the preceding Sheets from the Press 382 Appendix— Note A 387 Note B 389 Addendum 396

WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS
1814

The Excursion—to which the fifth volume of this edition is devoted—has been assigned to the year 1814; since it was finished, and first published, in that year,—although commenced in 1795. During the earlier stages of its composition, this poem was known, in the Wordsworth household, as "The Pedlar"; and Dorothy Wordsworth tells us in one of her letters to the Beaumonts, preserved amongst the Coleorton MSS., that "The Pedlar" was finished at Christmas 1804. See also the Memoirs of Wordsworth, by his nephew (vol. i. p. 304, etc.), and Dorothy's Grasmere Journal, passim. But The Excursion, as we have it now, was finished for press in 1814. The poems more immediately belonging to that year are Laodamia, the Memorials of a Tour in Scotland, Dion, and two Sonnets.—Ed.

LAODAMIA

Composed 1814.—Published 1815.

[Written at Rydal Mount. The incident of the trees growing and withering put the subject into my thoughts, and I wrote with the hope of giving it a loftier tone than, so far as I know, has been given to it by any of the Ancients who have treated of it. It cost me more trouble than almost anything of equal length I have ever written.—I.F.]

In 1815 and 1820 this poem was one of those "founded on the Affections"; afterwards it was classed among the "Poems of the Imagination."—Ed.

"With sacrifice before the rising morn

Vows have I made by fruitless hope inspired;

And from the infernal Gods, 'mid shades forlorn

Of night, my slaughtered Lord have I required:[1]

Celestial pity I again implore;—

Restore him to my sight—great Jove, restore!"

So speaking, and by fervent love endowed

With faith, the Suppliant heaven-ward lifts her hands;

While, like the sun emerging from a cloud,

Her countenance brightens—and her eye expands;

Her bosom heaves and spreads, her stature grows;

And she expects the issue in repose.

O terror! what hath she perceived?—O joy!

What doth she look on?—whom doth she behold?

Her Hero slain upon the beach of Troy?

His vital presence? his corporeal mould?

It is—if sense deceive her not—'tis He!

And a God leads him, wingèd Mercury!

Mild Hermes spake—and touched her with his wand

That calms all fear; "Such grace hath crowned thy prayer,

Laodamía! that at Jove's command

Thy Husband walks the paths of upper air:

He comes to tarry with thee three hours' space;

Accept the gift, behold him face to face!"

Forth sprang the impassioned Queen her Lord to clasp;

Again that consummation she essayed;

But unsubstantial Form eludes her grasp

As often as that eager grasp was made.

The Phantom parts—but parts to re-unite,

And re-assume his place before her sight.