Wordsworth's



Poetical Works

volume 1




edited by

William Knight



1896

Table of Contents

• Preface

• Extract from the Conclusion of a Poem, composed in Anticipation of leaving School
• Written in very Early Youth
• An Evening Walk
• Lines written while Sailing in a Boat at Evening
• Remembrance of Collins
• Descriptive Sketches taken during a Pedestrian Tour among the Alps
• Guilt and Sorrow; or, Incidents upon Salisbury Plain
• Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, which stands near the lake of Esthwaite, on a desolate part of the shore, commanding a beautiful prospect
• The Borderers
• The Reverie of Poor Susan
• 1798: A Night Piece
• We are Seven
• Anecdote for Fathers
• "A whirl-blast from behind the hill"
• The Thorn
• Goody Blake and Harry Gill
• Her Eyes are Wild
• Simon Lee, the Old Huntsman

href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@10219@[email protected]#section20" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">Lines written in Early Spring

To my Sister

Expostulation and Reply

The Tables Turned

The Complaint of a Forsaken Indian Woman

The Last of the Flock

The Idiot Boy

The Old Cumberland Beggar

Animal Tranquillity and Decay

• Appendix I
• Appendix II
• Appendix III
• Appendix IV
• Appendix V
• Appendix VI
• Appendix VII
• Appendix VIII

---

Preface

During the decade between 1879 and 1889 I was engaged in a detailed study of Wordsworth; and, amongst other things, edited a library edition of his Poetical Works in eight volumes, including the "Prefaces" and "Appendices" to his Poems, and a few others of his Prose Works, such as his Description of the Scenery of the Lakes in the North of England. This edition was published by Mr. Paterson, Edinburgh, at intervals between the years 1882 and 1886: and it was followed in 1889 by a Life of Wordsworth, in three volumes, which was a continuation of the previous eight.

The present edition is not a reproduction of those eleven volumes of 1882-9. It is true that to much of the editorial material included in the latter—as well as in my Memorials of Coleorton, and in The English Lake District as interpreted in the Poems of Wordsworth—I can add

little that is new; but the whole of what was included in these books has been revised, corrected, and readjusted in this one1. Errata in the previous volumes are corrected: several thousand new notes have been added, many of the old ones are entirely recast: the changes of text, introduced by Wordsworth into the successive editions of his Poems, have all been revised; new readings—derived from many MS. sources—have been added: while the chronological order of the Poems has, in several instances, been changed, in the light of fresh evidence.

The distinctive features of my edition of 1882-6 were stated in the Preface to its first volume. So far as these features remain in the present edition, they may be repeated as follows: 1. The Poems are arranged in chronological order of composition, not of publication. In all the collective editions issued by Wordsworth during his lifetime, the arrangement of his poems in artificial groups, based on their leading characteristics—a plan first adopted in 1815—was adhered to; although he not unfrequently transferred a poem from one group to another. Here they are printed, with one or two exceptions to be afterwards explained, in the order in which they were written. 2. The changes of text made by Wordsworth in the successive editions of his Poems, are given in footnotes, with the dates of the changes. 3. Suggested changes, written by the Poet on a copy of the stereotyped edition of 1836-7—long kept at Rydal Mount, and bought, after Mrs. Wordsworth's death, at the sale of a portion of the Library at the Mount—are given in footnotes. 4. The Notes dictated by Wordsworth to Miss Isabella Fenwick—a dear friend of the Rydal Mount household, and a woman of remarkable character and faculty—which tell the story of his Poems, and the circumstances under which each was written, are printed in full. 5. Topographical Notes—explanatory of allusions made by Wordsworth to localities in the Lake District of England, to places in Scotland, Somersetshire, Yorkshire, the Isle of Man, and others on the Continent of Europe—are given, either at the close of the Poem in which the allusions occur, or as footnotes to the passages they illustrate. 6. Several complete Poems, and other fragments of verse, not included in any edition of his Works published during Wordsworth's lifetime, or since, are printed as an appendix to Volume VIII. 7. A new Bibliography of the Poems and Prose Works, and of the several editions issued in England and America, from 1793 to 1850, is added. 8. A new Life of the Poet is given.

These features of the edition of 1882-6 are preserved in that of 1896, and the following are added:

1. The volumes are published, not in library 8vo size, but—as the works of every poet should be issued—in one more convenient to handle, and to carry. Eight volumes are devoted to the Poetical Works, and among them are included those fragments by his sister Dorothy, and others, which Wordsworth published in his lifetime among his own Poems. They are printed in the chronological order of composition, so far as that is known.

class="c2">2, In the case of each Poem, any Note written by Wordsworth himself, as explanatory of it, comes first, and has the initials W. W., with the date of its first insertion placed after it. Next follows the Fenwick Note, within square brackets, thus [ ], and signed I. F.; and, afterwards, any editorial note required. When, however, Wordsworth's own notes were placed at the end of the Poems, or at the foot of the page, his plan is adopted, and the date appended. I should have been glad, had it been possible—the editors of the twentieth century may note this—to print Wordsworth's own notes, the Fenwick notes, and the Editor's in different type, and in type of a decreasing size; but the idea occurred to me too late, i.e. after the first volume had been passed for press. [Note: in pursuance of this aim, I have displayed the notes as above: Wordsworth's in black type, the Fenwick notes in dark grey, and the editor's own notes in light grey. I have not decreased the size, which would have made the text more difficult to read! html Ed.] 3. All the Prose Works of Wordsworth are given in full, and follow the Poems, in two volumes. The Prose Works were collected by Dr. Grosart, and published in 1876. Extracts from them have since been edited by myself and others: but they will now be issued, like the Poems, in chronological order, under their own titles, and with such notes as seem desirable. 4. All the Journals written by Dorothy Wordsworth at Alfoxden, Dove Cottage, and elsewhere, as well as her record of Tours with her brother in Scotland, on the Continent, etc., are published—some of them in full, others only in part. An explanation of why any Journal is curtailed will be found in the editorial note preceding it. Much new material will be found in these Journals. 5. The Letters of William and Dorothy Wordsworth —with a few from Mary and Dora Wordsworth—are arranged chronologically, and published by themselves. Hitherto, these letters have been scattered in many quarters—in the late Bishop of Lincoln's Memoirs of his uncle, in The Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, in the Memorials of Coleorton and my own Life of the Poet, in the Prose Works, in the Transactions of the Wordsworth Society, in the Letters of Charles Lamb, in the Memorials of Thomas De Quincey, and other volumes; but many more, both of Wordsworth's and his sister's, have never before seen the light. More than a hundred and fifty letters from Dorothy Wordsworth to Mrs. Clarkson, the wife of the great "slave-liberator," were sent to me some time ago by Mrs. Arthur Tennyson, a relative of Mrs. Clarkson; and I have recently seen and been allowed to copy, Wordsworth's letters to his early friend Francis Wrangham, through the kindness of their late owner, Mr. Mackay of The Grange, Trowbridge. Many other letters of great interest have recently reached me. 6. In addition to a new Bibliography, and a Chronological Table of the Poems, and the Prose Works, a Bibliography of Wordsworth Criticism is appended. It includes most of the articles on the Poet, and notices of his Works, which have appeared in Great Britain, America, and the Continent of Europe. Under this head I have specially to thank Mrs. Henry A. St. John of Ithaca, N.Y., a devoted Transatlantic Wordsworthian, who has perhaps done more than any one—since Henry Reed—to promote the study of her favourite poet in America. Mrs. St. John's Wordsworth collection is unique, and her knowledge and enthusiasm are as great as her industry has been. Professor E. Legouis of the University of Lyons—who wrote an interesting book on Wordsworth's

friend, Le Général Michel Beaupuy (1891)—has sent me material from France, which will be found in its proper place. Frau Professor Gothein of Bonn, who has translated many of Wordsworth's poems into German, and written his life, William Wordsworth: sein Leben, seine Werke, seine Zeitgenossen, (1893), has similarly helped me in reference to German criticism. 7. As the Poet's Letters, and his sister's Journals, will appear in earlier volumes, the new Life of Wordsworth will be much shorter than that which was published in 1889, in three volumes 8vo. It will not exceed a single volume. 8. In the edition of 1882-6, each volume contained an etching of a locality associated with Wordsworth. The drawings were made by John M'Whirter, R.A., in water-colour; and they were afterwards etched by Mr. C. O. Murray. One portrait by Haydon was prefixed to the first volume of the Life. In each volume of this edition—Poems, Prose Works, Journals, Letters, and Life—there will be a new portrait, either of the poet, or his wife, or sister, or daughter; and also a small vignette of a place associated with, or memorialised by Wordsworth in some way. The following will be the arrangement.

Volume Contents Portrait/Vignette Location I Poems W. Wordsworth by W. Shuter Cockermouth II Poems W. Wordsworth by Robert Hancock Dame Tyson's Cottage, Hawkshead III Poems W. Wordsworth by Edward Nash Room in St. John's College, Cambridge IV Poems W. Wordsworth by Richard Carruthers Racedown, Dorsetshire V Poems W. Wordsworth by William Boxall Alfoxden, Somersetshire VI Poems W. Wordsworth by Henry William Pickersgill Goslar VII Poems W. Wordsworth by Margaret Gillies Dove Cottage VIII Poems W. Wordsworth by Benjamin R. Haydon The Rock of Names, Thirlmere IX The Prose Works W. Wordsworth by Henry Inman Gallow Hill, Yorkshire X The Prose Works W. Wordsworth by Margaret Gillies Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire XI The Journals Dorothy Wordsworth, (Artist unknown) Allan Bank, Grasmere XII The Journals Mary Wordsworth, by Margaret Gillies Rydal Mount XIII Correspondence Dora Wordsworth, by Margaret Gillies Bolton Abbey XIV Correspondence W. Wordsworth, by Edward C. Wyon Blea Tarn XV Correspondence W. Wordsworth by by Thomas Woolner Peele Castle XVI The Life W. Wordsworth by Frederick Thrupp
W. Wordsworth by Samuel Laurence
W. Wordsworth by Benjamin R. Haydon Grasmere Church and Churchyard

All the etchings will be prepared by H. Manesse. The portraits, with many others, will be described in detail in a subsequent volume.

In all editorial notes the titles given by Wordsworth to his Poems are invariably printed in italics, not with inverted commas before and after, as Wordsworth himself so often printed them: and when he gave no title to a poem, its first line will be invariably placed within inverted commas. This plan of using Italics, and not Roman letters, applies also to the title of any book referred to by Wordsworth, or by his sister in her Journals. Whether they put the title in italics, or within commas, it is always italicised in this edition.

A subsidiary matter such as this becomes important when one finds that many editors of parts of the Works of Wordsworth, or of Selections from them, have invented titles of their own; and have sent their volumes to press without the slightest indication to their readers that the titles were not Wordsworth's; mixing up their own notion of what best described the contents of the Poem, or the Letter, with those of the writer. Some have suppressed Wordsworth's, and put their own title in its place! Others have contented themselves (more modestly) with inventing a title when Wordsworth gave none. I do not object to these titles in themselves. Several, such as those by Archbishop Trench, are suggestive and valuable. What I object to is that any editor—no matter who—should mingle his own titles with those of the Poet, and give no indication to the reader as to which is which. Dr. Grosart has been so devoted a student of Wordsworth, and we owe him so much, that one regrets to find in "The Prose Works of Wordsworth" (1876) the following title given to his letter to the Bishop of Llandaff, Apology for the French Revolution. It is interesting to know that Dr. Grosart thought this a useful description of the letter: but a clear indication should have been given that it was not Wordsworth's. It is true that, in the general preface to his volumes, Dr. Grosart takes upon himself the responsibility for this title; but it should not have been printed as the title in chief, or as the headline to the text. Similarly, with the titles of the second and third of the three Essays on Epitaphs.

As students of Wordsworth know, he issued a volume in 1838 containing all his sonnets then written; and, at the close of that edition, he added, "The six Sonnets annexed were composed as this Volume was going through the Press, but too late for insertion in the class of miscellaneous ones to which they belong." In 1884, Archbishop Trench edited the sonnets, with an admirable introductory "Essay on the History of the English Sonnet"; but, while Wordsworth gave no title to the 3rd and the 4th of the six, "composed as the Volume was going through the Press,"—either in his edition of 1838, or in any subsequent issue of his Poems—his editor did so. He gave what are really excellent titles, but he does not tell us that they are his own! He calls them respectively The Thrush at Twilight, and The Thrush at Dawn. Possibly Wordsworth would have approved of both of those titles: but, that they are not his, should have been indicated.

I do not think it wise, from an editorial point of view, even to print in a "Chronological Table"—as Professor Dowden has done, in his admirable Aldine edition—titles which were not Wordsworth's, without some indication to that effect. But, in the case of Selections from Wordsworth—such as those of Mr. Hawes Turner, and Mr. A. J. Symington,—every one must feel that the editor should have informed his readers when the title was Wordsworth's, and when it was his own coinage. In the case of a much greater man—and one of Wordsworth's most illustrious successors in the great hierarchy of English poesy, Matthew Arnold—it may be asked why should he have put Margaret, or the Ruined Cottage, as the title of a poem written in 1795-7, when Wordsworth never once published it under that name? It was an extract from the first book of The Excursion—written, it is true, in these early years,—but

only issued as part of the latter poem, first published in 1814.

The question of the number, the character, and the length of the Notes, which a wise editor should append to the works of a great poet, (or to any classic), is perhaps still sub judice. My own opinion is that, in all editorial work, the notes should be illustrative rather than critical; and that they should only bring out those points, which the ordinary reader of the text would not readily understand, if the poems were not annotated. For this reason, topographical, historical, and antiquarian notes are almost essential. The Notes which Wordsworth himself wrote to his Poems, are of unequal length and merit. It was perhaps necessary for him to write—at all events it is easy to understand, and to sympathise with, his writing—the long note on the revered parson of the Duddon Valley, the Rev. Robert Walker, who will be remembered for many generations as the "Wonderful Walker." The Poet's editors have also been occasionally led to add digressive notes, to clear up points which had been left by himself either dubious, or obscure. I must plead guilty to the charge of doing so: e.g. the identification of "The Muccawiss" (see The Excursion, book iii. l. 953) with the Whip-poor-Will involved a great deal of laborious correspondence years ago. It was a question of real difficulty; and, although the result reached could now be put into two or three lines, I have thought it desirable that the opinions of those who wrote about it, and helped toward the solution, should be recorded. What I print is only a small part of the correspondence that took place.

On the other hand, it would be quite out of place, in a note to the famous passage in the 4th book of The Excursion, beginning

... I have seen
A curious child applying to his ear

to enter on a discussion as to the extent of Wordsworth's debt—if any—to the author of Gebir. It is quite sufficient to print the relative passage from Landor's poem at the foot of the page.

All the Notes written by Wordsworth himself in his numerous editions will be found in this one, with the date of their first appearance added. Slight textual changes, however, or casual addenda, are not indicated, unless they are sufficiently important. Changes in the text of notes have not the same importance to posterity, as changes in the text of poems. In the preface to the Prose Works, reference will be made to Wordsworth's alterations of his text. At present I refer only to his own notes to his Poems. When they were written as footnotes to the page, they remain footnotes still. When they were placed by him as prefaces to his Poems, they retain that place in this edition; but when they were appendix notes—as e.g. in the early editions of "Lyrical Ballads"—they are now made footnotes to the Poems they illustrate. In such a case, however, as the elaborate note to The Excursion, containing a reprint of the Essay upon Epitaphs—originally contributed to "The Friend"—it is transferred to the Prose Works, to which it belongs by priority of date; and, as it would be inexpedient to print it twice over, it is omitted from the notes to The Excursion.

As to the place which Notes to a poet's works should occupy, there is no doubt that numerous and lengthy ones—however valuable, or even necessary, by way of illustration,—disfigure the printed page; and some prefer that they should be thrown all together at the end of each volume, or at the close of a series; such as—in Wordsworth's case—"The River Duddon," "Ecclesiastical Sonnets," The Prelude, The White Doe of Rylstone, etc. I do not think, however, that many care to turn repeatedly to the close of a series of poems, or the end of a volume, to find an explanatory note, helped only by an index number, and when perhaps even that does not meet his eye at the foot of the page. I do not find that even ardent Wordsworth students like to

search for notes in "appendices"; and perhaps the more ardent they are the less desirable is it for them thus "to hunt the waterfalls."

I have the greatest admiration for the work which Professor Dowden has done in his edition of Wordsworth; but the plan which he has followed, in his Aldine edition, of giving not only the Fenwick Notes, but all the changes of text introduced by Wordsworth into his successive editions, in additional editorial notes at the end of each volume—to understand which the reader must turn the pages repeatedly, from text to note and note to text, forwards and backwards, at times distractingly—is for practical purposes almost unworkable. The reader who examines Notes critically is ever "one among a thousand," even if they are printed at the foot of the page, and meet the eye readily. If they are consigned to the realm of addenda they will be read by very few, and studied by fewer.

To those who object to Notes being "thrust into view" (as it must be admitted that they are in this edition)—because it disturbs the pleasure of the reader who cares for the poetry of Wordsworth, and for the poetry alone—I may ask how many persons have read the Fenwick Notes, given together in a series, and mixed up heterogeneously with Wordsworth's own Notes to his poems, in comparison with those who have read and enjoyed them in the editions of 1857 and 1863? Professor Dowden justifies his plan of relegating the Fenwick and other notes to the end of each volume of his edition, on the ground that students of the Poet must take the trouble of hunting to and fro for such things. I greatly doubt if many who have read and profited—for they could not but profit—by a perusal of Professor Dowden's work, have taken that trouble, or that future readers of the Aldine edition will take it.

To refer, somewhat more in detail, to the features of this edition.