cnce of our common humanity. Doomed as we are to go in company with fear and sorrow, "miserable train," - how are we to prevent ourselves from "wronging" the joy of the life that is about us? The Poet, in the next four stanzas, answers the question by reviewing the history of the soul, and tracing the steps by which it reached that stage. He finds that it is because the soul has become centred in the seen and the temporal, and has thus lost its glory and its beauty; it has wellnigh destroyed its spiritual vision. In the concluding stanzas he shows us that this may be regained, and that the melancholy fear may be subdued by a return to those simple ways in which our childhood walked. We must become as little children in this life of the soul, and by blending early intuition and mature reason we shall be able to see into the life of things. Thus it is that the Poet teaches better science than the Scientist, better philosophy than the Philosopher, and better religion than the Priest. Every line of the poem is worthy of the closest study. See Browning's Rabbi Ben Ezra; Theism of Wordsworth, by Professor Veitch, in Wordsworth Society Transactions, viii. 1807. "O Nightingale! thou surely art—” Written at Town-End, Grasmere. (Mrs. W. says in a note-"At Coleorton.") In 1803 Wordsworth's friendship for Sir George Beaumont, of Coleorton Hill, Leicestershire, began. Beaumont was a descendant of the dramatist of that name, and was distinguished for his ability as an artist. This friendship was advantageous for both the painter and the poet. Wordsworth's quick discernment of the beauty of Nature made him a critic of the art of landscape gardening, and when Beaumont was laying out the grounds of Coleorton Hall the Poet was of great assistance to him. In 1806 the Wordsworths went to Coleorton to spend the winter, and it is probable that this poem was written there. The following is from an inscription written by Wordsworth and engraved on a stone in the grounds at Coleorton: "The embowering rose, the acacia, and the pine If but the Cedar thrive that near them stands, Planted by Beaumont's and by Wordsworth's hands. One wooed the silent art with studious pains; These groves have heard the other's pensive strains; By interchange of knowledge and delight." Wordsworth was pre-eminently the poet of the home; his interests clustered around the cottage hearth. "To pipe a simple song for thinking hearts" was his delight. Into the region of romance he seldom ventured, preferring to deal with "Nature's unambitious underwood." Can it be that in the contrast which he here draws between the nightingale and the stock-dove he intends to indicate the difference between his sphere and that of some other poets? See Keats's Ode to a Nightingale. For details in regard to Coleorton, see Memories of Coleorton, Knight. Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle. This poem was composed at Coleorton while I was walking to and fro along the path which led from Sir George Beaumont's farmhouse, where we resided, to the Hall, which was building at that time.-W. W. The Saxon kingdom of Deira (Northumberland) included what is now Lancashire, Yorkshire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Durham. The division into counties was made by Egbert (825) when he appointed for each a Comes to rule in temporal, and a Bishop to rule in spiritual, things. Lonkeshire was named from Loncaster, the castle on the Lone. Alfred had allowed the Danes to settle in these regions, and they were a source of great trouble until William subdued them. He built the stronghold, Lancaster Castle, and appointed Ivo Tailbois, of the house of Anjou, Baron of Kendal. This is the beginning of the House of Lancaster. The history of Westmereland the country of the Western lakes is closely connected with that long and illustrious line which began in Roger de Clifford. The eighth in the line was John Lord Clifford, who espoused the cause of the Lancastrians. After the battle of Wakefield he slew the son of the Duke of York, in revenge for the death of his father at the hands of the Yorkists, and was himself slain at Ferrybridge the day before the battle of Towton (1461). The family were deprived of their estates, and Henry, the subject of the poem, was obliged to live in concealment for twenty-four years, during which time he lived the life of a shepherd. After the battle of Bosworth Field the Shepherd Lord was restored to his own by Henry VII. He spent his time in peaceful pursuits until 1513, when, at the age of sixty, he was appointed to a command over the army which fought at Flodden. He died at the age of seventy, and was buried at Bolton Priory. 1-4. Brougham Castle is situated on the river Emont, about one mile and a half from Penrith. It is now in ruins. During the last half of the sixteenth century the castle was neglected, and it suffered much as Furness Abbey has suffered, the stone of which has been used for dwellings. "Brave and bonny" Cumberland during the Border Wars and the Wars of the Roses erected castle after castle, many ruins of which now stand, grim historians of the political life of those days. See Prelude, vi. 190-220. 7. From first battle of St. Albans, 1455, to battle of Bosworth, 1485. 13. The marriage of Henry VII. with Elizabeth of York. 27. From Battle of Bosworth Field, by Sir John Beaumont, and alludes to the many murders committed by Richard III. 36. Castle in Yorkshire comprised in the estates of the Cliffords, deserted while the Peasant Lord was attainted. When the dissolution of the Monasteries was followed by insurrection the dispossessed Heads were finally repulsed at Skipton by the Earl of Northumberland. 40. Another of the castles of the Cliffords, near the source of the river Eden, Cumberland, destroyed in 1685. Its origin is ascribed to Uther Pendragon, the mighty Briton who withstood so long the ravages of the ruthless Saxons. Tradition says he tried to alter the course of the river to better fortify this castle, but failed. "Let Uther Pendragon do what he can, The river Eden will run as it ran." 44, 45. Brough Castle, on the Hillbeck stream, which flows into the Eden, and is probably older than the Norman Conquest. 46, 47. Appleby Castle, a ruin since 1565. 54. The mother of Henry Lord Clifford was Margaret, daughter of Lord Vesci. 73. Carrock-fell, not far from Castle Sowerby, Cumberland. 89-92. The vale of Mosedale is north of Blencathara (Saddleback), a mountain not far from Keswick. Glenderamakin rises on the high ground not far from Saddleback. 94-100. Sir Lancelot Threlkeld concealed the boy on his estates in Cumberland. In the Waggoner we have: "And see beyond that hamlet small The ruined towers of Threlkeld Hall. To noble Clifford." The hall is now a ruin, save one portion used as a farmhouse. 123. It was a belief, in the olden time, that there were two immortal fish in this tarn. It is not far from Blencathara. 142-145. These lines have a genuine epic ring, and reflect the life of the time -a time filled with the prejudices, the passions, and the. pomp of war. The Northern Heights seem to have contributed their full share toward all these. In 1584 we find that Cumberland and Westmoreland furnished "Eight thousand three hundred and fifty horsemen, archers, and billmen." The Kendal men are mentioned with honor at the battle of Flodden "There are the bows of Kentdale bold Who fierce will fight and never flee." Wordsworth's Muse loves to range "Where untroubled peace and concord dwells," and seldom does she lead him into the fields of chivalry and romance. In but two instances do we have subjects which would permit of the full epic treatment. In this poem he does not dwell, as Scott would have done, upon the mustering of the forces, the description of the leaders, the shock of battle, and the deeds of prowess, but upon those qualities of the Shepherd Lord which distinguish him as a man and by which he was endeared to all. The treatment is subjective rather than objective, and in its rapid movement from the jubilate at the opening, through the various phases of family fortune, to the slowly moving, meditative stanzas at the close, the poem is representative of the variety of form and feeling of which Wordsworth was master. This is, I take it, what Coleridge means when he says:— "From no contemporary writer could so many lines be quoted, without reference to the poem in which they are to be found, for their own independent weight and beauty." The Force of Prayer. Written as an appendage to the White Doe of Rylstone, and in the advertisement to that poem Wordsworth says that in 1807 he visited for the first time the beautiful country that surrounds Bolton Priory in Yorkshire. It was with the Canons of Bolton that the good Lord Clifford is said to have followed the pursuit of astronomy and alchemy. Bolton Priory is situated in the picturesque valley of the Wharf. About half a mile above the Priory the valley narrows and the jutting rocks almost meet above the river. This chasm is called the Strid. The teaching of this poem is to be found expanded in the Excursion: "The darts of anguish fix not where the seat Of suffering hath been thoroughly fortified Of this poem Lamb says: "Young Romilly is divine; the reasons of the mother's grief being remediless. I never saw parental love carried up so high, towering above the other loves. Shakespeare had done something for the filial in Cordelia, and by implication for the fatherly too, in Lear's resentment; he left it for you to explore the depths of the maternal grief." 1814. Most of the poems written between 1807 and 1814 were sonnets, while at the same time the Excursion was being written. In 1808, Dove Cottage being too small for the family, they removed to Allan Bank, on the western side of the lake, where they lived for three years; then they moved to the Parsonage near the Church. In 1813 Rydal Mount became their home. Laodamia. 1814 marks an era in the poetical life of Wordsworth. In the preparation of his eldest son for the University, he was drawn more closely to the classic writers, especially Virgil, and this Country-loving Poet had new delights for him. The picture in the sixth Æneid suggested to him this loftiest and most pathetic of his poems. The hero and heroine are taken from Homer and Ovid, and the whole tone of the poem is the finest and richest expression of classic beauty and finish. It is in marked contrast to the severe ruggedness of Michael, and the magical smoothness of the Solitary Reaper, yet it is like them in the perfect harmony of theme and the expression. Thus it may be said that the Poet had as many styles as the nature of his subjects required. Sacrifice is the crowning attribute of that "blessed love" which |