WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH was born at Cockermouth, in Cumberland, April 7, 1770. His father was an attorney. William was educated at Penrith, at Hawkshead, and finally at Cambridge, where he graduated in 1791. He excelled in the classics, but otherwise was a poor student so far as the curriculum was concerned. He gave his time mainly to poetry, which he had begun to write at the age of thirteen. During his last year in college he went on foot through France, and after graduating he visited that country again. He was strongly in sympathy with the revolution, and it is said that his intimacy with the Girondists was such as would have put him in serious danger, had he not been | compelled by his limited means to return to England. In 1793 he published two poems: "Descriptive Sketches, taken during a Pedes. trian Tour among the Alps," and "An Evening Walk, addressed to a Young Lady." Though these pieces exhibited somewhat of his peculiar genius, they made no special impression, and for a time the poet was in a dilemma what to do for a living. His friends urged him to take orders, but he would not consent to do any thing for which he had not a natural taste and aptitude. The problem was solved in a seemingly providential way. In 1795 an intimate friend of Wordsworth's, who had faith in his genius, dying, bequeathed him £900 for the special purpose of securing him leisure in which to cultivate his poetical powers. Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy at once settled at Racedown Lodge, Dorsetshire; but in 1797 they removed to Alfoxden, Somersetshire, to be near Coleridge. Here the two young poets made a volume together, "Lyrical Ballads," and published it at Bristol in 1798; but it met with no success. Wordsworth, thoroughly believing in himself, and undaunted by the absolute indifference which the public manifested to his poetry, made a tour in Germany, and on his return settled permanently in Cumberland, first at Grasmere and finally at Rydal Mount. In 1802 he and his sister came into possession of some money which had been in litigation for twenty years, and thenceforth enjoyed a competence. Wordsworth at once married his cousin, Mary Hutchinson. In 1813 he was appointed distributor of stamps for Westinoreland, with a salary of £500. He had published two volumes of poems in 1807, and in 1814 he brought out "The Excursion," his longest poem, which was intended as one section of an immense work to be called "The Recluse." Up to this time the critics had ridiculed Wordsworth unmercifully for the persistency with which he spent his poetical powers on mean and trivial subjects. Yet a few admirers had always insisted that a new genius had risen, and after the publication of "The Excursion" this began to be generally acknowledged. "Peter Bell," published in 1819, was a relapse into that for which he had been justly ridiculed; but some of his later poems again exhibited his real genius. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey, who all lived in the lake district, became known as "the lake school," which at first was used as a term of contempt. In 1842 Wordsworth received a government pension of £300 per annum. The same year he issued a collected edition of his works. In 1843, on the death of Southey, he became poetlaureate. He died on the 23d of April, 1850. "The Prelude," a long autobiographical poem in blank verse, was published posthumously. It has become the fashion within a few years to admire Wordsworth violently and to believe in the plenary inspiration of his poems. But in truth there is scarcely a poet whose works demand so much discrimination, who has at once soared so far into the clear ether of song and dived so deeply into the utter depths of silliness. THE EXCURSION. BOOK FIRST.-THE WANDERER. 'Twas summer, and the sun had mounted high: Of some huge cave, whose rocky ceiling casts Upon that open level stood a grove, [bound. The wish'd-for port to which my course was Thither I came, and there, amid the gloom Him had I mark'd the day before-alone His graces unreveal'd and unproclaim'd. Turn'd toward the sun then setting, while that staff With gracious smile, deliberately pleased, Afforded to the figure of the man Detain'd for contemplation or repose, Graceful support; his countenance meanwhile We were tried friends: amid a pleasant vale, O! many are the poets that are sown By nature; men endow'd with highest gifts, The vision and the faculty divine; Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse, (Which, in the docile season of their youth, It was denied them to acquire, through lack Of culture and th' inspiring aid of books, Or haply by a temper too severe, Or a nice backwardness afraid of shame,) Not having here as life advanced, been led By circumstance to take unto the height The measure of themselves, these favour'd beings, All but a scatter'd few, live out their time, Husbanding that which they possess within, And go to the grave unthought of. Strongest minds Are often those of whom the noisy world Hears least; else surely this man had not left And listening time reward with sacred praise. An unproductive slip of rugged ground, His parents, with their numerous offspring, dwelt With strictness scarcely known on English ground |