BIOGRAPHY Bensusan, S. L.: William Wordsworth: His Homes and Haunts (New York, Dodge, 1912). Cottle, J.: Early Recollections of S. T. Coleridge, 2 vols. (London, Houlston, 1837, 1847). De Quincey, T.: "The Lake Poets," Tait's Magazine, Jan.-Aug., 1839; Collected Writings, ed. Masson (London, Black, 1889-90; 1896-97), 2, 229, 303, 335. Eagleston, A. J.: "Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Spy," The Nineteenth Century, Aug., 1908 (64:300). CRITICISM Arnold, M.: Essays in Criticism, Second Series (London and New York, Macmillan, 1888). Bagehot, W.: "Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning," The National Review, Nov., 1864; Literary Studies, 2 vols., ed. by R. H. Hutton (London, Longmans, 1878-79, 1895). Bömig, K.: William Wordsworth im Urteile seiner Zeit (Leipzig, 1906). Bradley, A. C.: English Poetry and German Philosophy in the Age of Wordsworth (Manchester, Sherrat, 1909). Fields, J. T.: Yesterdays With Authors (Boston, Bradley, A. C.: Oxford Lectures on Poetry (LonHoughton, 1872). don, Macmillan, 1909, 1911). Harper, G. M.: William Wordsworth, 2 vols. (New Brandes, G.: Main Currents in Nineteenth CenYork, Scribner, 1916). Hazlitt, W.: "My First Acquaintance with Poets," Howitt, W. Homes and Haunts of the Most Emi- ? Knight, W. A.: Through the Wordsworth Country (London, Allen, 1906). Lee, E.: Dorothy Wordsworth (New York, Dodd, 1887). Legouis, E.: La Jeunesse de William Wordsworth, 1770-98 (Paris, 1896); English translation by J. W. Mathews, as The Early Life of William Wordsworth (London, Dent, 1897). Moorhouse, E. H.: Wordsworth (Chicago, Browne, 1913). Myers, F. W. H.: Wordsworth (English Men of Punch, C. Wordsworth: An Introduction to his Rawnsley, H. D.: Literary Associations of the English Lakes, 2 vols. (Glasgow, MacLehose, 1894, 1906). Robinson, H. C.: Diary, Reminiscences, and Cor- Southey, C. C.: The Life and Correspondence of Biographer, 4 vols. (London, Duckworth, 1898- Wordsworth, D.: Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland, ed. by J. C. Shairp (Edinburgh, Wordsworth, W.: Letters, Prefaces, The Prelude. tury Literature, Vol. 4 (London, Heinemann, 1905; New York, Macmillan, 1906). Brimley, G.: Essays (London, Macmillan, 1858, 1882). Brooke, S. A.: Theology in the English Poets (London, King, 1874; New York, Dutton, 1910). Buck, P. M.: "The Beginnings of Romanticism in England-Wordsworth," Social Forces in Modern Literature (Boston, Ginn, 1913). Burroughs, J.: Fresh Fields (Boston, Houghton, 1885). Caird, E.: Essays on Literature and Philosophy Coleridge, S. T.: Biographia Literaria (1817), 2 vols., ed. by J. Shawcross (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907), chaps. 5, 14, 17-22. Cooper, L.: "A Glance at Wordsworth's Reading," Modern Language Notes, March and April, 1907 (22:83, 110). De Dawson, W. J.: The Makers of English Poetry (New York and London, Revell, 1906). Quincey, T.: "On Wordsworth's Poetry," Tait's Magazine, 1845; Collected Writings, ed. Masson (London, Black, 1889-90; 1896-97), 11, 294. De Vere, A.: Essays, Chiefly on Poetry, 2 vols. (London and New York, Macmillan, 1887). Dicey, A. V.: "Wordsworth and the War," The Dowden, E.: "The Text of Wordsworth's Poems," Transcripts and Studies (London, Paul, 1888, 1910). Dunne, M. A.: "Wordsworthian Theory of Solitude," American Catholic Quarterly, Oct., 1911 (36:610). Gingerich, S. F.: Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Browning: a Study in Human Freedom (Ann Arbor, Wahr, 1911). Harper, G. M.: "Rousseau, Godwin, and Wordsworth," The Atlantic Monthly, May, 1912 (109:639). Hazlitt, W.: "On the Living Poets," Lectures on the English Poets (London, 1818); "Mr. Wordsworth," The Spirit of the Age (London, 1825): Collected Works, ed. Waller and Glover (London, Dent, 1902-06; New York, McClure), 5, 156; 4, 270. Horne, R. H.: "William Wordsworth and Leigh Hunt," A New Spirit of the Age (London, Smith, 1844). Myers, F. W. H.: Wordsworth (English Men of Letters Series: London, Macmillan, 1881; New York, Harper). Olcott, C. S.: "A Day in Wordsworth's Country," The Outlook, Nov. 26, 1910 (96:682). Pater, W.: Appreciations (London and New York, Macmillan, 1889, 1895). Paul, H. W.: "The Permanence of Wordsworth," The Nineteenth Century, June, 1908 (63:987). Hudson, H. N.: Studies in Wordsworth (Boston, Payne, W. M.: The Greater English Poets of the Little, 1884). Hutton, R. H.: "Dorothy Wordsworth's Scotch Jack, A. A.: "Wordsworth (Basic or Elemental Knight, W.: "Nature as Interpreted by Words worth," Studies in Philosophy and Literature (London, Paul, 1879). Knight, W.: The English Lake District (Edinburgh, Douglas, 1891). Lienemann, K.: Die Belesenheit von W. Wordsworth (Berlin, Mayer, 1908). Lowell, J. R.: Among My Books, Second Series (Boston, Houghton, 1876, 1884). Lowell, J. R.: Democracy and Other Addresses (Boston, Houghton, 1886). Mabie, H. W.: "The Lake Country and Words worth," Backgrounds of Literature (New York, Outlook, 1903). Macdonald, G.: The Imagination and Other Essays (Boston, Lothrop, 1883). Mackie, A.: Nature Knowledge in Modern Poetry (London and New York, Longmans, 1906). Magnus, L.: A Primer of Wordsworth (London, Methuen, 1897). Masson, D.: Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, and Other Essays (London and New York, Macmillan, 1874). Masson, Rosaline: "An Inspired Little Creature' and the Poet Wordsworth," The Fortnightly Review, Nov., 1910 (88:874). Minchin, H. C.: "Browning and Wordsworth," The Fortnightly Review, May, 1912 (91:813). Minto, W.: "Wordsworth's Great Failure," The Nineteenth Century, Sept., 1889 (26:435). More, P. E.: Shelburne Essays, Seventh Series (New York and London, Putnam, 1910). Morley, J. Studies in Literature (London, Macmillan, 1891). Nineteenth Century (New York, Holt, 1907, 1909). Quarterly Review, The: "The Excursion," Oct., 1814 (12:100); "Poems" and "The White Doe of Rylstone," Oct., 1815 (14:201). Raleigh, W. A.: Wordsworth (London, Arnold, 1903; New York, Longmans, 1913). Rickett, A.: "The Poet-William Wordsworth," Personal Forces in Modern Literature (London, Dent, 1906; New York, Dutton). Roberts, E. C.: "The Ascendancy of Wordsworth," The Contemporary Review, May, 1913 (103:703). Robertson, F. W.: Lectures on the Influence of Poetry, and Wordsworth (London, Paul, 1906). Scherer, E.: Etudes Critiques, English translation by G. Saintsbury, as Essays on English Literature (London, Low, 1891; New York, Scribner). Scudder, V. D.: "Wordsworth and the New Democracy," The Life of the Spirit in Modern English Poets (Boston, Houghton, 1895). Shairp, J. C.: "The Three Yarrows," "The White Doe of Rylstone," Aspects of Poetry (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1881; Boston, Houghton). Shairp, J. C.: "Wordsworth as an Interpreter of Nature," On Poetic Interpretation of Nature (Edinburgh, Douglas, 1877; New York, Hurd, 1878; Boston, Houghton, 1885). Shairp, J. C.: "Wordsworth, the Man and the Poet," Studies in Poetry and Philosophy (Edinburgh, Douglas, 1868, 1886; Boston, Houghton, 1880, 1887). Sneath, E. H. Wordsworth: Poet of Nature and Poet of Man (Boston and London, Ginn, 1912). Stephen, L.: "Wordsworth's Ethics," Hours in a Library, 3 vols. (London, Smith, 1874-79; New York and London, Putnam, 1899); 4 vols. (1907). Stephen, L.: "Wordsworth's Youth," Studies of a Biographer, 4 vols. (London, Duckworth, 18981902; New York, Putnam). Stork, C. W.: "The Influence of the Popular Ballad on Wordsworth and Coleridge," Publications of the Modern Language Association, Sept., 1914 (n. s. 22:299). Swinburne, A. C.: "Wordsworth and Byron," Miscellanies (London, Chatto, 1886, 1911; New York, Scribner). Symons, A.: The Romantic Movement in English Poetry (London, Constable, 1909; New York, Dutton). Whipple, E. P.: Essays and Reviews, 2 vols. (Boston, Osgood, 1849, 1878). White, W. H.: An Examination of the Charge of Apostasy Against Wordsworth (London, Longmans, 1898). Wilson, John: Essays, Critical and Imaginative, 4 vols. (Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1866). Winchester, C. T.: William Wordsworth (Indianapolis, Bobbs, 1916). Woodberry, G. E.: "Sir George Beaumont, Coleridge, and Wordsworth," Studies in Letters and Life (Boston, Houghton, 1890; Makers of Literature, New York, Macmillan, 1901). Woodberry, G. E.: The Torch (New York, Macmillan, 1905, 1912). Wordsworthiana, a Selection from Papers read to the Wordsworth Society, ed. by W. A. Knight (London, Macmillan, 1889). CRITICAL NOTES From Memorial Verses Goethe in Weimar sleeps, and Greece, And Wordsworth!-Ah, pale ghosts, rejoice! Wordsworth has gone from us-and ye, 5 35 40 Of doubts, disputes, distractions, fears. He found us when the age had bound 45 Our souls in its benumbing round; He spoke, and loosed our heart in tears. 50 55 For all thou hadst not and thy peers possessed. Motion and fire, swift means to radiant ends?- 35 Thou hadst, for weary feet, the gift of rest. From Shelley's dazzling glow or thunderous haze, From Byron's tempest-anger, tempest-mirth, Men turned to thee and found-not blast and blaze, Tumult of tottering heavens, but peace earth. on 40 Nor peace that grows by Lethe, scentless flower, There in white languors to decline and cease; But peace whose names are also rapture, power, Clear sight, and love: for these are parts of peace. 65 A hundred years ere he to manhood came, And donned a modish dress to charm the town. Thenceforth she but festooned the porch of things: Apt at life's lore, incurious what life meant. Dextrous of hand, she struck her lute's few strings; Ignobly perfect, barrenly content. 70 Unflushed with ardor and unblanched with awe, 75 The human masque she watched, with dreamless eyes In whose clear shallows lurked no trembling The stars, unkenned by her, might set and rise, fade. and 80 The age grew sated with her sterile wit. 83 The world lay common, one abounding theme. From dewy pastures, uplands sweet with thyme, It wafted Collins' lonely vesper-chime, 05 It breathed abroad the frugal note of Gray. 65 1 From Selected Poems of William Watson, copy-right 1902 by The John Lane Company. The "scholar-sage" of 1. 89 is Thomas Gray. The reference in 11. 99-100 is to Goldsmith, whose The Deserted Village begins: "Sweet Auburn! loveliest village of the plain." The reference in 11. 100-110 is to Burns. The "morning stars" of 1. 111 are Coleridge, the Dreamer, and Wordsworth, the Scër. Cf. the aim of the Lyrical Ballads as expressed in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, 14 (p. 372b). On 1, 104 see Matthew, 9:20-22. For further comments and criticisms on Wordsworth in this text see the following: Coleridge's To A Gentleman (p. 365) and Bio graphia Literaria, 14, 17, 18, 22 (pp. 372-95). Byron's English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, 23554 (p. 489). Shelley's To Wordsworth (p. 634). 224. 225. country is idealized rather than described in any one of its local aspects."-Wordsworth's note. LINES LEFT UPON THE SEAT IN A YEW-TREE "Composed in part at school at Hawkshead. The tree has disappeared, and the slip of Common on which it stood, that ran parallel to the lake and lay open to it, has long been enclosed; so that the road has lost much of its attraction. This spot was my favorite walk in the evenings during the latter part of my school-time."-Wordsworth's note. The poem was published in Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads, issued anonymously in 1798. The volume contained nineteen poems by Wordsworth and four by Coleridge. For a list of these poems see note p. 1374b. For statements of the occasion and object of the poems, see Wordsworth's Preface to the second edition (p. 317), Wordsworth's note on We Are Seven, below, and Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, 14 (p. 372). THE REVERIE OF POOR SUSAN "This arose out of my observation of the affecting music of these birds hanging in this way in the London streets during the freshness and stillness of the spring morning."— Wordsworth's note. WE ARE SEVEN "Written at Alfoxden in the spring of 1798, under circumstances somewhat remarkable. The little girl who is the heroine I met within the area of Goodrich Castle in the year 1793. Having left the Isle of Wight and crossed Salisbury Plain, as mentioned in the Preface to Guilt and Sorrow, I proceeded by Bristol up the Wye, and so on to North Wales, to the Vale of Clwydd, where I spent my summer under the roof of the father of my friend, Robert Jones. In reference to this poem I will here mention one of the most remarkable facts in my own poetic history and that of Mr. Coleridge. In the spring of the year 1798, he, my sister, and myself, started from Alfoxden, pretty late in the afternoon, with a view to visit Lenton and the valley of Stones near it; and as our united funds were very small, we agreed to defray the expense of the tour by writing a poem, to be sent to The New Monthly Magazine set up by Phillips the bookseller, and edited by Dr. Aikin. Accordingly we set off and proceeded along the Quantock Hills towards Watchet, and in the course of this walk was planned the poem of The Ancient Mariner, founded on a dream, as Mr. Coleridge said, of his friend, Mr. Cruikshank. Much the greatest part of the story was Mr. Coleridge's invention; but certain parts I myself suggested:-for example, some crime was to be committed which should bring upon the old navigator, as Coleridge afterwards delighted to call him, the spectral persecution, as a consequence of that crime, and his own wanderings. I had been reading in Shelvock's Voyages a day or two before that while doubling Cape Horn they frequently saw albatrosses in that latitude, the largest sort of sea-fowl, some extending their wings twelve or fifteen feet. 'Suppose,' said I, 'you represent him as having killed one of these birds on entering the South Sea, and that the tutelary Spirits of those regions take upon them to avenge the crime.' The incident was thought fit for the purpose and adopted accordingly. I also suggested the navigation of the ship by the dead men, but do not recollect that I had anything more to do with the scheme of the poem. The Gloss with which it was subsequently accompanied was not thought of by either of us at the time; at least, not a hint of it was given to me, and I have no doubt it was a gratuitous afterthought. We began the composition together on that, to me, memorable evening. I furnished two or three lines at the beginning of the poem, in particular : 'And listened like a three years' child; These trifling contributions, all but one (which Mr. C. has with unnecessary scrupulosity recorded) slipt out of his mind as they well might. As we endeavored to proceed conjointly (I speak of the same evening) our respective manners proved so widely different that it would have been quite presumptuous in me to do anything but separate from an undertaking upon which I could only have been a clog. We returned after a few days from a delightful tour, of which I have many pleasant, and some of them droll-enough, recollections. We returned by Dulverton to Alfoxden. The Ancient Mariner grew and grew till it became too important for our first object, which was limited to our expectation of five pounds, and we began to talk of a volume, which was to consist, as Mr. Coleridge has told the world, of poems chiefly on supernatural subjects taken from common life, but looked at, as much as might be, through an imaginative medium. Accordingly I wrote The Idiot Boy, Her Eyes Are Wild, etc., We Are Seven, The Thorn, and some others. To return to We Are Seven, the piece that called forth this note, I composed it while walking in the grove at Alfoxden. My friends will not deem it too trifling to relate that while walking to and fro I composed the last stanza first, having begun with the last line. When it was all but finished, I came in and recited it to Mr. Coleridge and my sister, and said, 'A prefatory stanza must be added, and I should sit down to our little tea-meal with greater pleasure if my task were finished.' I mentioned in substance what I wished to be expressed, and Coleridge immediately threw off the stanza thus: 'A little child, dear brother Jem,' I objected to the rhyme, 'dear brother Jem,' as being ludicrous, but we all enjoyed the joke of hitching-in our friend, James T[obin]'s name, who was familiarly called Jem. He was the brother of the dramatist, and this reminds me of an anecdote which it may be worth while here to notice. The said Jem got a sight of the Lyrical Ballads as it was going through the press at Bristol, during which time I was residing in that city. One evening he came to me with a grave face, and said, 'Wordsworth, I have seen the volume that Coleridge and you are about to publish. There is one poem in it which I earnestly entreat you to cancel, for, if published, it will make you everlastingly ridiculous.' I answered that I felt much obliged by the interest he took in my good name as a writer, and begged to know what was the unfortunate piece he alluded to. He said, 'It is called We Are Seven.'-'Nay,' said I, 'that shall take its chance, however,' .and he left me in despair."-Wordsworth's note. See Coleridge's comment on this poem, p. 389a, 30 ff. The utter simplicity of some of Wordsworth's early poems lent itself easily to imitation and ridicule. The following poem serves as an illustration. It was written by James Smith (17751839) and published in his Rejected Addresses (1812), a collection of imitative poems and other pieces purported to have been rejected as unsuitable for speaking at the opening of Drury Lane Theater, Oct. 10, 1812. The Baby's Début My brother Jack was nine in May, Jack's in the pouts, and thus it is, And bang, with might and main, This made him cry with rage and spite; Well, after many a sad reproach, 10 15 20 25 30 1 John Tobin (1770-1804), author of The HoneyMoon, The Curfew, and other plays. |