A presence which is not to be put by; 120 125 Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight, Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life! O joy! that in our embers Is something that doth live, That Nature yet remembers What was so fugitive! The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction; not indeed For that which is most worthy to be blest; Delight and liberty, the simple creed Of childhood, whether busy or at rest, With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast. Not for these I raise The song of thanks and praise; 130 135 140 But for those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings, Those shadowy recollections Which, be they what they may, 150 Are yet the fountain-light of all our day, Are yet a master-light of all our seeing; Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being 155 Of the eternal silence: truths that wake To perish never; Which neither listlessness nor mad endeavour, Nor man, nor boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Can utterly abolish or destroy! Hence in a season of calm weather, Though inland far we be, 160 Our souls have sight of that immortal sea, Can in a moment travel thither, And see the children sport upon the shore, Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song! As to the tabor's sound! We in thought will join your throng, Ye that through your hearts to-day 165 170 What though the radiance which was once so bright 175 Be now for ever taken from my sight Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find In the primal sympathy, 180 Which having been must ever be; In the soothing thoughts that spring In the faith that looks through death, 185 In years that bring the philosophic mind. And, O ye fountains, meadows, hills, and groves, Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might; I only have relinquished one delight, 190 To live beneath your more habitual sway. I love the brooks which down their channels fret, Even more than when I tripped lightly as they; The innocent brightness of a new-born day Is lovely yet; 195 The clouds that gather round the setting sun Another race hath been, and other palms are won: (1803-1806.) 200 NOTES LINES, &c., p. 1, ed. of 1824. Written in the common Long Metre of our English hymnbooks. Notice any deviation. Accentuate the fourth and sixth lines. I Justify the metaphor 'water's breast.' 6 A little moment past. Time when is put in the objective case; 'past' is a participle qualifying it. What part of speech is 'ago'? What was it originally? II Bard is a Celtic word. Who was the last of the Bards? Who has related his fate? 14 And what if='even if.' Cf. 'an if.' Put this lyric into the form of a simile, using your own words. THE RAINBOW, p. 1, ed. of 1824. The irregular structure of the rhymes serves to weave the poem into a connected whole, while the last distich adds the general reflection like the concluding couplet of Shakespeare's sonnets. I Leaps up; i.e. with joy. All metaphysical terms were originally physical. Illustrate. 7 The three concluding lines of this poem the author prefixed to his famous Ode on Immortality, written about the same time. Explain them by the aid of the expansion afforded them by the 'Ode.' Vide p. 81. 9 Natural piety. Piety inspired by nature, not taught. What is natural religion' opposed to? SKATING, p. 2, ed. of 1831. These lines are a portion of a fragment published in The Friend, and afterwards reprinted with a few alterations in the Prelude. 2 Visible for many a mile. The air was frosty and clear. The line is altered in the Prelude, with doubtful advantage, to "The cottage windows blazed through twilight gloom." Why with doubtful advantage? 3 The summons; i.e. the summons homewards given by the lights. In the Prelude it is "their summons.” 6 Rapture. Lat. raptura rapio, to snatch. Similarly 'ravish' in the same sense through the Fr. ravir ravissant. metaphorical use of 'transport.' 9 All shod with steel. 'Shod' = 'shoe-ed.' speech is 'all'? Cf. the What part of II Confederate. Not a very happy term as applied to games. It is meant to express games in which 'sides' are formed. 12 Woodland pleasures. 'Pleasure' is here put for 'that which gives pleasure.` 13 The pack loud bellowing. In the Prelude changed to "The pack loud chiming." What difference is made in the image by the change? 16, sq. Cf. -The precipices rang aloud; "And all to left and right The bare black cliff clanged round him, as he based -TENNYSON, Morte d'Arthur. 19 This beautiful line is very characteristic of Wordsworth. Cf. "Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise Has carried far into his heart the voice Of mountain torrents."-There was a Boy, l. 18. Alien. Lat. alienus, 'foreign,' alius; Gk. äλλos, 'other.' "There was in sound ever enough to stir the depths of Wordsworth's watchful heart without enslaving his senses."—HUTTON. 20 Melancholy. Gk. μéñas..μéλav, black; xoλý, bile; whence comes also 'choler.' Vide note on Excursion, bk. i. l. 578. 26 Reflex'reflection.' 31 spinning still the rapid line of motion. The metaphor appears to be that of spinning a thread: the line in which the skater was moving was traced or spun out by the banks on either side in their apparent motion past him. It was 34 The solitary cliffs. Notice the wonderful force of the epithet, which gives the whole heart of the scene. "The silence that is in the starry sky, The sleep that is among the lonely hills," that sent such a 'shock' of contrast with the uproar of the tumultuous throng of skaters. This well-known phenomenon is caused by the same reten s of the retina which gives the illusions of the thauma 35 Even as if the earth had rolled, &c. This completes the description by adding the peculiar sensation occasioned by a person perceiving that, although everything seems in motion, his position relative to near objects is unaltered. 36 What is the emphatic word in this line? 39 In the Prelude the simile is altered to "Till all was tranquil as a dreamless sleep." How could the alteration be defended? Goethe, like Wordsworth, was a passionate lover of skating; but Goethe's delight (as far as we can judge from his autobiography) arose from the rapid motion, the sense of power, as it were, to annihilate space-very different from the calm, reflective pleasure of Wordsworth. Write in your own language an account of the scene as described by Wordsworth. WORDSWORTH PEAK, p. 3, ed. of 1824. 2 Mountains, from their remoteness from human scenes, seem more especially associated with sun, moon, and stars, and may, by the Pathetic Fallacy (see Excursion, bk. i. 1. 161, note), be said to commune with them. Cf. "Topmost Gargarus Stands up and takes the morning." -TENNYSON, Enone, 10. "Thou first and chief, sole sovran of the vale! -COLERIDGE, Hymn before Sunrise, 29. 5 Cliff. Later editions have 'peak.' 8 Its own deep quiet to restore our hearts. Cf. "I have owed to them In hours of weariness sensations sweet, And passing even into my purer mind With tranquil restoration."-Tintern Abbey, 25. 9 The meteors. Falling stars. The peak was probably to the north of Rydal, that being the quarter in which falling stars are usually seen. 14 His sister Dorothy. Vide Life, prefixed to Excursion, bk. i. 17 What Wordsworth said of Milton was at least equally applicable to himself— "Thy soul was like a star, and dwelt apart." THE DANISH Boy, p. 3, ed. of 1824. This fragment was written about the same time as The Ancient Mariner, to which Wordsworth contributed two stanzas, and |