All consequences; work he hath begun Which all his glorious ancestors approve : The king referred to is Gustavus IV., who was born in 1728, proclaimed king in 1792, and died in 1837. His first public act after his accession was to join in the coalition against Napoleon, and dislike of Napoleon was the spring of his policy. It is to this that Wordsworth refers in the sonnet the illustrious Swede hath done The thing which ought to be. It made him unpopular, however, and gave rise to a conspiracy against him, and to his consequent abdication in 1809. He "died forgotten and in poverty."-ED. TO TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE. 1 TOUSSAINT, the most unhappy man of men! Live, and take comfort. Thou hast left behind 1827. Whether the rural milk-maid by her cow Whether the all-cheering sun be free to shed 1807. 1815. 1820 Powers that will work for thee; air, earth, and skies; That will forget thee; thou hast great allies; And love, and man's unconquerable mind. Francois Dominique Toussaint (who was surnamed L'Ouverture), the child of African slaves, was born at St Domingo in 1743. He was a Royalist in political sympathy till 1794, when the decree of the French convention, giving liberty to the slaves, brought him over to the side of the Republic. He was made a general of division by Laveux, and succeeded in taking the whole of the north of the island from the English. In 1796 he was made chief of the French army of St Domingo, and first the British commander, and next the Spanish, surrendered everything to him. He became governor of the island, which prospered under his rule. Napoleon, however, in 1801, issued an edict re-establishing slavery in St Domingo. Toussaint professed obedience, but showed that he meant to resist the edict. A fleet of fifty-four vessels was sent from France to enforce it. Toussaint was proclaimed an outlaw. He surrendered, and was received with military honours, but was treacherously arrested and sent to Paris in June 1802, where he died after ten months hardship in prison. He had been two months in prison when Wordsworth addressed this sonnet to him.-ED. COMPOSED IN THE VALLEY NEAR DOVER, ON THE DAY OF HERE, on our native soil, we breathe once more,1 1 1827. Dear fellow traveller! here we are once more, 1807. 1 Of the waves breaking on the chalky shore;- 1 Europe is yet in bonds; but let that pass, "On 29th Aug. left Calais, at twelve in the morning for Dover. Bathed, and sat on the Dover Cliffs, looked upon France. We could see the shores about as plain as if it were but an English lake. Mounted the coach at half-past four; arrived in London at six."-(Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal.) [Among the capricious acts of tyranny that disgraced those times, was the chasing of all negroes from France by decree of the government : we had a Fellow-passenger who was one of the expelled.] WE had a female Passenger who came2 Yet downcast as a woman fearing blame;1 4 To mock the Outcast-0 ye Heavens, be kind! It was a natural arrangement which led Wordsworth to place this Sonnet immediately after the one addressed To Toussaint L'Ouverture.— ED. She was a Negro woman driven from France, Not one of whom may now find footing there; 1807. Meanwhile these eyes retained their tropic fire, Yet still these eyes retained 1827. 1836. INLAND, within a hollow vale I stood; And saw, while sea was calm and air was clear, I shrunk; for verily the barrier flood Was like a lake, or river bright and fair, Virtuous and wise. Winds blow, and waters roll, Coleridge, in The Friend, thus refers to the above sonnet :- "The narrow seas that form our boundaries, what were they in times of old? The convenient highway for Danish and Norman pirates. What are they now? Still, but a 'Span of Waters.' Yet they roll at the base of the Ararat, on which the Ark of the Hope of Europe and of Civilization rested!" Even so doth God protect us, if we be Virtuous and wise. Winds blow and waters roll, The note appended to the previous sonnet, "composed in the Valley near Dover, on the day of landing," shows that this one refers to the same occasion; and that while "inland, within a hollow vale,” he was at the same time on the Dover Cliffs-the "vale" being one of the hollow clefts in the headland, which front the Dover coast-line. The sonnet may have been composed, however, afterwards in London, and the date given to it by Wordsworth (September) be correct.-ED. |