The dreariest task that winter nights can bring, For this he's doom'd awhile disguised to range, For this his predecessor's skin he wears, Thus all by turns to fair perfection rise; The humbler shepherd here with joy beholds E'en Giles, for all his cares and watchings past, Teach me still more to wonder, more to know! WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. morials of a Tour on the Continent; also a Description of the Scenery of the Lakes in the North of England, with illustrative remarks on the scenery of the Alps. His last publication was Yarrow Revisited, which appeared in 1834. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, the founder of what is called the Lake school of poetry, was born in 1770, of a respectable family, at Cockermouth, in Cumberland. He received his early education at the grammar-school of Hawkshead, where he greatly excelled in his classical studies, and was remark- The genius of Mr. Wordsworth has been a matter able for his thoughtful disposition, and taste for of critical dispute ever since he first made pretension poetry, in which he made his first attempt, when at to any, and it is yet a question with some, whether the age of thirteen. In 1787, he was removed to his productions are not those of "an inspired idiot." St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated It would be, however, useless to deny him the B. A. and M. A.; and, in 1793, he published a reputation of a poet, though between the equally poetical account of a pedestrian tour on the conti- extravagant adoration and censure, of which he has nent, entitled Descriptive Sketches in Verse, &c., been the object, it is difficult to define the exact followed by the Evening Walk, an epistle, in verse, position which will be ultimately assigned him in addressed to a young lady. In alluding to the De- the rank of literature. Coleridge, who, as might be scriptive Sketches, says Coleridge," seldom, if ever, expected, is one of his most enthusiastic admirers, was the emergence of an original poetic genius says that, "in imaginative powers, Wordsworth above the literary horizon more evidently an- stands nearest of all modern writers to Shakspeare nounced." After wandering about in various parts and Milton, and yet in a kind perfectly unborrowed, of England, our author took a cottage at Alforton, and his own." The author of an essay on his in Somersetshire, near the then residence of Colc- theory and writings, printed in Blackwood's Maridge, where they were regarded by the good peo- gazine for 1830, gives a very fair estimate of his ple of the neighbourhood as spies and agents of the poetical genius. "The variety of subjects," he French Directory. Our benevolent author, however, observes, "which Wordsworth has touched; the appears to have been considered the more dangerous varied powers which he has displayed; the passages character of the two. "As to Coleridge," one of the of redeeming beauty interspersed even amongst the parish authorities is said to have remarked, "there worst and dullest of his productions; the originis not so much harm in him, for he is a wild brain ality of detached thoughts, scattered throughout that talks whatever comes uppermost; but that works, to which, on the whole, we must deny the (Wordsworth) he is the dark traitor. You praise of originality; the deep pathos, and occanever hear him say a syllable on the subject." In sional grandeur of his style; the real poetical 1798, he published a volume of his Lyrical Ballads, feeling which generally runs through its many which met with much abuse and few admirers, but modulations; his accurate observation of external those who applauded, applauded enthusiastically. nature; and the success with which he blends the purest and most devotional thoughts with the glories of the visible universe-all these are merits, which so far make up in number what they want in weight,' that, although insufficient to raise him to the shrine, they fairly admit him within the sacred temple of poesy." For our own parts, though we are not among those who call, as some of his admirers do, the poetry of Wordsworth "an actual revelation," we admit to have found in his works beauties which no other poet, perhaps, could have struck out of the peculiar sphere to which he has confined his imagination. His Recollections of Early Childhood, and a few others, are sublime compositions; whilst, on the other hand, his lines to a Glow-worm, et id omne genus, are despicable and ridiculous. In 1803, he married a Miss Mary Hutchinson, of Penrith, and settled at Grassmere, in Westmoreland, for which county, as well as that of Cumberland, he was subsequently appointed distributor of stamps. In 1807, he gave to the public a second volume of his Ballads; and, in 1809, with an intention to recommend a vigorous prosecution of the war with Spain, he published his only prose production, concerning the relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal to each other. In 1814, appeared, in quarto, his Excursion, a poem, which has been highly extolled, and is undoubtedly one of his most original and best compositions. It was followed, in 1815, by the White Doe of Rylstone; and, in 1819, by his Peter Bell, to the merits of which we must confess ourselves strangers. During the same year, he published his Wagonner, a tale; followed, in 1820, by the River Duddon, a series of sonnets; and Vaudracour and Julia, with other pieces; and Ecclesiastical Sketches. In 1822, he printed Me The private character of Mr. Wordsworth has never been impeached by his most virulent enemies, if he has any; and no man is more esteemed and respected for his amiable qualities. THE EXCURSION, BEING A PORTION OF THE RECLUSE. PREFACE. THE title announces that this is only a portion of a poem; and the reader must be here apprized that it belongs to the second part of a long and laborious work which is to consist of three parts. -The author will candidly acknowledge that, if the first of these had been completed, and in such a manner as to satisfy his own mind, he should have preferred the natural order of publication, and have given that to the world first; but, as the second division of the work was designed to refer more to passing events, and to an existing state of things, than the others were meant to do, more continuous exertion was naturally bestowed upon it, and greater progress made here than in the rest of the poem; and as this part does not depend upon the preceding, to a degree which will materially injure its own peculiar interest, the author, complying with the earnest entreaties of some valued friends, presents the following pages to the public. It may be proper to state whence the poem, of which the Excursion is a part, derives its title of the Recluse. Several years ago, when the author retired to his native mountains, with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary work that might live, it was a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his own mind, and examine how far nature and education had qualified him for such employment. As subsidiary to this preparation, he undertook to record, in verse, the origin and progress of his own powers, as far as he was acquainted with them. That work, addressed to a dear friend, most distinguished for his knowledge and genius, and to whom the author's intellect is deeply indebted, has been long finished; and the result of the investigation which gave rise to it was a determination to compose a philosophical poem, containing views of man, nature, and society; and to be entitled, the Recluse; as having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement.-The preparatory poem is biographical, and conducts the history of the author's mind to the point when he was imboldened to hope that his faculties were sufficiently matured for entering upon the arduous labour which he had proposed to himself; and the two works have the same kind of relation to each other, if he may so express himself, as the antichapel has to the body of a Gothic church. Continuing this allusion, he may be permitted to add, that his minor pieces, which have been long before the public, when they shall be properly arranged, will be found by the attentive reader to have such connexion with the main work as may give them claim to be likened to the little cells, oratories, and sepulchral recesses, ordinarily included in those edifices. he had not thought that the labour bestowed by him upon what he has heretofore and now laid before the public, entitled him to candid attention for such a statement as he thinks necessary to throw light upon his endeavours to please, and he would hope, to benefit his countrymen.-Nothing further need be added, than that the first and third parts of the Recluse will consist chiefly of medita tions in the author's own person; and that in the intermediate part (the Excursion) the intervention of characters speaking is employed, and something of a dramatic form adopted. It is not the author's intention formally to announce a system: it was more animating to him to proceed in a different course; and if he shall succeed in conveying to the mind clear thoughts, lively images, and strong feelings, the reader will have no difficulty in extracting the system for himself. And in the mean time the following passage, taken from the conclusion of the first book of the Recluse. may be acceptable as a kind of prospectus of the design and scope of the whole poem. "On man, on nature, and on human life, Holiest of men.-Urania, I shall need Thy guidance, or a greater muse, if such Descend to earth or dwell in highest heaven! For I must tread on shadowy ground, must sink Deep-and, aloft ascending, breathe in world To which the heaven of heavens is but a veil. All strength-all terror, single or in bands, That ever was put forth in personal form; Jehovah with his thunder, and the choir Of shouting angels, and the empyreal thronesI pass them unalarm'd. Not chaos, not The darkest pit of lowest Erebus, Nor aught of blinder vacancy-scoop'd out By help of dreams, can breed such fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look The author would not have deemed himself Into our minds, into the mind of man, Justified in saying, upon this occasion, so much of My haunt, and the main region of my song. performances either unfinished, or unpublished, if-Beauty-a living presence of the earth, Surpassing the most fair ideal forms Which craft of delicate spirits hath composed Or a mere fiction of what never was Can it be call'd) which they with blended might Must turn elsewhere-to travel near the tribes Within the walls of cities; may these sounds Of mighty poets; upon me bestow A gift of genuine insight; that my song Of those mutations that extend their sway This vision,-when and where, and how he lived; More wise desires, and simpler manners ;-nurse * Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul Of the wide world dreaming on things to come. Shakspeare's Sonnets. My heart in genuine freedom :-all pure thoughts TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, EARL OF LONSDALE, K. G. &c. &c. OFT, through thy fair domains, illustrious peer! Rydal Mount, Westmoreland, July 29, 1814. THE EXCURSION. ARGUMENT. A summer forenoon. The author reaches a ruined cottage upon a common, and there meets with a revered friend the Wanderer, of whom he gives an account. The Wanderer while resting under the shade of the trees that surround the cottage relates the history of its last inha bitant BOOK FIRST. THE WANDERER. "TWAS summer, and the sun had mounted high: Upon that open level stood a grove, The wish'd for port to which my course was bound Thither I came, and there, amid the gloom Him had I mark'd the day before-alone His graces unreveal'd and unproclaim'd. The high and tender muses shall accept 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, And listening time reward with sacred praise. Among the hills of Athol he was born; An unproductive slip of rugged ground, His parents, with their numerous offspring, dwelt; With strictness scarcely known on English ground. For my grave looks-too thoughtful for my years. Of minster clock! From that bleak tenement As I grew up, it was my best delight To be his chosen comrade. Many a time, Of the industrious husbandman, diffused [drought, O many are the poets that are sown He, many an evening, to his distant home On all things which the moving seasons brought |