book i
. canto i. stanza 8.
... the liveliest bird That in wild Arden's brakes was ever heard.
Compare _As you like it_, act II. scene 5.
And soon approach Diana's Looking-glass! To Loughrigg-tarn, etc.
See the note appended by Wordsworth to the sequel to this poem.
A glimpse I caught of that Abode, by Thee Designed to rise in humble privacy.
He imagines the house which Sir George Beaumont intended to build at Loughrigg Tarn, but which he never erected, to be really built by his friend, very much as in the sonnet named _Anticipation, October, 1803_, he supposes England to have been invaded, and the battle fought in which "the Invaders were laid low."
... behold a Peasant stand On high, a kerchief waving in her hand!
See the Fenwick note preceding the poem.
... a barren ridge we scale; Descend and reach, in Yewdale's depths, a plain.
They went up Little Langdale, I think, past the Tarn to Fell Foot, and crossed over the ridge of Tilberthwaite, into Yewdale by the copper mines.
Under a rock too steep for man to tread, Where sheltered from the north and bleak north-west Aloft the Raven hangs a visible nest, Fearless of all assaults that would her brood molest.
There is a Raven crag in Yewdale, evidently the one referred to in this passage, and also in the passage in the first book of _The Prelude_ (see vol. iii. p. 142), beginning--
Oh! when I have hung Above the raven's nest, by knots of grass And half-inch fissures in the slippery rock But ill sustained, etc.
... toward the lowly Grange Press forward,
To Waterhead at the top of Coniston Lake.
In connection with Loughrigg Tarn, compare the note to the poem beginning--
So fair, so sweet, withal so sensitive,
and also the Biographical Sketch of Professor Archer Butler, prefixed to his _Sermons_, vol. i.--ED.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] LOUGHRIGG TARN, alluded to in the foregoing _Epistle_, resembles, though much smaller in compass, the Lake Nemi, or _Speculum Dianæ_ as it is often called, not only in its clear waters and circular form, and the beauty immediately surrounding it, but also as being overlooked by the eminence of Langdale Pikes as Lake Nemi is by that of Monte Calvo. Since this _Epistle_ was written Loughrigg Tarn has lost much of its beauty by the felling of many natural clumps of wood, relics of the old forest,
## particularly upon the farm called "The Oaks" from the abundance of that
tree which grew there.
It is to be regretted, upon public grounds, that Sir George Beaumont did not carry into effect his intention of constructing here a Summer Retreat in the style I have described; as his Taste would have set an example how buildings, with all the accommodations modern society requires, might be introduced even into the most secluded parts of this country without injuring their native character. The design was not abandoned from failure of inclination on his part, but in consequence of local untowardnesses which need not be particularised.--W. W. 1842.
UPON THE SIGHT OF A BEAUTIFUL PICTURE,
PAINTED BY SIR G. H. BEAUMONT, BART.
Composed 1811.--Published 1815
[This was written when we dwelt in the Parsonage at Grasmere. The principal features of the picture are Bredon Hill and Cloud Hill near Coleorton. I shall never forget the happy feeling with which my heart was filled when I was impelled to compose this Sonnet. We resided only two years in this house, and during the last half of the time, which was after this poem had been written, we lost our two children, Thomas and Catherine. Our sorrow upon these events often brought it to my mind, and cast me upon the support to which the last line of it gives expression--
"The appropriate calm of blest eternity."
It is scarcely necessary to add that we still possess the Picture.--I.F.]
Included among the "Miscellaneous Sonnets." In 1815 the title was simply _Upon the Sight of a Beautiful Picture_.--ED.
Praised be the Art whose subtle power could stay Yon cloud, and fix it in that glorious shape; Nor would permit the thin smoke to escape,[A] Nor those bright sunbeams to forsake the day; Which stopped that band of travellers on their way, 5 Ere they were lost within the shady wood; And showed the Bark upon the glassy flood For ever anchored in her sheltering bay. Soul-soothing Art! whom[1] Morning, Noon-tide, Even, Do serve with all their changeful pageantry; 10 Thou, with ambition modest yet sublime, Here, for the sight of mortal man, hast given To one brief moment caught from fleeting time The appropriate calm of blest eternity,[B]
Compare the _Elegiac Stanzas, suggested by a picture of Peele Castle, in a Storm, painted by Sir George Beaumont_--especially the first three, and the fifth, sixth, and seventh stanzas. (See vol. iii. p. 54.)
In the letter written to Sir George Beaumont from Bootle, in 1811--partly quoted in the note to the previous poem (p. 268)--Wordsworth says, "A few days after I had enjoyed the pleasure of seeing, in different moods of mind, your Coleorton landscape from my fireside, it _suggested_ to me the following sonnet, which--having walked out to the side of Grasmere brook, where it murmurs through the meadows near the Church--I composed immediately--
Praised be the Art....
"The images of the smoke and the travellers are taken from your picture; the rest were added, in order to place the thought in a clear point of view, and for the sake of variety."--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] C. and 1838.
... which ... 1815.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare, in Pope's _Moral Essays_, ii. 19--
Choose a firm cloud before it fall, and in it Catch, ere she change, the Cynthia of this minute. ED.
[B] Compare, in the _Elegiac Stanzas, suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle, in a Storm_ (vol. iii. p. 55)--
Elysian quiet, without toil or strife. ED.
TO THE POET, JOHN DYER
Composed 1811.--Published 1815
Classed among the "Miscellaneous Sonnets." In the edition of 1815 the title was, _To the Poet, Dyer_.--ED.
Bard of the Fleece, whose skilful genius made That work a living landscape fair and bright; Nor hallowed less with musical delight Than those soft scenes through which thy childhood strayed, Those southern tracts of Cambria, deep embayed, 5 With green hills fenced, with[1] ocean's murmur lull'd;[A] Though hasty Fame hath many a chaplet culled For worthless brows, while in the pensive shade Of cold neglect she leaves thy head ungraced, Yet pure and powerful minds, hearts meek and still, 10 A grateful few, shall love thy modest Lay, Long as the shepherd's bleating flock shall stray O'er naked Snowdon's wide aërial waste; Long as the thrush shall pipe on Grongar Hill!
John Dyer, author of _Grongar Hill_ (1726), and _The Fleece_ (1757), was born at Aberglasney, in Caermarthenshire, in 1698, and died in 1758. Both Akenside and Gray, before Wordsworth's time, had signalised his merit, in opposition to the dicta of Johnson and Horace Walpole. The passage which Wordsworth quotes is from _The Fleece_, in which Dyer is referring to his own ancestors, who were weavers, and "fugitives from superstition's rage," and who brought the art of weaving "from Devon" to
that soft tract Of Cambria, deep-embayed, Dimetian land, By green hills fenced, by ocean's murmur lulled.
It will be observed that Wordsworth quotes this last line of Dyer accurately in the edition of 1815, but changed it in 1827.
This sonnet was possibly written before 1811, as in a letter to Lady Beaumont, dated November 20, 1811, he speaks of it as written "some time ago." In that letter Wordsworth writes thus of Dyer:--"His poem is in several places dry and heavy, but its beauties are innumerable, and of a high order. In point of _imagination_ and purity of style, I am not sure that he is not superior to any writer of verse since the time of Milton." He then transcribes his sonnet, and adds--"In the above is one whole line from _The Fleece_, and also other expressions. When you read _The Fleece_, you will recognise them."--ED.
VARIANTS:
[1] 1827.
By green hills fenced, by ... 1815.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Compare Dyer's _Fleece_,