Selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson by William Wordsworth and Alfred Lord Tennyson

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"No doubt if you in terms direct had asked
Whether beloved the mountains, true it is
That with blunt repetition of your words
He might have stared at you, and said that they
Were frightful to behold, but had you then
Discoursed with him . . . . . . . .
Of his own business and the goings on
Of earth and sky, then truly had you seen
That in his thoughts there were obscurities,
Wonder and admiration, things that wrought
Not less than a religion of his heart."

17. In Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal for October 11, 1800, we read:
"After dinner, we walked up Greenhead Gill in search of a
sheepfold. . . The sheepfold is falling away. It is built in the form
of a heart unequally divided."

48. THE MEANING OF ALL WINDS. This is not a figurative Statement.
Michael knows by experience whether the sound and direction of the wind
forebode storm or fair weather,--precisely the practical kind of
knowledge which a herdsman should possess.

51. SUBTERRANEOUS. The meaning of this word has given rise to
discussion. "Subterraneous" cannot here be literally employed, unless
it refer to the sound of the wind in hollow places, and beneath
overhanging crags.

51-52. LIKE THE NOISE, etc. Is there a special appropriateness in the
use of a Scottish simile? What is the general character of the similes
throughout the poem?

56-77. Wordsworth never attributes to Michael the subtler and more
philosophical sensations which he himself derived from nature. Such
poems as _The Prelude_ or _The Excursion_ contain many elevated
passages on the influence of nature, which would have been exceedingly
inappropriate here.

115. Scan this line.

121. NOR CHEERFUL. The epithet seems not well chosen in view of the
fact that all the circumstances of their life breathe a spirit of quiet
cheerfulness. Surely the light (129-131) was a symbol of cheer.

126. PECULIAR WORK. Bring out the force of the epithet.

134. EASEDALE. Near Grasmere. DUNMAIL-RAISE. The pass leading from
Grasmere to Keswick. RAISE. A provincial word meaning "an ascent."

139. THE EVENING STAR. This name was actually given to a neighboring
house.

143-152. The love of Michael for Luke is inwrought with his love for
his home and for the land which surrounds it. These he desires at his
death to hand down unencumbered to his son. "I have attempted,"
Wordsworth wrote to Poole, "to give a picture of a man of strong mind
and lively sensibility, agitated by two of the most powerful affections
of the human heart--the parental affection and the love of property,
_landed_ property, including the feelings of inheritance, home and
personal and family independence."

145. Scan this line.

169. THE CLIPPING TREE. Clipping is the word used in the North of
England for shearing. (Wordsworth's note, 1800).

182. Notice the entire absence of pause at the end of the line. Point
out other instances of run-on lines (_enjambement_).

259. PARISH-BOY. Depending on charity.

268-270. Wordsworth added the following note on these lines: "The story
alluded to here is well known in the country. The chapel is called
Ing's Chapel; and is on the right hand side of the road leading from
Kendal to Ambleside."

283. AND TO THE FIELDS WENT FORTH Observe the inconsistency. The
conversation took place in the evening. See l. 327.

284f. WITH A LIGHT HEART. Michael's growing misgivings are subtly
represented in the following lines, and the renewal of his hopes.

367-368. These lines forcibly show how tenaciously Michael's feelings
were rooted in the soil of his home. Hence the extreme pathos of the
situation.

388. Observe the dramatic force of this line.

393-396. What unconscious poetry there is in the old man's words!

420. Scan this line.

445. Scan this line.

466. Matthew Arnold commenting on this line says; "The right sort of
verse to choose from Wordsworth, if we are to seize his true and most
characteristic form of expression, is a line like this from Michael:
'And never lifted up a single stone.' There is nothing subtle in it,
no heightening, no study of poetic style strictly so called, at all;
yet it is an expression of the highest and most truly expressive kind."

467f. Note the noble simplicity and pathos of these closing lines.
There is a reserved force of pent-up pathos here, which without effort
reaches the height of dramatic effectiveness.

TO THE DAISY

Bright Flower! whose home is everywhere,
Bold in maternal Nature's care,
And all the long year through the heir
Of joy and sorrow,
Methinks that there abides in thee 5
Some concord with humanity,
Given to no other flower I see
The forest thorough!

Is it that Man is soon deprest?
A thoughtless Thing! who, once unblest, 10
Does little on his memory rest,
Or on his reason,
And Thou would'st teach him how to find
A shelter under every wind,
A hope for times that are unkind, 15
And every season?

Thou wander'st the wide world about,
Uncheck'd by pride or scrupulous doubt,
With friends to greet thee, or without,
Yet pleased and wilting; 20
Meek, yielding to the occasion's call,
And all things suffering from all,
Thy function apostolical
In peace fulfilling.

8. THOROUGH. This is by derivation the correct form of the modern word
"through." A.S. _thurh_, M.E. _thuruh_. The use of "thorough" is now
purely adjectival, except in archaic or poetic speech.

24. APOSTOLICAL. The stanza in which this word occurs was omitted in
1827 and 1832, because the expression was censured as almost profane.
Wordsworth in his dictated note to Miss Fenwick has the following: "The
word [apostolical] is adopted with reference to its derivation, implying
something sent out on a mission; and assuredly this little flower,
especially when the subject of verse, may be regarded, in its humble
degree, as administering both to moral and spiritual purposes."

TO THE CUCKOO

O blithe New-comer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice?

While I am lying on the grass, 5
Thy twofold shout I hear;
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off, and near.

Though babbling only to the Vale
Of sunshine and of flowers, 10
Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing, 15
A voice, a mystery;

The same whom in my schoolboy days
I listened to; that Cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky. 20

To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen.

And I can listen to thee yet; 25
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.

O blessed Bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be 30
An unsubstantial, faery place;
That is fit home for Thee!

1. O BLITHE NEW-COMER. The Cuckoo is migratory, and appears in England
in the early spring. Compare _Solitary Reaper_, l. 16.

I HAV HEARD. i.e., in my youth.

3. SHALL I CALL THEE BIRD? Compare Shelley.

Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert.
_To a Skylark_.

4. A WANDERING VOICE? Lacking substantial existence.

6. TWOFOLD SHOUT. Twofold, because consisting of a double note. Compare
Wordsworth's sonnet, _To the Cuckoo_, l. 4:

"With its twin notes inseparably paired."

Wordsworth employs the word "shout" in several of his Cuckoo
descriptions. See _The Excursion_, ii. l. 346-348 and vii. l. 408; also
the following from _Yes! it was the Mountain Echo_:

Yes! it was the mountain echo,
Solitary, clear, profound,
Answering to the shouting Cuckoo;
Giving to her sound for sound.

NUTTING

------It seems a day
(I speak of one from many singled out),
One of those heavenly days that cannot die;
When, in the eagerness of boyish hope,
I left our cottage threshold, sallying forth 5
With a huge wallet o'er my shoulders slung,
A nutting-crook in hand, and turned my steps
Toward some far-distant wood, a Figure quaint,
Tricked out in proud disguise of cast-off weeds,
Which for that service had been husbanded, 10
By exhortation of my frugal Dame,--
Motley accoutrement, of power to smile
At thorns, and brakes, and brambles, and, in truth,
More ragged than need was! O'er pathless rocks,
Through beds of matted fern and tangled thickets, 15
Forcing my way, I came to one dear nook
Unvisited, where not a broken bough
Drooped with its withered leaves, ungracious sign
Of devastation; but the hazels rose
Tall and erect, with tempting clusters hung, 20
A virgin scene! A little while I stood,
Breathing with such suppression of the heart
As joy delights in; and with wise restraint
Voluptuous, fearless of a rival, eyed
The banquet; or beneath the trees I sate 25
Among the flowers, and with the flowers I played;
A temper known to those, who, after long
And weary expectation, have been blest
With sudden happiness beyond all hope.
Perhaps it was a bower beneath whose leaves 30
The violets of five seasons reappear
And fade, unseen by any human eye;
Where fairy water-breaks do murmur on
Forever; and I saw the sparkling foam,
And, with my cheek on one of those green stones 35
That, fleeced with moss, under the shady trees,
Lay round me, scattered like a flock of sheep,
I heard the murmur and the murmuring sound,
In that sweet mood when pleasure loves to pay
Tribute to ease; and of its joy secure, 40
The heart luxuriates with indifferent things,
Wasting its kindliness on stocks and stones,
And on the vacant air. Then up I rose,
And dragged to earth both branch and bough, with crash
And merciless ravage: and the shady nook 45
Of hazels, and the green and mossy bower,
Deformed and sullied, patiently gave up
Their quiet being: and unless I now
Confound my present feelings with the past,
Ere from the mutilated bower I turned 50
Exulting, rich beyond the wealth of kings,
I felt a sense of pain when I beheld
The silent trees, and saw the intruding sky.--
Then, dearest Maiden, move along these shades
In gentleness of heart; with gentle hand 55
Touch,--for there is a spirit in the woods.

5. OUR COTTAGE THRESHOLD. "The house at which I was boarded during the
time I was at school." (Wordsworth's note, 1800). The school was the
Hawkshead School.

9. TRICKED OUT=_dressed_. The verb "to trick"="to dress" is derived
probably from the noun, "trick" in the sense of 'a dexterous artifice,'
'a touch.' See "Century Dictionary."

CAST-OFF WEEDS=_cast-off clothes_. Wordsworth originally wrote 'of
Beggar's weeds.' What prompted him to change the expression?

10. FOR THAT SERVICE. i.e., for nutting.

12-13. OF POWER TO SMILE AT THORNS=_able to defy_, etc. Not because of
their strength, but because so ragged that additional rents were of small
account.

21. VIRGIN=_unmarred, undevastated_.

31. Explain the line. Notice the poetical way in which the poet conveys
the idea of solitude, (l. 30-32).

33. FAIRY WATER-BREAKS=_wavelets, ripples_. _Cf_.:--

Many a silvery _water-break_
Above the golden gravel.
Tennyson, _The Brook_.

36. FLEECED WITH MOSS. Suggest a reason why the term "fleeced" has
peculiar appropriateness here.

39-40. Paraphrase these lines to bring out their meaning.

43-48. THEN UP I ROSE. Contrast this active exuberant pleasure not
unmixed with pain with the passive meditative joy that the preceding
lines express.

47-48. PATIENTLY GAVE UP THEIR QUIET BEING. Notice the attribution of
life to inanimate nature. Wordsworth constantly held that there was a
mind and all the attributes of mind in nature. _Cf_. l. 56, "for there
is a spirit in the woods."

53. AND SAW THE INTRUDING SKY. Bring out the force of this passage.

54. THEN, DEAREST MAIDEN. This is a reference to the poet's Sister,
Dorothy Wordsworth.

56. FOR THERE IS A SPIRIT IN THE WOODS. _Cf. Tintern Abbey_, 101 f.

A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

INFLUENCE OF NATURAL OBJECTS

Wisdom and Spirit of the universe!
Thou Soul, that art the Eternity of thought!
And giv'st to forms and images a breath
And everlasting motion! not in vain,
By day or starlight, thus from my first dawn 5
Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me
The passions that build up our human soul;
Not with the mean and vulgar works of Man:
But with high objects, with enduring things,
With life and nature: purifying thus 10
The elements of feeling and of thought,
And sanctifying by such discipline
Both pain and fear,--until we recognize
A grandeur in the beatings of the heart.

Nor was this fellowship vouchsafed to me 15
With stinted kindness. In November days,
When vapors rolling down the valleys made
A lonely scene more lonesome; among woods
At noon; and 'mid the calm of summer nights,
When, by the margin of the trembling lake, 20
Beneath the gloomy hills, homeward I went
In solitude, such intercourse was mine:
Mine was it in the fields both day and night,
And by the waters, all the summer long.
And in the frosty season, when the sun 25
Was set, and, visible for many a mile,
The cottage windows through the twilight blazed,
I heeded not the summons: happy time
It was indeed for all of us; for me
It was a time of rapture! Clear and loud 30
The village clock tolled six--I wheeled about,
Proud and exulting like an untired horse,
That cares not for his home,--All shod with steel
We hissed along the polished ice, in games
Confederate, imitative of the chase 35
And woodland pleasures,--the resounding horn,
The pack loud-chiming, and the hunted hare.
So through the darkness and the cold we flew,
And not a voice was idle; with the din
Smitten, the precipices rang aloud; 40
The leafless trees and every icy crag
Tinkled like iron; while far-distant hills
Into the tumult sent an alien sound
Of melancholy, not unnoticed, while the stars,
Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west 45
The orange sky of evening died away.

Not seldom from the uproar I retired
Into a silent bay, or sportively
Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous throng,
To cut across the reflex of a star; 50
Image, that, flying still before me, gleamed
Upon the glassy plain; and oftentimes,
When we had given our bodies to the wind,
And all the shadowy banks on either side
Came sweeping through the darkness, spinning still 55
The rapid line of motion, then at once
Have I, reclining back upon my heels,
Stopped short, yet still the solitary cliffs
Wheeled by me--even as if the earth had rolled
With visible motion her diurnal round! 60
Behind me did they stretch in solemn train,
Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watched
Till all was tranquil as a summer sea.

1-14. In what other poems does Wordsworth describe "the education of
nature?"

8. Nature's teaching is never sordid nor mercenary, but always purifying
and ennobling.

10. PURIFYING, also SANCTIFYING (l. 12), refer to "Soul" (l. 2).

12-14. Human cares are lightened in proportion to our power of
sympathising with nature. The very beatings of our heart acquire a
certain grandeur from the fact that they are a process of nature and
linked thus to the general life of things. It is possible that "beatings
of the heart" may figuratively represent the mere play of the emotions,
and thus have a bearing upon the words "pain and fear" in line 13.

15. FELLOWSHIP. Communion with nature in her varying aspects as
described in the following lines.

31. VILLAGE CLOCK. The village was Hawkshead.

35. CONFEDERATE. Qualifies "we," or "games." Point out the different
shades of meaning for each agreement.

42. TINKLED LIKE IRON. "When very many are skating together, the sounds
and the noises give an impulse to the icy trees, and the woods all round
the lake _tinkle_." S. T. Coleridge in _The Friend_, ii, 325 (1818).

42-44. The keenness of Wordsworth's sense perceptions was very
remarkable. His susceptibility to impressions of sound is well
illustrated in this passage, which closes (l. 43-46) with a color picture
of striking beauty and appropriateness.

50. REFLEX=_reflection_. _Cf_.:

Like the _reflex_ of the moon
Seen in a wave under green leaves.
Shelley, _Prometheus Unbound_, iii, 4.

In later editions Wordsworth altered these lines as follows:

To cut across the image. 1809. To cross the bright reflection. 1820.

54-60. The effect of rapid motion is admirably described. The spinning
effect which Wordsworth evidently has in mind we have all noticed in the
fields which seem to revolve when viewed from a swiftly moving: train.
However, a skater from the low level of a stream would see only the
fringe of trees sweep past him. The darkness and the height of the banks
would not permit him to see the relatively motionless objects in the
distance in either hand.

57-58. This method of stopping short upon one's heels might prove
disastrous.

58-60. The effect of motion persists after the motion has ceased.

62 63. The apparent motion of the cliffs grows feebler by degrees until
"all was tranquil as a summer sea." In _The_ [Transcriber's note: the
rest of this footnote is missing from the original book because of a
printing error.]

TO THE REV. DR. WORDSWORTH

(WITH THE SONNETS TO THE RIVER DUDDON, AND OTHER
POEMS IN THIS COLLECTION, 1820).

The minstrels played their Christmas tune
To-night beneath my cottage-eaves;
While, smitten by a lofty moon,
The encircling laurels, thick with leaves,
Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen, 5
That overpowered their natural green.

Through hill and valley every breeze
Had sunk to rest with folded wings;
Keen was the air, but could not freeze,
Nor check, the music of the strings; 10
So stout and hardy were the band
That scraped the chords with strenuous hand:

And who but listened?--till was paid
Respect to every Inmate's claim:
The greeting given, the music played, 15
In honor of each household name,
Duly pronounced with lusty call,
And "Merry Christmas" wished to all!

O Brother! I revere the choice
That took thee from thy native hills; 20
And it is given thee to rejoice:
Though public care full often tills
(Heaven only witness of the toil)
A barren and ungrateful soil.

Yet, would that Thou, with me and mine, 25
Hadst heard this never-failing rite;
And seen on other faces shine
A true revival of the light
Which Nature and these rustic Powers,
In simple childhood, spread through ours! 30

For pleasure hath not ceased to wait
On these expected annual rounds;
Whether the rich man's sumptuous gate
Call forth the unelaborate sounds,
Or they are offered at the door 35
That guards the lowliest of the poor.

How touching, when, at midnight, sweep
Snow-muffled winds, and all is dark
To hear--and sink again-to sleep
Or, at an earlier call, to mark, 40
By blazing fire, the still suspense
Of self-complacent innocence;

The mutual nod,--the grave disguise
Of hearts with gladness brimming o'er;
And some unbidden tears that rise 45
For names once heard, and heard no more;
Tears brightened by the serenade
For infant in the cradle laid.

Ah! not for emerald fields alone,
With ambient streams more pure and bright 50
Than fabled Cytherea's zone
Glittering before the Thunderer's sight,
Is to my heart of hearts endeared
The ground where we were born and reared!

Hail, ancient Manners! sure defence, 55
Where they survive, of wholesome laws;
Remnants of love whose modest sense
Thus into narrow room withdraws;
Hail, Usages of pristine mould,
And ye that guard them, Mountains old! 60

Bear with me, Brother! quench the thought
That slights this passion, or condemns;
If thee fond Fancy ever brought
From the proud margin of the Thames,
And Lambeth's venerable towers, 65
To humbler streams, and greener bowers.

Yes, they can make, who fail to fill
Short leisure even in busiest days;
Moments, to cast a look behind,
And profit by those kindly rays 70
That through the clouds do sometimes steal,
And all the far-off past reveal.

Hence, while the imperial City's din
Beats frequent on thy satiate ear,
A pleased attention I may win 75
To agitations less severe,
That neither overwhelm nor cloy,
But fill the hollow vale with joy!

Christopher Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth in Cumberland on June 9th,
1774. He received his early education at Hawkshead Grammar School and in
1792 entered Trinity College, Cambridge, as a pensioner. He graduated in
1796 with high honours in mathematics, and in 1798 was elected a fellow
of his college. He took his M.A. degree in 1799 and was awarded the
degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1810. While at Cambridge Christopher had
been tutor to Viscount Canterbury, who introduced him to his father, at
that time Bishop of Norwich. Through the good offices of the Bishop he
was appointed to the rectory of Ashby, Norfolk, and thus, with prospects
settled, he was enabled to marry. On the appointment of the Bishop of
Norwich to the Archbishopric of Canterbury he was appointed domestic
chaplain to the Archbishop. Subsequently in 1816 he was appointed rector
of St. Mary's, Lambeth, the living he held at the time the poem in the
text was written.

In 1820 Christopher was made Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, a
position he held until his resignation in 1841. He died at Buxted on
February 2nd, 1846. "He was an earnest and deeply religious man; in some
respects a high churchman of the old school, but with sympathy for
whatever was good and noble in others. In politics he was a staunch
Conservative."

15. THE GREETING GIVEN, THE MUSIC PLAYED. Till the greeting had been
given and the music played.

17. Attributive to "name" (l. 16.)

18. Explain the construction of "wished."

50. AMBIENT=_winding_.

51. CYTHEREA'S ZONE. The goddess Venus was named Cytherea because she
was supposed to have been born of the foam of the sea near Cythera, an
island off the coast of the Peloponnesus. Venus was the goddess of love,
and her power over the heart was strengthened by the marvellous zone or
girdle she wore.

52. THE THUNDERER. The reference is to Jupiter, who is generally
represented as seated upon a golden or ivory throne holding in one hand
the thunderbolts, and in the other a sceptre of cypress.

55-60. Suggest how this stanza is characteristic of Wordsworth.

65. LAMBETH'S VENERABLE TOWERS. Lambeth Palace, the official residence
of the Archbishop of Canterbury, is on the Thames. Wordsworth's brother
Christopher, afterwards Master of Trinity College, was then (1820) Rector
of Lambeth.

ELEGIAC STANZAS

SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE OF PEELE CASTLE, IN A STORM,
PAINTED BY SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT.

I was thy neighbor once, thou rugged Pile!
Four summer weeks I dwelt in sight of thee:
I saw thee every day; and all the while
Thy Form was sleeping on a glassy sea.

So pure the sky, so quiet was the air! 5
So like, so very like, was day to day!
Whene'er I looked, thy Image still was there;
It trembled, but it never passed away.

How perfect was the calm! it seemed no sleep;
No mood, which season takes away, or brings: 10
I could have fancied that the mighty Deep
Was even the gentlest, of all gentle Things.

Ah! THEN, if mine had been the Painter's hand,
To express what then I saw; and add the gleam,
The light that never was. On sea or land, 15
The consecration, and the Poet's dream;

I would have planted thee, thou hoary Pile,
Amid a world how different from this!
Beside a sea that could not cease to smile;
On tranquil land, beneath a sky of bliss. 20

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