It preceded "Descriptive Sketches" in publication. Wordsworth wrote on a copy of the 4to, "This is the first of my published poems, with the exception of a Sonnet." Knight's "Wordsworth," iv. 22. Extracts, retouched in places, were given in 1815; the passages selected were the quarry; swans; westernlights, spirits, night, moonlight. In 1820 the poem was given at length, and in the note prefixed to the "Juvenile Pieces" the following words appeared : "It would have been easy to amend them ['Evening Walk' and Descriptive Sketches'] in many passages, both as to sentiment and expression, and I have not been altogether able to resist the temptation; but attempts of this kind are made at the risk of injuring those characteristic features, which, after all, will be regarded as the principal recommendation of juvenile poems." "An Evening Walk" as well as "Descriptive Sketches" from 1836 onwards is altered in so many places from the original text that it is impossible to present the changes in notes, and it has been thought well to reprint the poems as issued in 1793 in an Appendix in the last volume of the present edition.-ED. Lines written while sailing in a Boat at Evening (page 18). This title is scarcely correct. It was during a solitary walk on the banks of the Cam that I was first struck with this appearance, and applied it to my own feelings in the manner here expressed, changing the scene to the Thames, near Windsor. This, and the three stanzas of the following poem, "Remembrance of Collins," formed one piece; but, upon the recommendation of Coleridge, the three last stanzas were separated from the other.-I. F. Dated by Wordsworth 1789; first published 1798, forming part of the poem in five stanzas divided in 1800 into two poems, "Lines, &c." and "Remembrance of Collins." In 1815 and some later editions this and the following piece were placed among "Poems proceeding from Sentiment and Reflection." Ll. 1, 2 (1815); previously : "How rich the wave, in front, imprest Remembrance, &c. (page 19). See note on preceding poem. The text was retouched in 1800 and 1802; 1.17 (1802); in 1798: "Remembrance! as we glide along," in recollection of the following stanza from Collins' "Ode on the death of Thomson. The scene on the Thames near Richmond”: "Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore Where Thames in summer wreaths is drest, And oft suspend the dashing oar, "Him" is in italics, because now the oar is suspended not for Thomson but for Collins.-ED. Descriptive Sketches (page 20). Much the greatest part of this poem was composed during my walks upon the banks of the Loire in the years 1791, 1792. I will only notice that the description of the valley filled with mist, beginning-" In solemn shapes," was taken from that beautiful region of which the principal features are Lungarn and Sarnen. Nothing that I ever saw in nature left a more delightful impression on my mind than that which I have attempted, alas! how feebly, to convey to others in these lines. Those two lakes have always interested me especially, from bearing, in their size and other features, a resemblance to those of the North of England. It is much to be deplored that a district so beautiful should be so unhealthy as it is.I. F. First published in 1793 Extracts were given in "Poems" of 1815. In 1820 the poem was given in full with many alterations; it was retouched in 1827 and 1832. In 1836 the present text was substantially attained. It is impossible to present in notes all the changes of text, and, as in the case of "An Evening Walk," the text of 1793 is given in the present edition in an Appendix to the last volume.-ED. Lines (page 46). Composed in part at school at Hawkshead. The tree has disappeared, and the slip of Common on which it stood, that ran parallel to the lake, and lay open to it, has long been enclosed; so that the road has lost much of its attraction. This spot was my favourite walk in the evenings during the latter part of my school-time. The individual whose habits and character are here given, was a gentleman of the neighbourhood, a man of talent and learning, who had been educated at one of our Universities, and returned to pass his time in seclusion on his own estate. He died a bachelor in middle age. Induced by the beauty of the prospect, he built a small summer-house on the rocks above the peninsula on which the ferryhouse stands. This property afterwards passed into the hands of the late Mr. Curwen. The site was long ago pointed out by Mr. West in his Guide, as the pride of the lakes, and now goes by the name of "The Station." So much used I to be delighted with the view from it, while a little boy, that some years before the first pleasure-house was built, I led thither from Hawkshead a youngster about my own age, an Irish boy, who was a servant to an itinerant conjuror. My motive was to witness the pleasure I expected the boy would receive from the prospect of the islands below and the intermingling water. I was not disappointed; and I hope the fact, insignificant as it may appear to some, may be thought worthy of note by others who may cast their eye over these notes. - I. F. Dated (in 1815) by Wordsworth 1795; first printed 1798. As we see from the preceding note it was in part written before October, 1787. Lines 13-24 stood in 1798 thus: "In youth, by genius nurs'd, And big with lofty views, he to the world In 1800 the present text of this passage was nearly reached, but between the word "neglect" and the words "with indignation" the following (omitted in 1802) appeared : "The world, for so it thought, Owed him no service: he was like a plant L. 27. "The stone-chat or the glancing sand-piper" returns (1820) to the text of 1798 from that of 1815: "The stone-chat, or the sand-lark, restless bird, Piping along the margin of the lake." Lamb (Letters, ed. Ainger, i. 283) had complained in 1815 of the loss of the " admirable line," "a line quite alive." Professor Knight states that the yew-tree (not that now sometimes called "Wordsworth's Yew") stood "about three-quarters of a mile from Hawkshead, on the eastern shore of the la lake, a little to the left above the present highway as you go towards Sawrey." Guilt and Sorrow (page 48). Unwilling to be unnecessarily particular, I have assigned this poem to the dates 1793 and 1794; but in fact much of the "Female Vagrant's" story was composed at least two years before. All that relates to her sufferings as a sailor's wife in America, and her condition of mind during her voyage home, were faithfully taken from the report made to me of her own case by a friend who had been subjected to the same trials and affected in the same way. Mr. Coleridge, when I first became acquainted with him, was so much impressed with this poem, that it would have encouraged me to publish the whole as it then stood; but the mariner's fate appeared to me so tragical as to require a treatment more subdued and yet more strictly applicable in expression than I had at first given to it. This fault was corrected nearly fifty years afterwards, when I determined to publish the whole. It may be worth while to remark, that, though the incidents of this attempt do only in a small degree produce each other, and it deviates accordingly from the general rule by which narrative pieces ought to be governed, it is not therefore wanting in continuous hold upon the mind, or in unity, which is effected by the identity of moral interest that places the two personages upon the same footing in the reader's sympathies. My rambles over many parts of Salisbury Plain put me, as mentioned in the preface, upon writing this poem, and left on my mind imaginative impressions the force of which I have felt to this day. From that district I proceeded to Bath, Bristol, and so on to the banks of the Wye, where I took again to travelling on foot. In remembrance of that part of my journey, which was in 1793, I began the verses-"Five years have passed."I. F. Written in part 1791-2; in part 1793-4; rehandled for "Poems, chiefly of Early and Late Years," 1842. Published: stanzas xxii.-xxxiv, and xxxviii-l, with the title "The Female Vagrant," in "Lyrical Ballads," 1798; published in full as "Guilt and Sorrow," 1842. In 1802 the original thirty stanzas were reduced by rehandling to twenty-six. In 1815 an extract (part of xxxiv, and stanzas xxxviii-l) was given. From 1820 to "Poetical Works," 1843, "The Female Vagrant" was again given, but reduced to twentyfive stanzas. The portion published in 1798 was much altered in the several rehandlings. Beside the changes made by Wordsworth from the point of view of poetic art, there are others the object of which seems to be to moderate the force of his indictment of society. The poem of 1798 opened with a stanza, of which only part of the first line remains: * By Derwent's side my Father's cottage stood, One field, a flock, and what the neighbouring flood Perhaps Wordsworth thought that "fleecy store" for "sheep" was an affected piece of diction, for in 1800 he substitutes "Or from the mountain fold Saw on the distant lake his twinkling oar, This stanza disappears in 1802. St. xxiii, ll. 1, 2, till 1842 stood thus : "My father was a good and pious man, Stanza xxiv is a good example of Wordsworth's skill in retouching. It stood originally thus: "Can I forget what charms did once adorn pride." |