V. Pelion and Ossa flourish side by side VI. There is a little unpretending Rill VII. Her only pilot the soft breeze, the boat. PAGE MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS-continued XIX. Grief, thou hast lost an ever-ready friend 439 XXVI. From the Same. To the Supreme Being XXVII. Surprised by joy-impatient as the Wind XXX. It is a beauteous evening, calm and free XXXI. Where lies the Land to which yon Ship must go? XXXII. With Ships the sea was sprinkled far and nigh XXXIII. The world is too much with us; late and soon XXXIV. A volant Tribe of Bards on earth are found I. Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned II. How sweet it is, when mother Fancy rocks III. To B. R. Haydon IV. From the dark chambers of dejection freed V. Fair Prime of Life! were it enough to gild MISCELLANEOUS SONNETS-continued PAGE XXIII. 'With how sad Steps, O Moon, Thou climb'st the sky XXIV. Even as a dragon's eye that feels the stress . XXV. The stars are mansions built by Nature's hand XXVI. Desponding Father! mark this altered bough XXVII. A Poet!-He hath put his heart to school XXVIII. The most alluring clouds that mount the sky XXXVI. Oh what a Wreck! how changed in mien and speech! XLII. Wansfell! this Household has a favoured lot XLIII. While beams of orient light shoot wide and high XLIV. In my mind's eye a Temple, like a cloud . XLV. On the projected Kendal and Windermere Railway THE Frontispiece to this Volume represents WORDSWORTH at the age of W INTRODUCTION WORDSWORTH'S life, even for that of a poet, was singularly devoid of romantic or uncommon incidents; and yet no poet has been more constantly inspired by his immediate surroundings or even more minutely autobiographical. The second of these two facts renders a long descriptive account of his life unnecessary; the first would make it tedious unless treated with that fullness of detail and of first-hand evidence, which is beyond the scope of an Introduction, but which alone could make the familiar matter of a quiet life live again before the mind's eye. As the Solitary says― What special record can, or need, be given 1 But, illuminated by the intense glow of the poet's imagination, the very ordinariness of his lot is one of the surest charms to draw and hold his readers. Some poets move almost wholly among supersensible abstractions, whither they are not able to lift more earthly natures. Others are roused only by the strange, the violent, the terrible, the lawless, elements or possibilities of human life; and their spell is like their inspiration, potent but not abiding. In others the senses are like the strings of an Eolian lute, trembling into melody at each touch of the wandering breezes, but uncontrolled by the will of a conscious minstrel we listen 1 Excursion, Book iii. 607. : |