POEMS BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH SELECTED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY STOPFORD A. BROOKE ILLUSTRATED BY EDMUND H. NEW METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. IT PREFACE T was at Grasmere, in 1903, that Mr. New and I met to settle the project of this little book and the form in which it should be presented to the public. We visited Dove Cottage together; we walked through the churchyard where Wordsworth lies so quietly, listening to the soft voice of the river he loved; we went to Far Easdale, and on another day followed the stream that falls from the deep hollow of Easdale Tarn till it reaches the alders near Steel Bridge; we were companions of the Rothay as it runs, with a young man's strength, from Pelter Bridge to the meadows of Ambleside; we talked together of all the mountains that surround the valley-of Fairfield and Great Rigg, of Stone Arthur and Seat Sandal, of Loughrigg and Silver How, great creatures of the flying mist and the quiet stars, whose names and characters, through a poet's power, are dear to England and the lovers of beauty beyond the shores of England. I felt with him that the poetry of Wordsworth when he dealt with the scenery of the Lake Country had not as yet been fully illustrated, that the artists, seduced by the picturesque, had not sufficiently realised that spiritual essence of the landscape and its parts-'the soul of lonely places'-which Wordsworth made the foundation of his poetry of nature. Many of them, also, again led away by the merely picturesque, had drawn only what they thought pretty in church and cottage and village, and had not felt the profound sympathy with that simple life and those natural passions of the heart which the peasant, the 'statesman,' and the poor, built into form in the humble dwellings where they lived their quiet life of work in love, and in the low-roofed churches where they enshrined their patient religion. 'If,' I said, 'you can, even at a distance, embody the spirit of these two ideas of Wordsworth, and while you draw, live in them and feel them deeply, we may, in your illustrations, feel Wordsworth through another art than that of poetry. And this will be a great good.' The answer Mr. New made to me will be found in the letter which closes this Preface. It explains the spirit in which he worked, the method he employed in these illustrations, and when I saw them, I thought that they would not only make that beautiful country more dear to those who loved it, but the poetry which released its soul for us, nearer and more consoling to the heart of man. The spirit which pervades them is in harmony with the spirit in which Wordsworth walked the hills and by the streams, and lived with the shepherds of the valley. Here is Mr. New's letter. 'I have tried to recall the train of thought which created the impulse to make a series of illustrations for Wordsworth's Poems, and prompted me to write asking you to help me by making a selection and editing the volume. For many years I had found, voiced by Wordsworth, much of Nature's own great heart and meaning, and the Poems, year by year, gave me fresh insight into the beauty and wonder of the world, while Nature, in her turn, opened my eyes to the depth of Wordsworth's mind and message. A visit to the Lakes brought a new revelation, both of Nature's wealth and beauty, and of Wordsworth's power. On seeing the hills and vales, the lakes and streams among which he wrote, the Poems appeared to me in a new light, and possessed of a power and charm unknown before. 'Now that I had seen his lakes, his streams, his mountains and rocks, it seemed as if my eyes were opened. I felt that no one who had not visited the scenes which were ever before him (or, when absent, ever cherished by that "inward eye") could fully understand the Poems; and I determined to make a set of drawings of the country, such as would form a sort of pictorial commentary to the verses, and explain, so far as I was able to make them, what Wordsworth meant by "rocks and stones and trees," by mountain, stream, and lake. 'In my determination I was further encouraged, if also somewhat bewildered, by the loveliness of the country. The dignity of the forms of mountain and of rock; the beauty and significance of each vale and boulder; the subtle fascination of lake and stream with their mingled appeal to eye and ear; and, lastly, the richness and freshness of the vegetation, from forest tree down to tiniest fern and blossom half-hidden in the crevice of the rock,-all united to form an impression of power, of life, and of beauty. 'In the older villages and dwellings too I found the same sincerity as in every natural form, indeed the qualities possessed by the Poems and by the landscape appeared to me in a striking degree similar. 'To illustrate every allusion to the scenery would have been impracticable, and to illustrate even a selection of the Poems fully was entirely beyond my power. All I dare attempt was to make drawings of the landscape forms and details, and, within these limits, I was obliged to keep to the centres most closely associated with Wordsworth's life and work. 'I therefore arranged the pictures into four groups comprising his favourite and most familiar haunts. I begin with Cockermouth where his childhood was spent; Hawkshead, |