Page images
PDF
EPUB

Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I only have relinquished one delight

To live beneath your more habitual sway.

I love the Brooks which down their channels fret,
Even more than when I tripped lightly as they ;
The innocent brightness of a new-born Day
Is lovely yet;

The Clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober colouring from an eye

That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

PRINCIPAL EVENTS

IN THE LIFE OF WORDSWORTH

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, second son of John
Wordsworth (d. 1783) and Anne (Cookson, of

Penrith, d. 1778) his wife, born

At Hawkshead Grammar School

[ocr errors]

April 7, 1770

1778-86

[blocks in formation]

Settled at Racedown, Dorset, with his sister Dorothy

(b. 1771).

1795

Moved, with his sister, to Alfoxden, Somerset

1797

Lyrical Ballads (containing Lines written a few

Miles above Tintern Abbey,' Coleridge's 'The
Rime of the Ancyent Marinere,' etc.) first pub-
lished

Winter in Germany (Goslar) with his sister.

Settled with Dorothy Wordsworth at Dove Cottage,
Grasmere .

He married his cousin, Mary Hutchinson

His younger and favourite brother John lost at sea.

1798 1798-9

Dec. 1799

Oct. 4, 1802

Feb. 5, 1805

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

They left Grasmere for Rydal Mount

Received the honorary degree of D.C.L. at Oxford, being introduced to the Vice-Chancellor by Keble, then Professor of Poetry .

Appointed Poet Laureate, on Southey's death

His daughter Dora, wife of Edward Quillinan, died.
William Wordsworth died at Rydal Mount, aged

80 years

1808

1811

1813

July 1839

April 1843

July 9, 1847

April 23, 1850

(Wordsworth's wife and sister both survived him, the latter dying on January 25, 1855, the former living until January 17, 1859.)

CONTENTS

* The Editor is responsible for the titles thus indicated.

Extract from the Conclusion of a Poem, composed in anticipation of leaving School

[ocr errors]

Lines left upon a Seat in a Yew-tree, which stands near the Lake of Esthwaite, on a desolate part of the Shore, commanding a beautiful Prospect

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]

Simon Lee, the old Huntsman; with an incident in which

PAGE

[ocr errors]

3

3

5

6

8

16

[blocks in formation]

Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798

28

Nutting

32

Strange fits of passion have I known

34

She dwelt among the untrodden ways

I travelled among unknown men
Three years she grew in sun and shower

A slumber did my spirit seal.

A Poet's Epitaph

The Two April Mornings

35

36

36

37

38 40

« PreviousContinue »