Composed 1789.—Published 1798
| text | variant | footnote | line number |
| Glide gently, thus for ever glide, O Thames! that other bards may see As lovely visions by thy side As now, fair river! come to me. O glide, fair stream! for ever so, Thy quiet soul on all bestowing, Till all our minds for ever flow As thy deep waters now are flowing. Vain thought!—Yet be as now thou art, That in thy waters may be seen The image of a poet's heart, How bright, how solemn, how serene! Such as did once the Poet bless, Who murmuring here a later ditty, Could find no refuge from distress But in the milder grief of pity. Now let us, as we float along, For him suspend the dashing oar; And pray that never child of song May know that Poet's sorrows more. How calm! how still! the only sound, The dripping of the oar suspended! —The evening darkness gathers round By virtue's holiest Powers attended. | [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] | [B] [C] [D] | 5 10 15 20 |
| 1800 | |
| Such heart did once the poet bless, | 1798 |
Such heart did once the poet bless,
| 1815 | |
| Who, pouring here a later[i] ditty, | 1798 |
Who, pouring here a later[i] ditty,
| 1802 | |
| Remembrance, as we glide along, ... float ... | 1798 1800 |
Remembrance, as we glide along,
... float ...
| 1802 | |
| For him ... | 1798 |
For him ...
| 1802 | |
| May know his freezing sorrows more. | 1798 |
May know his freezing sorrows more.
The title in the editions 1802-1815 was
Remembrance of Collins, written upon the Thames near Richmond
.—Ed.
Compare the
After-thought
to
The River Duddon. A Series of Sonnets
:
Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide.
Ed.
Collins's
Ode on the Death of Thomson
, the last written, I believe, of the poems which were published during his life-time. This Ode is also alluded to in the next stanza.—W. W. 1798.
Compare Collins's
Ode on the Death of Thomson
,
The Scene on the Thames near Richmond
:
Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore
When Thames in summer wreaths is drest.
And oft suspend the dashing oar
To bid his gentle spirit rest.
As Mr. Dowden suggests, the
him
was probably italicised by Wordsworth, "because the oar is suspended not for Thomson but for Collins." The italics were first used in the edition of 1802.—Ed.
The italics only occur in the editions of 1798 and 1800.—Ed.
[Descriptive Sketches taken during a Pedestrian Tour among the Alps]
Composed 1791-2[A]—Published 1793
To the Rev. Robert Jones, Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge
Dear Sir[B],—However [desirous] I might have been of giving you proofs of the high place you hold in my esteem, I should have been cautious of wounding your delicacy by thus publicly addressing you, had not the circumstance of our having been companions among the Alps, seemed to give this dedication a propriety sufficient to do away any scruples which your modesty might otherwise have suggested[C].
In inscribing this little work to you, I consult my heart. You know well how great is the difference between two companions lolling in a post-chaise, and two travellers plodding slowly along the road, side by side, each with his little knapsack of necessaries upon his shoulders. How much more of heart between the two latter!
I am happy in being conscious that I shall have one reader who will approach the conclusion of these few pages with regret. You they must certainly interest, in reminding you of moments to which you can hardly look back without a pleasure not the less dear from a shade of melancholy. You will meet with few images without recollecting the spot where we observed them together; consequently, whatever is feeble in my design, or spiritless in my colouring, will be amply supplied by your own memory.
With still greater propriety I might have inscribed to you a description of some of the features of your native mountains, through which we have wandered together, in the same manner, with so much pleasure. But the sea-sunsets, which give such splendour to the vale of Clwyd, Snowdon, the chair of Idris, the quiet village of Bethgelert, Menai and her Druids, the Alpine steeps of the Conway, and the still more interesting windings of the wizard stream of the Dee, remain yet untouched. Apprehensive that my pencil may never be exercised on these subjects, I cannot let slip this opportunity of thus publicly assuring you with how much affection and esteem
I am, dear Sir,
Most sincerely yours,
W. Wordsworth.
London, 1793.
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.
As the original text of the Descriptive Sketches is printed in [Appendix I.] (p. 309) to this volume—with all the notes to that edition of 1793—it is not quoted in the footnotes to the final text in the pages which follow, except in cases which will justify themselves. Therefore the various readings which follow begin with the edition of 1815, which was, however, a mere fragment of the original text. Almost the whole of the poem of 1793 was reproduced in 1820, but there were many alterations of the text in that edition, and in those of 1827, 1832, 1836 and 1845. Wordsworth's own footnotes here reproduced are those which he retained in the edition of 1849.
Descriptive Sketches [was] ranked among the "Juvenile Pieces" from 1815 onwards: but in 1836 it was put in a class by itself along with the Female Vagrant[D].—Ed.
'Happiness (if she had been to be found on earth) among the charms of Nature—
Pleasures of the pedestrian Traveller—
Author crosses France to the Alps—
Present state of the Grande Chartreuse—
Lake of Como—
Time, Sunset—
Same Scene, Twilight—
Same Scene, Morning; its voluptuous Character; Old man and forest-cottage music—
River Tusa—
Via Mala and Grison Gipsy—
Sckellenen-thal—
Lake of Uri—
Stormy sunset—
Chapel of William Tell—
Force of local emotion—
Chamois-chaser—
View of the higher Alps—
Manner of Life of a Swiss mountaineer, interspersed with views of the higher Alps—
Golden Age of the Alps—
Life and views continued—
Ranz des Vaches, famous Swiss Air—
Abbey of Einsiedlen and its pilgrims—
Valley of Chamouny—
Mont Blanc—
Slavery of Savoy—
Influence of liberty on cottage-happiness—
France—
Wish for the Extirpation of slavery—
Conclusion'.