The Poem

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Stranger! this hillock of mis-shapen stones
Is not a Ruin spared or made by time,
Nor, as perchance thou rashly deem'st, the Cairn
Of some old British Chief: 'tis nothing more
Than the rude embryo of a little Dome
Or Pleasure-house, once destined to be built
Among the birch-trees of this rocky isle.
But, as it chanced, Sir William having learned
That from the shore a full-grown man might wade,
And make himself a freeman of this spot
At any hour he chose, the prudent Knight
Desisted, and the quarry and the mound
Are monuments of his unfinished task.
The block on which these lines are traced, perhaps,
Was once selected as the corner-stone
Of that intended Pile, which would have been
Some quaint odd plaything of elaborate skill,
So that, I guess, the linnet and the thrush,
And other little builders who dwell here,
Had wondered at the work. But blame him not,
For old Sir William was a gentle Knight,
Bred in this vale, to which he appertained
With all his ancestry. Then peace to him,
And for the outrage which he had devised
Entire forgiveness!—But if thou art one
On fire with thy impatience to become
An inmate of these mountains,—if, disturbed
By beautiful conceptions, thou hast hewn
Out of the quiet rock the elements
Of thy trim Mansion destined soon to blaze
In snow-white splendour,—think again; and, taught
By old Sir William and his quarry, leave
Thy fragments to the bramble and the rose;
There let the vernal slow-worm sun himself,
And let the redbreast hop from stone to stone.
[Contents]
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[5]
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[Variant 1:]

1837
Is not a ruin of the ancient time,1800
... antique ...MS.

Is not a ruin of the ancient time,

... antique ...

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[Variant 2:]

1802
... which was to have been built 1800

... which was to have been built

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[Variant 3:]

1800
Of some old British warrior: so, to speak
The honest truth, 'tis neither more nor less
Than the rude germ of what was to have been
A pleasure-house, and built upon this isle.


MS.

Of some old British warrior: so, to speak
The honest truth, 'tis neither more nor less
Than the rude germ of what was to have been
A pleasure-house, and built upon this isle.

[return]

[Variant 4:]

1837
... the Knight forthwith1800

... the Knight forthwith

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[Variant 5:]

1837
Of the ...1800

Of the ...

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[Variant 6:]

1800
Bred here, and to this valley appertainedMS. 1798.

Bred here, and to this valley appertained

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[Variant 7:]

1800
... glory, ...1802

... glory, ...

The text of 1815 returns to that of 1800.

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[Footnote A:]

In a MS. copy this is given as "the lesser Island."—Ed

.

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[Footnote B:]

Compare Wordsworth'

s

"objections to white, as a colour, in large spots or masses in landscape,"

in his Guide through the district of the Lakes (section third).—Ed.

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[1798 Contents]
[Main Contents]

end of Volume II: 1798→[1799]
[Main Contents]

Wordsworth's Poetical Works, Volume 2: 1799

Edited by William Knight

1896

[Table of Contents]

1799

The poems belonging to the year 1799 were chiefly, if not wholly, composed at Goslar, in Germany; and all, with three exceptions, appeared in the second edition of Lyrical Ballads (1800). The exceptions were the following:

Wordsworth reached Goslar on the 6th of October 1798, and left it on the 10th of February 1799. It is impossible to determine the precise order in which the nineteen or twenty poems associated with that city were composed. But it is certain that the fragment on the immortal boy of Windermere —whom its cliffs and islands knew so well—was written in 1798, and not in 1799 (as Wordsworth himself states); because Coleridge sent a letter to his friend, thanking him for a MS. copy of these lines, and commenting on them, of which the date is "Ratzeburg, Dec. 10, 1798." For obvious reasons, however, I place the fragments originally meant to be parts of The Recluse together; and, since Wordsworth gave the date 1799 to the others, it would be gratuitous to suppose that he erred in reference to them all, because we know that his memory failed him in reference to one of the series. Therefore, although he spent more than twice as many days in 1798 as in 1799 at Goslar, I set down this group of poems as belonging to 1799, rather than to the previous year. It will be seen that, after placing all the poems of this Goslar period in the year to which they belong, it is possible also to group them according to their subject matter, without violating chronological order. I therefore put the fragments, afterwards incorporated in The Prelude, together. These are naturally followed by Nutting—a poem intended for The Prelude, but afterwards excluded, as inappropriate. The five poems referring to "Lucy" are placed in sequence, and the same is done with the four "Matthew" poems. A small group of four poems follows appropriately, viz. To a Sexton, The Danish Boy, Lucy Gray, and Ruth; while the Fenwick note almost necessitates our placing the Poet's Epitaph immediately after the Lines Written in Germany; and, with Wordsworth's life at Goslar, we naturally associate five things—the cold winter, The Prelude, the "Lucy" and the "Matthew" poems, and the Poet's Epitaph.—Ed.

[1799 Contents]
[Main Contents]

Influence of Natural Objects in calling forth and strengthening the Imagination in Boyhood and Early Youth

From an Unpublished Poem

[This extract is reprinted from

The Friend

[A]

.]