The Poem
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| Inland, within a hollow vale, I stood; And saw, while sea was calm and air was clear, The coast of France—the coast of France how near! Drawn almost into frightful neighbourhood. I shrunk; for verily the barrier flood Was like a lake, or river bright and fair, A span of waters; yet what power is there! What mightiness for evil and for good! Even so doth God protect us if we be Virtuous and wise. Winds blow, and waters roll, Strength to the brave, and Power, and Deity; Yet in themselves are nothing! One decree Spake laws to them, and said that by the soul Only, the Nations shall be great and free. [Note] [Contents 1802] [Main Contents] | [B] | 5 10 |
From 1807 to 1843 the title was September, 1802; "near Dover" appeared in the "Sonnets" of 1838, but did not become a permanent part of the title until 1845.—Ed.
Compare in S. T. Coleridge's Ode to the Departing Year, stanza vii.:
'And Ocean 'mid his uproar wild
Speaks safety to his island-child.'
Ed.
Note:
In The Friend (ed. 1818, vol. i. p. 107), Coleridge writes:
"The narrow seas that form our boundaries, what were they in times of old? The convenient highway for Danish and Norman pirates. What are they now? Still, but a 'Span of Waters.' Yet they roll at the base of the Ararat, on which the Ark of the Hope of Europe and of Civilization rested!"
He then quotes this sonnet from the line "Even so doth God protect us if we be."
The [note] appended to the sonnet, Composed in the Valley near Dover, on the day of Landing (p. 341), shows that this one refers to the same occasion; and that while "Inland, within a hollow vale," Wordsworth was, at the same time, on the Dover Cliffs; the "vale" being one of the hollow clefts in the headland, which front the Dover coast-line. The sonnet may, however, have been finished afterwards in London.—Ed.
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