The Poem
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| O Friend! I know not which way I must look For comfort, being, as I am, opprest, To think that now our life is only drest For show; mean handy-work of craftsman, cook, Or groom!—We must run glittering like a brook In the open sunshine, or we are unblest: The wealthiest man among us is the best: No grandeur now in nature or in book Delights us. Rapine, avarice, expense, This is idolatry; and these we adore: Plain living and high thinking are no more: The homely beauty of the good old cause Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence, And pure religion breathing household laws. [Note] [Contents 1802] [Main Contents] | [1] | [A] [B] | 5 10 |
| 1807 | |
| O thou proud City! which way shall I look | 1838 |
O thou proud City! which way shall I look
The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807.
The "Friend" was Coleridge. In the original MS. it stands "Coleridge! I know not," etc. Wordsworth changed it in the proof stage.—Ed.
Compare—in Hartley Coleridge's Lives of Distinguished Northerners—what is said of this sonnet, in his life of Anne Clifford, where the passing cynicism of Wordsworth's poem is pointed out.—Ed.
Note:
Wordsworth stayed in London from August 30th to September 22nd 1802.—Ed.
[Contents 1802]
[Main Contents]