A FACT, AND AN IMAGINATION;
Or, Canute and Alfred, on the Sea-shore[199]
Composed 1816.—Published 1820
[The first and last fourteen lines of this poem each make a sonnet, and were composed as such; but I thought that by intermediate lines they might be connected so as to make a whole. One or two expressions are taken from Milton's History of England.—I. F.]
One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."—Ed.
The Danish Conqueror, on his royal chair,
Mustering a face of haughty[200] sovereignty,
To aid a covert purpose, cried—"O ye
Approaching Waters of the deep, that share
With this green isle my fortunes, come not where
Your Master's throne is set."—Deaf was the Sea;
Her waves rolled on, respecting his decree
Less than they heed a breath of wanton air.[201]
—Then Canute, rising from the invaded throne,
Said to his servile Courtiers,—"Poor the reach,[202]
The undisguised extent, of mortal sway!
He only is a King, and he alone
Deserves the name (this truth the billows preach)
Whose everlasting laws, sea, earth, and heaven, obey."
This just reproof the prosperous Dane
Drew from the influx of the main,
For some whose rugged northern mouths would strain
At oriental flattery;
And Canute (fact more worthy to be known)[203]
From that time forth did for his brows disown
The ostentatious symbol of a crown;
Esteeming earthly royalty
Contemptible as vain.[204]
Now hear what one of elder days,
Rich theme of England's fondest praise,
Her darling Alfred, might have spoken;[205]
To cheer the remnant of his host
When he was driven from coast to coast,
Distressed and harassed, but with mind unbroken:[206]
30
"My faithful followers, lo! the tide is spent
That rose, and steadily advanced to fill
The shores and channels, working Nature's will
Among the mazy streams that backward went,
And in the sluggish pools where ships are pent:
And now, his[207] task performed, the flood stands still,
At the green base of many an inland hill,[CC]
In placid beauty and sublime content![208]
Such the repose that sage and hero find;
Such measured rest the sedulous and good
Of humbler name; whose souls do, like the flood
Of Ocean, press right on; or gently wind,
Neither to be diverted nor withstood,
Until they reach the bounds by Heaven assigned."
The passage from Milton's History of England (book vi.), referred to in the Fenwick note, relates an incident, "which" (as Milton justly says), "unless to Court-Parasites, needed no such laborious demonstration." There is only one expression borrowed by Wordsworth: "The Sea, as before, came rolling on, ... whereat the King, quickly rising, wished all about him to behold and consider the weak and frivolous form of a King, and that none indeed deserved the name of a King, but he whose Eternal Laws both Heaven, Earth, and Sea obey."—Ed.
VARIANTS:
[199] 1820.
ms.
. . . by the sea-side.
[200] 1820.
ms.
. . . haughtiest . . .
[201] 1840.
Your Master's throne is set!"—Absurd decree!
A mandate uttered to the foaming sea,
Is to its motions less than wanton air.
[202] 1820.
ms.
Said to his Courtiers, Scanty is the reach,
[203] 1845.
ms. and 1820.
And Canute (truth . . .
ms.
And Canute, which is worthiest to be known,
ms.
. . . what . . .
ms.
And in the self same Page is told that he
[204] 1857.
ms. and 1820.
Contemptible and vain.
[205] 1820.
. . . have taught
The Sea, the prompter of his thought,
Such words as these methinks he might have spoken
[206] 1820.
ms.
Distressed but not down broken:
[207] 1837.
ms. and 1820.
. . . its . . .
[208] 1820.
ms.
. . . entire content.
FOOTNOTE:
[CC] Compare Tennyson, In Memoriam, stanza xix.—
There twice a day the Severn fills;
The salt sea-water passes by,
And hushes half the babbling Wye,
And makes a silence in the hills.