THE PILGRIM'S DREAM;

Or, the Star and the Glow-worm

Composed 1818.—Published 1820

[I distinctly recollect the evening when these verses were suggested in 1818. It was on the road between Rydal and Grasmere, where Glow-worms abound.[DB] A Star was shining above the ridge of Loughrigg Fell, just opposite. I remember a critic, in some review or other, crying out against this piece. "What so monstrous," said he, "as to make a star talk to a glow-worm!" Poor fellow! we know from this sage observation what the "primrose on the river's brim" was to him.—I. F.]

One of the "Poems of the Fancy."—Ed.

A pilgrim, when the summer day

Had closed upon his weary way,

A lodging begged beneath a castle's roof;

But him the haughty Warder spurned;

And from the gate the Pilgrim turned,[302]

To seek such covert as the field

Or heath-besprinkled copse might yield,

Or lofty [303] wood, shower-proof.

He paced along; and, pensively,

Halting beneath a shady tree,

Whose moss-grown root might serve for couch or seat,

Fixed on a Star his upward eye;

Then, from the tenant of the sky

He turned, and watched with kindred look,

A Glow-worm, in a dusky nook,

Apparent at his feet.

The murmur of a neighbouring stream

Induced a soft and slumbrous dream,

A pregnant dream, within whose shadowy bounds

He recognised the earth-born Star,

And That which glittered from afar;[304]

And (strange to witness!) from the frame

Of the ethereal Orb, there came

Intelligible sounds.

Much did it taunt the humble Light [305]

That now, when day was fled, and night

Hushed the dark earth, fast closing weary eyes,[306]

A very reptile could presume

To show her taper in the gloom,

As if in rivalship with One

Who sate a ruler on his throne

Erected in the skies.

"Exalted Star!" the Worm replied,

"Abate this unbecoming pride,

Or with a less uneasy lustre shine;

Thou shrink'st as momently thy rays

Are mastered by the breathing haze;

While neither mist, nor thickest cloud

That shapes in heaven its murky shroud,

Hath power to injure mine.

But [307] not for this do I aspire

To match the spark of local fire,

That at my will burns on the dewy lawn,

With thy acknowledged glories;—No!

Yet, thus upbraided, I may show [308]

What favours do attend me here,

Till, like thyself, I disappear

Before the purple dawn."

When this in modest guise was said,

Across the welkin seemed to spread

A boding sound—for aught but sleep unfit!

Hills quaked, the rivers backward ran;

That Star, so proud of late, looked wan;

And reeled with visionary stir

In the blue depth, like Lucifer

Cast headlong to the pit!

Fire raged: and, when the spangled floor

Of ancient ether was no more,

New heavens succeeded, by the dream brought forth:

And all the happy Souls that rode

Transfigured through that fresh [309] abode

Had heretofore, in humble trust,

Shone meekly 'mid their native dust,

The Glow-worms of the earth!

This knowledge, from an Angel's voice

Proceeding, made the heart rejoice

Of Him who slept upon the open lea:

Waking at morn he murmured not;

And, till life's journey closed, the spot

Was to the Pilgrim's soul endeared,

Where by that [310] dream he had been cheered

Beneath the shady tree.

VARIANTS:

[302] 1820.

. . . Convent's roof;

But him the haughty Abbot spurned,

And from the sumptuous gate he turned

[303] 1820.

The heath or rocky holt might yield,

Or leafy . . .

[304] 1827.

1820.

And That whose radiance gleamed from far;

ms.

. . . streamed . . .

[305] 1845.

1820.

. . . the humbler Light

[306] 1820.

That now, while sleep to solemn Night

Was offering gifts of duteous sacrifice,

[307] 1827.

ms. and 1820.

Yet . . .

[308] 1827.

ms. and 1820.

But it behoves that thou shouldst know

[309] 1820.

ms.

. . . fair abode

[310] 1820.

ms.

. . . this . . .

FOOTNOTE:

[DB] Compare The Primrose of the Rock composed in 1831. The rock which the Wordsworth family were in the habit of calling "Glow-worm Rock" is on the right hand side of the road, as you ascend from Rydal, by the middle path, over White Moss Common to Grasmere.—Ed.