1807
In few instances is it more evident that the dates which Wordsworth affixed to his poems, in the editions of 1815, 1820, 1836, and 1845,—and those assigned in the Fenwick notes—cannot be absolutely relied upon, than in the case of the poems referring to Coleorton. Trusting to these dates, in the absence of contrary evidence, one would naturally assign the majority of the Coleorton poems to the year 1808. But it is clear that, while the sonnet [To Lady Beaumont] may have been written in 1806, the "Inscription" [For a Seat in the Groves of Coleorton], beginning—
Beneath yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound,
was written, not in 1808 (as stated by Wordsworth himself), but in 1811; and that the other "Inscription" designed for a Niche in the Winter-garden at Coleorton, belongs (I think) to the same year; a year in which he also wrote the sonnet on Sir George Beaumont's picture of Bredon Hill and Cloud Hill, beginning—
Praised be the Art whose subtle power could stay.
When the dates are so difficult to determine, there is a natural fitness in bringing all the poems referring to Coleorton together, so far as this can be done without seriously interfering with chronological order. The two "Inscriptions" intended for the Coleorton grounds, which were written at Grasmere in 1811, are therefore printed along with the poems of 1807; the precise date of each being given—so far as it can be ascertained—underneath its title.
Several political sonnets, and others, were written in 1807; also the [Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle], and the first and larger part of [The White Doe of Rylstone], with a few minor fragments. But, for reasons stated in the notes to [The White Doe of Rylstone] (see [p. 191]), I have assigned that poem to the year 1808. The [Song at the Feast of Brougham Castle] forms as natural a preface to [The White Doe], as [The Force of Prayer, a Tradition of Bolton Abbey], is its natural appendix. The latter was written, however, before [The White Doe of Rylstone] was finished.
It would be easier to fix the date of some of the poems written between the years 1806 and 1808, if we knew the exact month in which the two volumes of 1807 were published; but this, I fear, it is impossible to discover now.