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CONTENTS

1821-2
PAGE
Ecclesiastical Sonnets. In Series—
Part I.—From the Introduction of Christianity into Britain, to the Consummation of the Papal Dominion—
I.Introduction[4]
II.Conjectures[5]
III.Trepidation of the Druids[6]
IV.Druidical Excommunication[7]
V.Uncertainty[7]
VI.Persecution[8]
VII.Recovery[9]
VIII.Temptations from Roman Refinements[10]
IX.Dissensions[10]
X.Struggle of the Britons against the Barbarians[11]
XI.Saxon Conquest[12]
XII.Monastery of Old Bangor[13]
XIII.Casual Incitement[14]
XIV.Glad Tidings[15]
XV.Paulinus[15]
XVI.Persuasion[16]
XVII.Conversion[17]
XVIII.Apology[18]
XIX.Primitive Saxon Clergy[19]
XX.Other Influences[19]
XXI.Seclusion[20]
XXII.Continued[21]
XXIII.Reproof[21]
XXIV. Saxon Monasteries, and Lights and Shades of the Religion[22]
XXV.Missions and Travels[23]
XXVI.Alfred[24]
XXVII.His Descendants[25]
XXVIII.Influence Abused[26]
XXIX.Danish Conquests[27]
XXX.Canute[27]
XXXI.The Norman Conquest[28]
XXXII."Coldly we spake. The Saxons, overpowered"[29]
XXXIII.The Council of Clermont[30]
XXXIV.Crusades[31]
XXXV.Richard I[31]
XXXVI.An Interdict[32]
XXXVII.Papal Abuses[33]
XXXVIII.Scene in Venice[34]
XXXIX.Papal Dominion[34]
Part II.—To the Close of the Troubles in the Reign of Charles I—
I."How soon—alas! did Man, created pure"[33]
II."From false assumption rose, and fondly hail'd"[36]
III.Cistertian Monastery[37]
IV."Deplorable his lot who tills the ground"[38]
V.Monks and Schoolmen[39]
VI.Other Benefits[40]
VII.Continued[40]
VIII.Crusaders[41]
IX."As faith thus sanctified the warrior's crest"[42]
X."Where long and deeply hath been fixed the root"[43]
XI.Transubstantiation[44]
XII.The Vaudois[44]
XIII."Praised be the Rivers, from their mountain springs"[45]
XIV.Waldenses[46]
XV.Archbishop Chichely to Henry V.[47]
XVI.Wars of York and Lancaster[48]
XVII.Wicliffe[49]
XVIII.Corruptions of the Higher Clergy[49]
XIX.Abuse of Monastic Power[50]
XX.Monastic Voluptuousness[51]
XXI.Dissolution of the Monasteries[52]
XXII.The Same Subject[52]
XXIII.Continued[53]
XXIV.Saints[54]
XXV.The Virgin[54]
XXVI.Apology[55]
XXVII.Imaginative Regrets[56]
XXVIII.Reflections[57]
XXIX.Translation of the Bible[58]
XXX.The Point at Issue[58]
XXXI.Edward VI[59]
XXXII.Edward signing the Warrant for the Execution of Joan of Kent[60]
XXXIII.Revival of Popery[61]
XXXIV.Latimer and Ridley[61]
XXXV.Cranmer[62]
XXXVI.General View of the Troubles of the Reformation[64]
XXXVII.English Reformers in Exile[64]
XXXVIII.Elizabeth[65]
XXXIX.Eminent Reformers[66]
XL.The Same[67]
XLI.Distractions[68]
XLII.Gunpowder Plot[69]
XLIII.Illustration. The Jung-frau and the Fall of the Rhine near Schaffhausen[70]
XLIV.Troubles of Charles the First[71]
XLV.Laud[71]
XLVI.Afflictions of England[72]
Part III.—From the Restoration to the Present Times—
I."I saw the figure of a lovely Maid"[74]
II.Patriotic Sympathies[74]
III.Charles the Second[75]
IV.Latitudinarianism[76]
V.Walton's Book of Lives[77]
VI.Clerical Integrity[78]
VII.Persecution of the Scottish Covenanters[79]
VIII.Acquittal of the Bishops[79]
IX.William the Third[80]
X.Obligations of Civil to Religious Liberty[81]
XI.Sacheverel[82]
XII."Down a swift Stream, thus far, a bold design"[83]
XIII.Aspects of Christianity in America.—1. The Pilgrim Fathers[84]
XIV.2. Continued[85]
XV.3. Concluded.—American Episcopacy[85]
XVI."Bishops and Priests, blessèd are ye, if deep"[86]
XVII.Places of Worship[87]
XVIII.Pastoral Character[87]
XIX.The Liturgy[88]
XX.Baptism[89]
XXI.Sponsors[90]
XXII.Catechising[91]
XXIII.Confirmation[92]
XXIV.Confirmation Continued[92]
XXV.Sacrament[93]
XXVI.The Marriage Ceremony[94]
XXVII.Thanksgiving after Childbirth[95]
XXVIII.Visitation of the Sick[96]
XXIX.The Commination Service[96]
XXX.Forms of Prayer at Sea[97]
XXXI.Funeral Service[97]
XXXII.Rural Ceremony[98]
XXXIII.Regrets[99]
XXXIV.Mutability[100]
XXXV.Old Abbeys[100]
XXXVI.Emigrant French Clergy[101]
XXXVII.Congratulation[102]
XXXVIII.New Churches[102]
XXIX.Church to be erected[103]
XL.Continued[104]
XLI.New Churchyard[104]
XLII.Cathedrals, etc.[105]
XLIII.Inside of King's College Chapel, Cambridge[106]
XLIV.The Same[106]
XLV.Continued[107]
XLVI.Ejaculation[107]
XLVII.Conclusion[108]
To the Lady Fleming, on seeing the Foundation preparing for the Erection of Rydal Chapel, Westmoreland[109]
On the Same Occasion[114]
1823
Memory[117]
"Not Love, not War, nor the tumultuous swell"[118]
"A volant Tribe of Bards on earth are found"[119]
1824
To ——[121]
To ——[122]
"How rich that forehead's calm expanse!"[123]
To ——[124]
A Flower Garden, at Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire[125]
To the Lady E. B. and the Hon. Miss P.[128]
To the Torrent at the Devil's Bridge, North Wales, 1824[129]
Composed among the Ruins of a Castle in North Wales[131]
Elegiac Stanzas[132]
Cenotaph[135]
1825
The Pillar of Trajan[137]
The Contrast: The Parrot and the Wren[141]
To a Skylark[143]
1826
"Ere with cold beads of midnight dew"[145]
Ode composed on May Morning[146]
To May[148]
"Once I could hail (howe'er serene the sky)"[152]
"The massy Ways, carried across these heights"[154]
Farewell Lines[155]
1827
On seeing a Needlecase in the Form of a Harp[157]
Miscellaneous Sonnets—
Dedication[159]
To ——[159]
"Her only pilot the soft breeze, the boat"[160]
"Why, Minstrel, these untuneful murmurings"[161]
To S. H.[162]
Decay of Piety[163]
"Scorn not the Sonnet; Critic, you have frowned"[163]
"Fair Prime of life! were it enough to gild"[164]
Retirement[165]
"There is a pleasure in poetic pains"[166]
Recollection of the Portrait of King Henry Eighth, Trinity Lodge, Cambridge[166]
"When Philoctetes in the Lemnian isle"[167]
"While Anna's peers and early playmates tread"[168]
To the Cuckoo[169]
The Infant M—— M——[170]
To Rotha Q——[171]
To ——, in her Seventieth Year[172]
"In my mind's eye a Temple, like a cloud"[173]
"Go back to antique ages, if thine eyes"[174]
"If thou indeed derive thy light from Heaven"[174]
In the Woods of Rydal[176]
Conclusion. To ——[177]
1828
A Morning Exercise[178]
The Triad[181]
The Wishing-Gate[189]
The Wishing-Gate Destroyed[192]
A Jewish Family[195]
Incident at Brugès[198]
A Grave-Stone upon the Floor in the Cloisters of Worcester Cathedral[201]
The Gleaner[202]
On the Power of Sound[203]
1829
Gold and Silver Fishes in a Vase[214]
Liberty. (Sequel to the above)[216]
Humanity[222]
"This Lawn, a carpet all alive"[227]
Thoughts on the Seasons[229]
A Tradition of Oker Hill in Darley Dale, Derbyshire[230]
Filial Piety[231]
1830
The Armenian Lady's Love[232]
The Russian Fugitive[239]
The Egyptian Maid; or, The Romance of the Water Lily[252]
The Poet and the Caged Turtledove[265]
Presentiments[266]
"In these fair vales hath many a Tree"[269]
Elegiac Musings[269]
"Chatsworth! thy stately mansion, and the pride"[272]
1831
The Primrose of the Rock[274]
To B. R. Haydon, on seeing his Picture of Napoleon Bonaparte on the Island of St. Helena[276]
Yarrow Revisited, and Other Poems—
I."The gallant Youth, who may have gained"[280]
II.On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford, for Naples[284]
III.A Place of Burial in the South of Scotland[285]
IV.On the Sight of a Manse in the South of Scotland[286]
V.Composed in Roslin Chapel, during a Storm[287]
VI.The Trosachs[288]
VII."The pibroch's note, discountenanced or mute"[290]
VIII.Composed after reading a Newspaper of the Day[290]
IX.Composed in the Glen of Loch Etive[291]
X.Eagles[292]
XI.In the Sound of Mull[293]
XII.Suggested at Tyndrum in a Storm[294]
XIII.The Earl of Breadalbane's Ruined Mansion, and Family Burial-Place, near Killin[295]
XIV."Rest and be Thankful!"[295]
XV.Highland Hut[296]
XVI.The Brownie[297]
XVII.To the Planet Venus, an Evening Star[299]
XVIII.Bothwell Castle[299]
XIX. Picture of Daniel in the Lions' Den, at Hamilton Palace[301]
XX.The Avon[303]
XXI. Suggested by a View from an Eminence in Inglewood Forest[304]
XXII.Hart's-Horn Tree, near Penrith[305]
XXIII.Fancy and Tradition[306]
XXIV.Countess' Pillar[307]
XXV.Roman Antiquities[308]
XXVI.Apology for the Foregoing Poems[309]
XXVII.The Highland Broach[310]
1832
Devotional Incitements[314]
"Calm is the fragrant air, and loth to lose"[317]
To the Author's Portrait[318]
Rural Illusions[319]
Loving and Liking[320]
Upon the late General Fast[323]
1833
A Wren's Nest[325]
To ——, upon the Birth of her First-born Child, March 1833[328]
The Warning. A Sequel to the Foregoing[330]
"If this great world of joy and pain"[336]
On a High Part of the Coast of Cumberland[337]
(By the Sea-Side)[338]
Composed by the Sea-Shore[340]
Poems, composed or suggested during a Tour in the Summer of 1833—
I."Adieu, Rydalian Laurels! that have grown"[342]
II. "Why should the Enthusiast, journeying through this Isle"[343]
III."They called Thee Merry England, in old time"[343]
IV.To the River Greta, near Keswick[344]
V.To the River Derwent[345]
VI.In Sight of the Town of Cockermouth[346]
VII.Address from the Spirit of Cockermouth Castle[347]
VIII.Nun's Well, Brigham[347]
IX.To a Friend[348]
X.Mary Queen of Scots[349]
XI.Stanzas suggested in a Steam-Boat off Saint Bees' Heads, on the Coast of Cumberland[351]
XII.In the Channel, between the Coast of Cumberland and the Isle of Man[358]
XIII.At Sea off the Isle of Man[359]
XIV."Desire we past illusions to recal?"[360]
XV.On entering Douglas Bay, Isle of Man[360]
XVI.By the Sea-Shore, Isle of Man[361]
XVII.Isle of Man[362]
XVIII.Isle of Man[363]
XIX.By a Retired Mariner[364]
XX.At Bala-Sala, Isle of Man[365]
XXI.Tynwald Hill[366]
XXII."Despond who will—I heard a Voice exclaim"[368]
XXIII.In the Frith of Clyde, Ailsa Crag, during an Eclipse of the Sun, July 17[369]
XXIV.On the Frith of Clyde[370]
XXV.On revisiting Dunolly Castle[371]
XXVI.The Dunolly Eagle[372]
XXVII.Written in a Blank Leaf of Macpherson's Ossian[373]
XXVIII.Cave of Staffa[376]
XXIX.Cave of Staffa. (After the Crowd had departed)[377]
XXX.Cave of Staffa[377]
XXXI.Flowers on the Top of the Pillars at the Entrance of the Cave[378]
XXXII.Iona[379]
XXXIII.Iona. (Upon Landing)[380]
XXXIV.The Black Stones of Iona[381]
XXXV."Homeward we turn. Isle of Columba's Cell"[382]
XXXVI.Greenock[383]
XXXVII."'There!' said a Stripling, pointing with meet pride"[383]
XXXVIII.The River Eden, Cumberland[385]
XXXIX.Monument of Mrs. Howard, in Wetheral Church, near Corby, on the Banks of the Eden[386]
XL.Suggested by the Foregoing[387]
XLI.Nunnery[388]
XLII.Steamboats, Viaducts, and Railways[389]
XLIII.The Monument, commonly called Long Meg and her Daughters, near the River Eden[390]
XLIV.Lowther[391]
XLV.To the Earl of Lonsdale[392]
XLVI.The Somnambulist[393]
XLVII.To Cordelia M——[400]
XLVIII."Most sweet it is with unuplifted eyes"[401]
1834
"Not in the lucid intervals of life"[402]
By the Side of Rydal Mere[403]
"Soft as a cloud is yon blue Ridge—the Mere"[405]
"The leaves that rustled on this oak-crowned hill"[406]
The Labourer's Noon-Day Hymn[408]
The Redbreast[410]

Addenda[415]

WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS
1821-2

The only poems belonging to the years 1821-2 were the "Ecclesiastical Sonnets," originally called "Ecclesiastical Sketches." These were written at intervals, from 1821 onwards, but the great majority belong to 1821. They were first published in 1822, in three parts; 102 Sonnets in all. Ten were added in the edition of 1827, several others in the years 1835 and 1836, and fourteen in 1845,—the final edition of 1850 containing 132.

After Wordsworth's return from the Continent in 1820, he visited the Beaumonts at Coleorton, and as Sir George was then about to build a new Church on his property, conversation turned frequently to ecclesiastical topics, and gave rise to the idea of embodying the History of the Church of England in a series of "Ecclesiastical Sketches" in verse. The Sonnets Nos. XXXIX., XL., and XLI., in the third series, entitled, Church to be erected, and New Churchyard, are probably those to which Wordsworth refers as written first, in memory of his morning walk with Sir George Beaumont to fix the site of the Church: but it was the discussions which were being carried on in the British Parliament and elsewhere, in 1821, on the subject of Catholic Disabilities, that led him to enlarge his idea, and project a series of Sonnets dealing with the whole course of the Ecclesiastical History of his country. His brother Christopher—while Dean and Rector of Bocking, and domestic chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury—had published, in 1809, six volumes of Ecclesiastical Biography; or, the Lives of Eminent Men connected with the History of Religion in England. Southey's Book of the Church,—to which Wordsworth refers in the Fenwick note prefixed to his Sonnets—was not published till 1823; and Wordsworth says, in a note to the edition of 1822, that his own work was far advanced before he was aware that Southey had taken up the subject. As several of the Sonnets, however, are well illustrated by passages in Southey's book, I have given a number of extracts from the latter work in the editorial notes.