The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. III, by William Wordsworth
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Title: The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. III
Author: William Wordsworth
Release Date: May 19, 2004 [EBook #12383]
Language: English
*** WILLIAM WORDSWORTH POETRY, III ***
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THE POETICAL WORKS
OF
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
EDITED BY WILLIAM KNIGHT
VOL. III
1896
CONTENTS
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1804
"She was a Phantom of delight" "I wandered lonely as a cloud" The Affliction of Margaret--
The Forsaken
Repentance
Address to my Infant Daughter, Dora
The Kitten and Falling Leaves
The Small Celandine
At Applethwaite, near Keswick
Vaudracour and Julia
1805
French Revolution
Ode to Duty
3
To a SkyLark
Fidelity
Incident characteristic of a Favourite Dog Tribute to the Memory of the same Dog To the Daisy (#4)
Elegiac Stanzas
Elegiac Verses
"When, to the attractions of the busy world"
The Cottager to her Infant
The Waggoner
The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind
From the Italian of Michael Angelo
From the Same
From the Same. To the Supreme Being
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APPENDICES
I II III IV V VI VII
WORDSWORTH'S POETICAL WORKS
1804
5
The poems written in 1804 were not numerous; and, with the exception of
'The Small Celandine', the stanzas beginning "I wandered lonely as a cloud," and "She was a Phantom of delight," they were less remarkable than those of the two preceding, and the three following years. Wordsworth's poetical activity in 1804 is not recorded, however, in Lyrical Ballads or Sonnets, but in 'The Prelude', much of which was
thought out, and afterwards dictated to Dorothy or Mary Wordsworth, on the terrace walk of Lancrigg during that year; while the 'Ode,
Intimations of Immortality' was altered and added to, although it did
not receive its final form till 1806. In the sixth book of 'The
Prelude', p. 222, the lines occur:
'Four years and thirty, told this very week, Have I been now a sojourner on earth.'
That part of the great autobiographical poem must therefore have been composed in April, 1804.--Ed.
*
"SHE WAS A PHANTOM OF DELIGHT"
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Composed 1804.--Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. The germ of this poem was four lines composed as a part of the verses on the 'Highland Girl'. Though beginning in this way, it was written from my heart, as is sufficiently obvious.--I. F.]
One of the "Poems of the Imagination."--Ed.
She was a Phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight; [A]
A lovely Apparition, sent
To be a moment's ornament;
Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; 5
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair; But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful Dawn; [1] A dancing Shape, an Image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and way-lay. 10
I saw her upon nearer view, A Spirit, yet a Woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
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And steps of virgin-liberty;
A countenance in which did meet 15
Sweet records, promises as sweet; A Creature not too bright or good For human nature's daily food;
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 20
And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A Being breathing thoughtful breath, A Traveller between [2] life and death;
The reason firm, the temperate will, 25
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill; A perfect Woman, [3] nobly planned,
To warn, to comfort, and command; And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light. [4] 30
*
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1807.
8
From May--time's b:igl:test, liveliesciaw 1; 1836
The texof :)41) re 'l:r:s [Variant 2:
1832.
... betwixt. 1S07.J
1815.
A per fee: \X/orr:a..'l;. 1sr:n.]
[Variant 4:
... of an angel light. l8C7.
angel-light. 1836.]
9
*
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: Compare two references to Mary Wordsworth in 'The Prelude':
'Another maid there was, who also shed A gladness o'er that season, then to me, By her exulting outside look of youth
And placid under-countenance, first endeared;'
(Book vi. l. 224).
'She came, no more a phantom to adorn A moment, but an inmate of the heart, And yet a spirit, there for me enshrined To penetrate the lofty and the low;'
(Book xiv, l. 268).--Ed.]
It is not easy to say what were the "four lines composed as a part of the verses on the 'Highland Girl'" which the Fenwick note tells us was
"the germ of this poem." They may be lines now incorporated in those 'To a Highland Girl', vol. ii. p. 389, or they may be lines in the present
poem, which Wordsworth wrote at first for the 'Highland Girl', but
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afterwards transferred to this one. They may have been the first four lines of the