title was 'Incident, Characteristic of a favourite Dog, which belonged to a Friend of the Author'.--Ed.] * TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF THE SAME DOG 102 Composed 1805.--Published 1807 [Was written at the same time, 1805. The Dog Music died, aged and blind, by falling into a draw-well at Gallow] Hill, to the great grief of the family of the Hutchinsons, who, as has been before mentioned, had removed to that place from Sockburn.--I. F.] One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--Ed. Lie [1] here, without a record of thy worth, Beneath a [2] covering of the common earth! It is not from unwillingness to praise, Or want of love, that here no Stone we raise; More thou deserv'st; but
this man gives to man, 5 Brother to brother,
this is all we can. Yet [3] they to whom thy virtues made thee dear Shall find thee through all changes of the year: This Oak points out thy grave; the silent tree Will gladly stand a monument of thee. 10 We grieved for thee, and wished thy end were past; [4] And willingly have laid thee here at last: For thou hadst lived till every thing that cheers 103 In thee had yielded to the weight of years; Extreme old age had wasted thee away, 15 And left thee but a glimmering of the day; Thy ears were deaf, and feeble were thy knees,-- I saw thee stagger in the summer breeze, Too weak to stand against its sportive breath, And ready for the gentlest stroke of death. 20 It came, and we were glad; yet tears were shed; Both man and woman wept when thou wert dead; Not only for a thousand thoughts that were, Old household thoughts, in which thou hadst thy share; But for some precious boons vouchsafed to thee, 25 Found scarcely any where in like degree! For love, that comes wherever life and sense Are given by God, in thee was most intense; [5] A chain of heart, a feeling of the mind, A tender sympathy, which did thee bind 30 Not only to us Men, but to thy Kind: Yea, for thy fellow-brutes in thee we saw A soul [6] of love, love's intellectual law:-- Hence, if we wept, it was not done in shame; Our tears from passion and from reason came, 35 And, therefore, shalt thou be an honoured name! * 104 VARIANTS ON THE TEXT [Variant 1: In the editions of 1807 to 1820 the following lines began the poem. They were withdrawn in 1827. Lie here sequester'd:--be this little mound For ever thine, and be it holy ground!] [Variant 2: 1827. Beneath the ... 1807.] [Variant 3: But ... MS.] [Variant 4: 1837. I pray'd for thee, and that thy end were past; 1807. I grieved for thee, and wished thy end were past; 1820.] 105 [Variant 5: 1837. For love, that comes to all; the holy sense, Best gift of God, in thee was most intense; 1807.] [Variant 6: 1837. The soul ... 1807.] * TO THE DAISY (#4) Composed 1805.--Published 1815 106 Placed by Wordsworth among his "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."--Ed. Sweet Flower! belike one day to have A place upon thy Poet's grave, I welcome thee once more: But He, who was on land, at sea, My Brother, too, in loving thee, 5 Although he loved more silently, Sleeps by his native shore. Ah! hopeful, hopeful was the day When to that Ship he bent his way, To govern and to guide: 10 His wish was gained: a little time Would bring him back in manhood's prime And free for life, these hills to climb; With all his wants supplied. And full of hope day followed day 15 While that stout Ship at anchor lay Beside the shores of Wight; The May had then made all things green; And, floating there, in pomp serene, That Ship was goodly to be seen, 20 107 His pride and his delight! Yet then, when called ashore, he sought The tender peace of rural thought: In more than happy mood To your abodes, bright daisy Flowers! 25 He then would steal at leisure hours, And loved you glittering in your bowers, A starry multitude. But hark the word!--the ship is gone;-- Returns from her long course: [1]--anon 30 Sets sail:--in season due, Once more on English earth they stand: But, when a third time from the land They parted, sorrow was at hand For Him and for his crew. 35 Ill-fated Vessel!--ghastly shock! --At length delivered from the rock, The deep she hath regained; And through the stormy night they steer; Labouring for life, in hope and fear, 40 To reach a safer shore [2]--how near, Yet not to be attained! "Silence!" the brave Commander cried; To that calm word a shriek replied, It was the last death-shriek. 45 108 --A few (my soul oft sees that sight) Survive upon the tall mast's height; [3] But one dear remnant of the night-- For Him in vain I seek. Six weeks beneath the moving sea 50 He lay in slumber quietly; Unforced by wind or wave To quit the Ship for which he died, (All claims of duty satisfied;) And there they found him at her side; 55 And bore him to the grave. Vain service! yet not vainly done For this, if other end were none, That He, who had been cast Upon a way of life unmeet 60 For such a gentle Soul and sweet, Should find an undisturbed retreat Near what he loved, at last-- That neighbourhood of grove and field To Him a resting-place should yield, 65 A meek man and a brave! The birds shall sing and ocean make A mournful murmur for
his sake; And Thou, sweet Flower, shalt sleep and wake Upon his senseless grave. [4] 70 109 * VARIANTS ON THE TEXT [Variant 1: 1837. From her long course returns:--... 1815.] [Variant 2: 1837. Towards a safer shore--... 1815.] [Variant 3: 1837 --A few appear by morning light, Preserved upon the tall mast's height: Oft in my Soul I see that sight; 1815.] 110 [Variant 4: In the edition of 1827 and subsequent ones, Wordsworth here inserted a footnote, asking the reader to refer to No. VI. of the "Poems on the Naming of Places," beginning "When, to the attractions of the busy world," p. 66. His note of 1837 refers also to the poem which there precedes the present one,
viz. the 'Elegiac Stanzas.'--Ed.] * ELEGIAC STANZAS [A] SUGGESTED BY A PICTURE OF PEELE CASTLE, IN A STORM, PAINTED BY SIR GEORGE BEAUMONT Composed 1805.--Published 1807 [Sir George Beaumont painted two pictures of this subject, one of which he gave to Mrs. Wordsworth, saying she ought to have it; but Lady Beaumont interfered, and after Sir George's death she gave it to Sir 111 Uvedale Price, at whose house at Foxley I have seen it.--I. F.] Placed by Wordsworth among his "Epitaphs and Elegiac Pieces."--Ed. I was thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile! Four summer weeks I dwelt in sight of thee: I saw thee every day; and all the while Thy Form was sleeping on a glassy sea. So pure the sky, so quiet was the air! 5 So like, so very like, was day to day! Whene'er I looked, thy Image still was there; It trembled, but it never passed away. How perfect was the calm! it seemed no sleep; No mood, which season takes away, or brings: 10 I could have fancied that the mighty Deep Was even the gentlest of all gentle Things. Ah! THEN, if mine had been the Painter's hand, To express what then I saw; and add the gleam, The light that never was, on sea or land, 15 The consecration, and the Poet's dream; [1] I would have planted thee, thou hoary Pile Amid a world how different from this! 112 Beside a sea that could not cease to smile; On tranquil land, beneath a sky of bliss. 20 Thou shouldst have seemed a treasure-house divine [2] Of peaceful years; a chronicle of heaven;-- Of all the sunbeams that did ever shine The very sweetest had to thee been given. A Picture had it been of lasting ease, 25 Elysian quiet, without toil or strife; No motion but the moving tide, a breeze, Or merely silent Nature's breathing life. Such, in the fond illusion [3] of my heart, Such Picture would I at that time have made: 30 And seen the soul of truth in every part, A stedfast peace that might not be betrayed. [4] So once it would have been,--'tis so no more; I have submitted to a new control: A power is gone, which nothing can restore; 35 A deep distress hath humanised my Soul. Not for a moment could I now behold A smiling sea, and be what I have been: The feeling of my loss will ne'er be old; This, which I know, I speak with mind serene. 40 Then, Beaumont, Friend! who would have been the Friend, 113 If he had lived, of Him whom I deplore, This work of thine I blame not, but commend; This sea in anger, and that dismal shore. O 'tis a passionate Work!--yet wise and well, 45 Well chosen is the spirit that is here; That Hulk which labours in the deadly swell, This rueful sky, this pageantry of fear! And this huge Castle, standing here sublime, 1 love to see the look with which it braves, 50 Cased in the unfeeling armour of old time, The lightning, the fierce wind, and trampling waves. Farewell, farewell the heart that lives alone, Housed in a dream, at distance from the Kind! Such happiness, wherever it be known, 55 Is to be pitied; for 'tis surely blind. But welcome fortitude, and patient cheer, And frequent sights of what is to be borne! Such sights, or worse, as are before me here.-- Not without hope we suffer and we mourn. 60 * VARIANTS ON THE TEXT 114 [Variant 1: 1807. and add a gleam, The lustre, known to neither sea nor land, But borrowed from the youthful Poet's dream; 1820. ... the gleam, 1827. The edition of 1832 returns to the text of 1807. [a]] [Variant 2: 1845. ... a treasure-house, a mine 1807. The whole of this stanza was omitted in the editions of 1820-1843.] [Variant 3: 1815. ... delusion ... 1807.] 115 [Variant 4: 1837. A faith, a trust, that could not be betray'd. 1807.] * FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT [Footnote A: The original title, in MS, was 'Verses suggested', etc,--Ed.] * SUB-FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT [Sub-Footnote a: Many years ago Principal Shairp wrote to me, "Have you noted how the two lines, 'The light that never was,' etc., stood in the edition of 1827? I know no other such instance of a change from commonplace to perfection of
