CHAPTER XVII. WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE, SOUTHEY, AND OTHER William Wordsworth. 1770-1850. (History, pp. 235-238.) 206. From 'THE EXCURSION.' THE GREEK MYTHOLOGY. -In that fair clime, the lonely herdsman, stretched On the soft grass through half a summer's day, Aud, in some fit of weariness, if he, When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear Up towards the crescent moon, with grateful heart 1. A beardless youth: Apollo, called by Horace "intonsus." 2. A beaming goddess: Diana. The identity between beam, a ray, and beam, a tree, Ger. baum, existed even in O. E. beám. No doubt the point of resemblance between the two phenomena is their straightness.-Milton, Comus, line 340, calls a light ray a "long-levell❜d rule of streaming light;" Euripides in the Supplices (650), a “кavшv σaþýs;" and Tennyson, in Enoch Arden, speaks of the "scarlet shafts of sunrise." ་་ Swept in the storm of chase; as moon and stars When winds are blowing strong. The traveller slaked Might, with small help from fancy, be transformed The Zephyrs fanning, as they passed, their wings, The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god! 3. Naiads and Oreads were nymphs of the springs and mountains respectively. 207. TINTERN ABBEY. Oh! how oft In darkness and amid the many shapes Of joyless daylight; when the fretful1 stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world, Have hung upon the beatings of my heart How oft, in spirit, have I turn'd to thee, O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer through the woods, And now, 1. Fretful: the original meaning of the fret of this word was to eat, as in the phrase "the moth that fretteth a garment;" and is still seen in Ger. fressen, to eat. The Homeric phrase ov Ovμòv Kaтédwv will show us how it passed to its modern sense. Fret, to adorn, is an entirely different word. And somewhat of a sad perplexity, The picture of the mind revives again: While here I stand, not only with the sense For future years. And so I dare to hope, Though changed,2 no doubt, from what I was when first Flying from something that he dreads, than one That had no need of a remoter charm, Nor harsh, nor grating, though of ample power A presence that disturbs me with the joy 2. Changed: Fr. changer, E. change, come from L. L. cambiare (Gk. kάμTTELY, SPECS. ENG. LIT. Káμßew, to bend), through It. cambiare, cangiare (Diez). Χ Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 208. PORTRAIT. Mr. De Quincey ('Autobiographic Sketches,' vol. ii. p. 237) states that the following beautiful lines were intended to describe the poet's wife, Mary Hutchinson, who had also been his cousin. She was married to him at the beginning of the present century, and survived him for some years. She was a Phantom of delight When first she gleam'd upon my sight; A lovely Apparition, sent To be a moment's ornament; Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair; I saw her upon nearer view, Sweet records, promises as sweet; A Creature not too bright or good Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. And now I see with eye serene 209. YARROW UNVISITED. The river Yarrow, so famous in poetry, is a tributary of the Ettrick, which is itself a tributary of the Tweed. Burns, Scott, Hogg have contributed to its lustre as well as Wordsworth; but its special distinction is Hamilton's remarkable ballad The Braes of Yarrow, from which the phrase "winsome Marrow" in the verses below is taken. For the poem itself see Percy's 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.' We have two other pieces, possessing at least equal merit, from Wordsworth's pen, called Yarrow Visited and Yarrow Revisited, the latter of which derives a melancholy interest from its connection with the last years of Sir Walter Scott. From Stirling Castle we had seen The mazy Forth unravelled; "Let Yarrow folk, frae Selkirk town, Who have been buying, selling, Hares couch, and rabbits burrow! 1. Marrow: a provincial word, meaning travelling companion. The poet's sister, Miss Dorothy Wordsworth, is the person referred to. 2. Yarrow, a word of Celtic origin, means the "rough water." The first syllable is found in the Yare, and the second in the Avon (Celtic aon, water). |