PREFACE.

THIS little book is not a new attempt at criticism, an endeavour to estimate the genius, or to weigh the merits, of the poetry of Wordsworth.' Its aim is much humbler: viz., to interpret the poems, by bringing out the singularly close connection between them, and the district of the English Lakes, and by explaining Wordsworth's numerous allusions to the locality. As such, it is only one small stone added to the cairn, that is being raised to his memory, by the devotion of successive generations.

It

It aims at being a guide to the Poems, more than to the District; and to the District, only in so far as it is reflected in, and interpreted by, the Poems. necessarily takes for granted a certain knowledge of both. The latter, however, are no longer caviare to the multitude.' The number of those who can trace to their influence much of what is highest and

1 To a certain extent this is done in the Lecture printed as an Appendix.

best within them is multiplying with the spread of culture, and almost in proportion to the complexity of our civilisation; while the peculiar charm of the former is increasingly felt by Englishmen.

Many of Wordsworth's allusions to Place are obscure; and the exact localities, as well as individual objects, are difficult to identify. It is doubtful if he cared whether they could be afterwards traced out or not; and in reference to one (see p. 53), when asked by a friend to indicate the particular spot, he refused to localise it, saying, "Oh yes; that, or any other that will suit." Besides, in some of his most realistic passages, he avowedly weaves together a description of places remote from each other. Numerous instances of this will occur as we proceed.

It is true that 'poems of places' are not meant to be photographs; and were they simply to reproduce the features of a particular district, and be an exact transcript of reality, they would be literary photographs and not poems. Poetry cannot, in the nature of things, be a mere register of phenomena appealing to the eye or the ear. No imaginative writer, however, within the range of English literature, is so peculiarly identified with locality as Wordsworth is; and there is not one on the roll of poets, the appreciation of whose writings is more aided by an intimate knowledge of the district in which he lived.