"THERE!' SAID A STRIPLING," etc.

One of the poems composed or suggested during a tour in the summer of 1833; published in 1835. The text is unchanged. Wordsworth's Fenwick note is interesting in its criticism of Burns and may be given in full: "Mossgiel was thus pointed out to me by a young man on the top of the coach on my way from Glasgow to Kilmarnock. It is remarkable that, though Burns lived some time here, and during much the most productive period of his poetical life, he nowhere adverts to the splendid prospects stretching towards the sea and bounded by the peaks of Arran on one part, which in clear weather he must have had daily before his eyes. In one of his poetical effusions he speaks of describing 'fair Nature's face' as a privilege on which he sets a high value; nevertheless, natural appearances rarely take a lead in his poetry. It is as a human being, eminently sensitive and intelligent, and not as a poet, clad in his priestly robes and carrying the ensigns of sacerdotal office, that he interests and affects us. Whether he speaks of rivers, hills, and woods, it is not so much on account of the properties with which they are absolutely endowed, as relatively to local patriotic remembrances and associations, or as they ministered to personal feelings, especially those of love, whether happy or otherwise; - yet it is not always so. Soon after we had passed Mossgiel Farm we crossed the Ayr, murmuring and winding through a narrow woody hollow. His line-Auld hermit Ayr strays through his woods'. once to my mind with Irwin, Lugar, Ayr, and Doon, Ayrshire streams over which he breathes a sigh as being unnamed in song; and surely his own attempts to make them known were as successful as his heart could desire."

came at

4. The Daisy. See Burns's "To a Mountain Daisy," written "on turning one up with the plough."

6. Arran, a mountainous island, off the coast of Ayrshire. 9. Bield, shelter.

Daisy."

The quotation is from Burns's "To a Mountain

"TRANQUILLITY! THE SOVEREIGN AIM," etc.

One of the poems composed or suggested during a tour in the summer of 1833; published in 1835. It was suggested by a sonnet (which precedes it in the series) on the monument of Mrs. Howard by Nollekens in Wetheral Church, near Corby, on the banks of the Eden,

County Cumberland. The monument, which Wordsworth had previously seen in the sculptor's studio, represents the mother dying, her dead infant upon her lap; the mother's head is raised heavenward, and one hand touches tenderly the child.

I, 2. ȧrapağla was the aim of Stoic, Epicurean, and Sceptic alike." - Knight.

12.

That Idea, the idea of the Infinite.

"MOST SWEET IT IS," etc.

One of the poems composed or suggested during a tour in the summer of 1833; published in 1835. The text is unchanged.

10. Commerce, intercourse or converse, as in "The Prelude," Bk. xiv, 354:

We sank

Each into commerce with his private thoughts.

COMPOSED ON A MAY MORNING.

This sonnet was written in 1838 and was published in the volume of" Sonnets" of the same year. The text is unchanged.

"A POET! HE HATH PUT," etc.

It is unknown when this sonnet was written; perhaps between 1838, when a collected volume of " Sonnets "appeared, and 1842 when it was first published. Wordsworth says that he was impelled to write it by 'the disgusting frequency with which the word 'artistical,' imported with other impertinances from the Germans, is employed by writers of the present day; for artistical let them substitute artificial, and the poetry written on this system, both at home and abroad, will be for the most part much better characterized." The text is unchanged. The converse truth to Wordsworth is expressed by Burke when he writes, "Art is man's Nature," and by Shakespeare in "The Winter's Tale," IV, 4:

this is an art

Which does mend nature, change it rather, but

The art itself is nature.

THE PINE OF MONTE MARIO AT ROME.

One of the "Memorials of a Tour in Italy, 1837 "; probably written in 1840 or 1841; published in 1842. The text is unchanged. When the sun had just set on Apr. 26, 1837, two hours after entering Rome, Wordsworth and Crabb Robinson walked to the Pincian Hill. The sculptor Theed informed them that the pine-tree had been rescued by the artist Sir George Beaumont, Wordsworth's dead friend, who paid a sum of money on the condition that the proprietor would not cut it down. Later Wordsworth ascended the Monte Mario and could not resist embracing the tree-trunk. "I could almost have kissed it," he wrote home, "out of love for his memory."

TO A PAINTER AND ON THE SAME SUBJECT.

Written in 1840, when Miss Margaret Gillies, staying at Rydal Mount, painted portraits of Mary Wordsworth and of her husband the poet; published in 1842. The text is unchanged. Wordsworth wrote to his daughter, Apr. 7, 1840: "Dearest Dora, your mother tells me she shrinks from copies being spread of those sonnets; she does not wish one, at any rate, to be given to Miss Gillies, for that, without blame to Miss Gillies, would be like advertising them. I assure you her modesty and humble-mindedness were so much shocked, that I doubt if she had more pleasure than pain from these compositions, though I never poured out anything more truly from the heart."

"WANSFELL! THIS HOUSEHOLD," etc.

Dated by Wordsworth Dec. 24, 1842; first published in 1845. Text unchanged.

INDEX OF FIRST LINES.