VII. THE VOICES OF NATURE.

From book IV, 1156–87. The Wanderer is expatiating upon the power of the universe to act as a medium between man and the invisible, just as in a shell, when its opening is placed to the ear, are heard

Murmurings, whereby the monitor expressed

Mysterious union with its native sea.

In like manner, the soul finds in the sights and sounds of Nature, received by the senses, echoes of 'the immortal sea' of eternity, from which, as set forth in Intimations of Immortality, its being has proceeded.

2. a shock of awful consciousness] Cf. the ' gentle shock of mild surprise' in Prelude, selection v, 19, p. 85 above.

5. circumambient] Surrounding. The evening mists, descending upon the crags, form the roof of a temple of which the crags are the walls.

IO. What if these] See selection 11, 26-30, for the absence or rarity of birds in the bleak mountain-valley of Blea Tarn. 23. the solitary raven] See introd. note on To Joanna, and note on ll. 56–66, pp. 118, 119, 120, 121 above.

VIII. THE DEAF DALESMAN.

From book VII, 395-481. Books v-ix of The Excursion are the account of a visit paid by the author, with the Wanderer and Solitary, to a more populous valley, where they are welcomed by the vicar of the parish, an old friend of the Wanderer. In books vi and VII the Pastor holds a dialogue in the churchyard with his visitors and tells them the stories of some of those who lie buried there. These character sketches have a pathos and a sympathy with rustic life which are Wordsworth's own peculiar property, and the instance given here is perhaps the most striking of such 'clear images'

Of nature's unambitious underwood,

And flowers that prosper in the shade.

Its style should be compared with that of the picture given in Michael, selection 1, pp. 13-16 above: it has a similar quietude and similar fitness of language to a homely subject, blended with an exalted sense of the stern grandeur of the natural setting of the tale. The narratives in this part of The Excursion naturally provoke a comparison with those told by Crabbe in The Parish Register and other poems; but Crabbe, while possessing gifts of humour and epigrammatic brevity which form a remarkable contrast to Wordsworth's unrelieved seriousness and occasional prolixity, took a less optimistic view of human nature and lacked Wordsworth's sense of the sublime encouragement afforded to man by his natural environment. The churchyard is that of Grasmere, and the narratives are drawn from personal reminiscences of the neighbourhood.

6. a plain blue stone] Of the local slate.

II. The bird of dawn] Cf. Gray, Elegy, 19, 20, 'The cock's shrill clarion,' etc. The cock and the cuckoo (1. 14) were the only birds whose voices were heard in the Solitary's valley: see selection 11, 26-30, p. 95 above. As the dialogue of the Pastor and the Wanderer was intended to rouse the Solitary from his self-concentrated retirement, an intentional contrast is probably implied between the privileges allowed to him and denied to the dalesman, who, in spite of his isolation from the sounds of earth, retained content and fortitude.

14. vernal] Cf. The Tables turned, 21, p. 4 above.

23. the solace of his own pure thoughts] Cf. Milton, Comus, 381, 382:

He that has light within his own clear breast

May sit i' the centre, and enjoy bright day.

40. independent love] Voluntary love, alloyed by no sense of dependence upon another person.

52. His introverted spirit] His spirit, forced, through his deafness, to inward communion with itself.

59, 60. See Hebrews xii, 23: 'the spirits of just men made perfect'; and Wisdom iii, 1: 'the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and there shall no torment touch them.'

67. slow-varying] Slow to alter, alluding to the patient fixity of expression habitual to the faces of the deaf, which relaxes slowly in proportion to their gradual comprehension of events round them.

IX. SUNSET AND SUMMER HAZE.

From book IX, 590-608. The concluding scene of the poem, from a hill-slope on the shore of the lake opposite the village. All its personages are assembled here, and the sunset gives occasion to the Pastor's hymn of 'holy transport' to the 'Eternal Spirit! universal God!' with which the day closes. After this ' vesper-service' the party cross the lake silently under a faded sky,' as the stars come out, and separate, the Solitary returning to his valley with new hope derived from communion with his fellows and their lessons of sympathy. This beautiful picture of a quiet and hazy evening sky transfigured by the power of sunset should be compared with the magnificent vision of full sunlight breaking through cloud and mist after a storm on the mountains, in Excursion, II, 829-69, and with the stanzas Composed upon an evening of extraordinary splendour and beauty.

6. the dense air] The thick haze at the end of a hot summer day, hiding the sun. Cf. the Latin spissus aër, the dense atmosphere, contrasted in Ovid, Mett. 1, 23, with the liquidum caelum, the clear firmament.

9. pierced] I.e. the little clouds were pierced by the rays of the setting sun.

16. the unapparent fount of glory] The sun itself, still unseen, but communicating its brightness to the whole sky.

18. the liquid deep] The lake below, reflecting the glory of the sky.

INDEX TO NOTES