The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 1 (of 8) · Chapter 3An Evening Walk
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Addressed to a Young Lady
The young Lady to whom this was addressed was my Sister. It was composed at School, and during my first two College vacations. There is not an image in it which I have not observed; and, now in my seventy-third year, I recollect the time and place, when most of them were noticed. I will confine myself to one instance:
Waving his hat, the shepherd, from the vale, Directs his winding dog the cliffs to scale,— The dog, loud barking, 'mid the glittering rocks, Hunts, where his master points, the intercepted flocks.
I was an eye-witness of this for the first time while crossing the Pass of Dunmail Raise. Upon second thought, I will mention another image:
And, fronting the bright west, yon oak entwines Its darkening boughs and leaves, in stronger lines.
This is feebly and imperfectly expressed, but I recollect distinctly the very spot where this first struck me. It was on the way between Hawkshead and Ambleside, and gave me extreme pleasure. The moment was important in my poetical history; for I date from it my consciousness of the infinite variety of natural appearances which had been unnoticed by the poets of any age or country, so far as I was acquainted with them; and I made a resolution to supply in some degree the deficiency. I could not have been at that time above fourteen years of age. The description of the swans, that follows, was taken from the daily opportunities I had of observing their habits, not as confined to the gentleman's park, but in a state of nature. There were two pairs of them that divided the lake of Esthwaite, and its in-and-out flowing streams, between them, never trespassing a single yard upon each other's separate domain. They were of the old magnificent species, bearing in beauty and majesty about the same relation to the Thames swan which that does to the goose. It was from the remembrance of those noble creatures, I took, thirty years after, the picture of the swan which I have discarded from the poem of 'Dion'. While I was a schoolboy, the late Mr. Curwen introduced a little fleet of these birds, but of the inferior species, to the lake of Windermere. Their principal home was about his own island; but they sailed about into remote parts of the lake, and either from real or imagined injury done to the adjoining fields, they were got rid of at the request of the farmers and proprietors, but to the great regret of all who had become attached to them from noticing their beauty and quiet habits. I will conclude my notice of this poem by observing that the plan of it has not been confined to a particular walk, or an individual place; a proof (of which I was unconscious at the time) of my unwillingness to submit the poetic spirit to the chains of fact and real circumstance. The country is idealised rather than described in any one of its local aspects.—I. F. cross-reference: return to Footnote A of The Idiot Boy
The title of this poem, as first published in 1793, was An Evening Walk. An epistle; in verse. Addressed to a Young Lady, from the Lakes of the North of England. By W. Wordsworth, B.A., of St. John's, Cambridge. Extracts from it were published in all the collected editions of the poems under the general title of "Juvenile Pieces," from 1815 to 1843; and, in 1845 and 1849, of "Poems written in Youth." The following prefatory note to the "Juvenile Pieces" occurs in the editions 1820 to 1832.
"They are reprinted with some unimportant alterations that were chiefly made very soon after their publication. It would have been easy to amend them, in many passages, both as to sentiment and expression, and I have not been altogether able to resist the temptation: but attempts of this kind are made at the risk of injuring those characteristic features, which, after all, will be regarded as the principal recommendation of juvenile poems."
To this, Wordsworth added, in 1836,
"The above, which was written some time ago, scarcely applies to the Poem, Descriptive Sketches, as it now stands. The corrections, though numerous, are not, however, such as to prevent its retaining with propriety a place in the class of 'Juvenile Pieces.'"
In May 1794 Wordsworth wrote to his friend Mathews,
"It was with great reluctance that I sent these two little works into the world in so imperfect a state. But as I had done nothing at the University, I thought these little things might show that I could do something."
Wordsworth's notes to this poem are printed from the edition of 1793. Slight variations in the text of these notes in subsequent editions, in the spelling of proper names, and in punctuation, are not noted.—Ed.
'General Sketch of the Lakes— Author's regret of his Youth which was passed amongst them— Short description of Noon— Cascade— Noon-tide Retreat— Precipice and sloping Lights— Face of Nature as the Sun declines— Mountain-farm, and the Cock— Slate-quarry— Sunset— Superstition of the Country connected with that moment— Swans— Female Beggar— Twilight-sounds— Western Lights— Spirits— Night— Moonlight— Hope— Night-sounds— Conclusion'.
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In the edition of 1836 the seven lines of the printed text—205-211—replaced these four lines of the editions 1793-1832.
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The edition of 1815 omitted this couplet. It was restored in its final form in the edition of 1820.
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Sub-Footnote i:
These rude structures, to protect the flocks, are frequent in this country: the traveller may recollect one in Withburne, another upon Whinlatter.—W. W. 1793.
Sub-Footnote ii:
Not far from Broughton is a Druid monument, of which I do not recollect that any tour descriptive of this country makes mention. Perhaps this poem may fall into the hands of some curious traveller, who may thank me for informing him, that up the Duddon, the river which forms the aestuary at Broughton, may be found some of the most romantic scenery of these mountains.—W. W. 1793.
This circle is at the top of Swinside, a glen about four miles from Broughton. It consists of 50 stones, 90 yards in circumference; and is on the fell, which is part of the range terminating in Black Combe.—Ed.
Sub-Footnote iii:
The lily of the valley is found in great abundance in the smaller islands of Winandermere.—W. W. 1793.
Sub-Footnote iv:
In the 1793 edition this line reads "Asleep on Minden's charnel plain afar." The 'errata', list inserted in some copies of that edition gives "Bunker's charnel hill."—Ed.
Sub-Footnote v:
Sugh, a Scotch word, expressive, as Mr. Gilpin explains it, of the sound of the motion of a stick through the air, or of the wind passing through the trees. See Burns'
Cottar's Saturday Night
.—W. W. 1793.
The line is in stanza ii., l. 1:
November chill blaws loud, wi' angry sugh
. Ed.
Sub-Footnote vi:
This long passage occupies, in the edition of 1793, the place of lines 297-314 in the final text given above.—Ed.
Sub-Footnote vii:
"So break those glittering shadows, human joys"
(
Young
).—W. W. 1793.
The line occurs 'Night V, The Complaint', l. 1042, or l. 27 from the end.—Ed.
Sub-Footnote viii:
"Charming the night-calm with her powerful song."
A line of one of our older poets.—W. W. 1793.
This line I have been unable to discover, but see Webster and Dekker in 'Westward Hoe', iv. c.
"Charms with her excellent voice an awful silence through all this building."
Ed.
Footnote A:
See note to the "Juvenile Pieces" in the edition of 1836 (p. 1).—Ed.
Footnote B:
It may not be irrelevant to mention that our late poet, Robert Browning, besought me—both in conversation, and by letter—to restore this "discarded" picture, in editing 'Dion'.—Ed.
Footnote C:
These lines are only applicable to the middle part of that lake.—W. W. 1793.
Footnote D:
In the beginning of winter, these mountains, in the moonlight nights, are covered with immense quantities of woodcocks; which, in the dark nights, retire into the woods.—W. W. 1793.
Footnote E:
The word 'intake' is local, and signifies a mountain-inclosure.—W. W. 1793.
Footnote F:
Gill is also, I believe, a term confined to this country. Glen, gill, and dingle, have the same meaning.—W. W. 1793.
The spelling "Ghyll" is first used in the edition of 1820 in the text. In the note to that edition it remains "gill". In 1827 the spelling in the note was "ghyll."—Ed.
Footnote G:
Compare Dr. John Brown:
Not a passing breeze Sigh'd to the grove, which in the midnight air Stood motionless, and in the peaceful floods Inverted hung.
and see
A to page 31.—Ed.
Footnote H:
This line was first inserted in the edition of 1845. In the following line, the edition of 1793 has
Save that, atop, the subtle ...
Subsequent editions previous to 1845 have
Save that aloft ...
Ed.
Footnote J:
The reader, who has made the tour of this country, will recognize, in this description, the features which characterize the lower waterfall in the gardens of Rydale.—W. W. 1793.
Footnote K:
"Vivid rings of green."
Greenwood's Poem on Shooting.—W. W. 1793.
The title is 'A Poem written during a Shooting Excursion on the Moors'. It was published by Cruttwell at Bath in 1787, 4to, pp. 25. The quotation is from stanza xvi., l. 11.—Ed.
Footnote L:
"Down the rough slope the pondrous waggon rings."
Beattie
.—W. W.
1793. See 'The Minstrel', stanza xxxix., l. 4.—Ed.
Footnote M:
"Dolcemente feroce."
Tasso
.
In this description of the cock, I remembered a spirited one of the same animal in the
L'Agriculture ou Les Géorgiques Françoises
, of M. Rossuet.—W. W. 1793.
Footnote N:
I am unable to trace this quotation.—Ed.
Footnote P:
From Thomson: see Scott's
Critical Essays
.—W. W. 1793.
It is difficult to know to what Wordsworth here alludes, but compare 'The Seasons', "Summer," l. 1467.
and now a golden curve, Gives one bright glance, then total disappears.
Ed.
Footnote Q:
See a description of an appearance of this kind in Clark's
Survey of the Lakes
, accompanied with vouchers of its veracity, that may amuse the reader.—W. W. 1793.
The passage in Clark's folio volume,
A Survey of the Lakes
, etc., which suggested to Wordsworth the above lines in the
Evening Walk
, is to be found in chapter i. of the second book, p. 55. It gives a weird account of the appearance of horsemen being exercised in troops upon
"Southen-fell side, as seen on the 25th of June 1744 by William Lancaster of Blakehills, and a farm servant, David Strichet: "These visionary horsemen seemed to come from the lowest part of Southen-fell, and became visible just at a place called Knott. They then moved in regular troops along the side of the fell, till they came opposite Blakehills, when they went over the mountain. Then they described a kind of curvilinear path upon the side of the fell, and both these first and last appearances were bounded by the top of the mountain. "Frequently the last, or last but one, in a troop would leave his place, and gallop to the front, and then take the same pace with the rest—a regular swift walk. Thus changes happened to every troop (for many troops appeared) and oftener than once or twice, yet not at all times alike.... Nor was this phenomenon seen at Blakehill only, it was seen by every person at every cottage within the distance of a mile. Neither was it confined to a momentary view, for from the time that Strichet first observed it, the appearance must have lasted at least two hours and a half, viz. from half past seven till the night coming on prevented further view."
This interesting optical illusion—which suggests the wonderful island in the Atlantic, seen from the isles of Aran near Galway, alluded to in the
Chorographical description of West, or H-Ier-Connaught
, of R. O'Flaherty—was caused by the peculiar angle of the light from the setting sun, the reflection of the water of the Solway, and the refraction of the vapour and clouds above the Solway. These aerial and visionary horsemen were being exercised somewhere above the Kirkcudbright shore. It was not the first time the phenomenon had been seen within historic times, on the same fell-side, and at the same time of year. Canon Rawnsley writes to me,
"I have an idea that the fact that it took place at midsummer eve (June 27), the eve of the Feast of St. John, upon which occasion the shepherds hereabout used to light bonfires on the hills (no doubt a relic of the custom of the Beltane fires of old Norse days, perhaps of earlier sun-worship festivals of British times), may have had something to do with the naming of the mountain Blencathara of which Southen-fell (or Shepherd's-fell, as the name implies) is part. Blencathara, we are told, may mean the Hill of Demons, or the haunted hill. My suggestion is that the old sun-worshippers, who met in midsummer eve on Castrigg at the Druid circle or Donn-ring, saw just the same phenomenon as Strichet and Lancaster saw upon Southen-fell, and hence the name. Nay, perhaps the Druid circle was built where it is, because it was well in view of the Demon Hill."
Ed.
Footnote R:
This is a fact of which I have been an eye-witness.—W. W. 1793.
Footnote S:
The quotation is from Collins'
The Passions
, l. 60. Compare
Personal Talk
, l. 26.—Ed.
Footnote T:
Alluding to this passage of Spenser:
... Her angel face As the great eye of Heaven shined bright, And made a sunshine in that shady place.
W. W. 1793.
This passage is in
The Fairy Queen
, book I. canto iii. stanza 4.—Ed.
Footnote U:
Compare Dr. John Brown:
But the soft murmur of swift-gushing rills, Forth issuing from the mountain's distant steep (Unheard till now, and now scarce heard), proclaim'd All things at rest.
This Dr. John Brown—a singularly versatile English divine (1717-1766)—was one of the first, as Wordsworth pointed put, to lead the way to a true estimate of the English Lakes. His description of the Vale of Keswick, in a letter to a friend, is as fine as anything in Gray's
Journal
. Wordsworth himself quotes the lines given in this footnote in the first section of his
Guide through the District of the Lakes
.—Ed.