III
After the line, 'Can any mortal clog come to her', followed in the MS.
After the line, 'Can any mortal clog come to her', followed in the MS.
William Wordsworth
i, and Hamlet, act II.
sc.
ii.
l.
124.
--Ed.
]
* * * * *
SUB-FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Sub-Footnote a: See Wordsworth's note [Note II to the poem, below], p.
109. --Ed. ]
* * * * *
NOTES ON THE TEXT
(Added in the edition of 1836)
I
Several years after the event that forms the subject of the foregoing
poem, in company with my friend, the late Mr. Coleridge, I happened to
fall in with the person to whom the name of Benjamin is given. Upon our
expressing regret that we had not, for a long time, seen upon the road
either him or his waggon, he said:--"They could not do without me; and
as to the man who was put in my place, no good could come out of him; he
was a man of no _ideas_. "
The fact of my discarded hero's getting the horses out of a great
difficulty with a word, as related in the poem, was told me by an
eye-witness.
II
'The Dor-hawk, solitary bird. '
When the Poem was first written the note of the bird was thus described:
'The Night-hawk is singing his frog-like tune,
Twirling his watchman's rattle about--'
but from unwillingness to startle the reader at the outset by so bold a
mode of expression, the passage was altered as it now stands.
III
After the line, 'Can any mortal clog come to her', followed in the MS.
an incident which has been kept back. Part of the suppressed verses
shall here be given as a gratification of private feeling, which the
well-disposed reader will find no difficulty in excusing. They are now
printed for the first time.
Can any mortal clog come to her?
It can: . . .
. . .
But Benjamin, in his vexation,
Possesses inward consolation;
He knows his ground, and hopes to find
A spot with all things to his mind,
An upright mural block of stone,
Moist with pure water trickling down.
A slender spring; but kind to man
It is, a true Samaritan;
Close to the highway, pouring out
Its offering from a chink or spout;
Whence all, howe'er athirst, or drooping
With toil, may drink, and without stooping.
Cries Benjamin, "Where is it, where?
Voice it hath none, but must be near. "
--A star, declining towards the west,
Upon the watery surface threw
Its image tremulously imprest,
That just marked out the object and withdrew:
Right welcome service!
* * * * *
SUB-FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Sub-Footnote a: See Wordsworth's note [Note II to the poem, below], p.
109. --Ed. ]
* * * * *
NOTES ON THE TEXT
(Added in the edition of 1836)
I
Several years after the event that forms the subject of the foregoing
poem, in company with my friend, the late Mr. Coleridge, I happened to
fall in with the person to whom the name of Benjamin is given. Upon our
expressing regret that we had not, for a long time, seen upon the road
either him or his waggon, he said:--"They could not do without me; and
as to the man who was put in my place, no good could come out of him; he
was a man of no _ideas_. "
The fact of my discarded hero's getting the horses out of a great
difficulty with a word, as related in the poem, was told me by an
eye-witness.
II
'The Dor-hawk, solitary bird. '
When the Poem was first written the note of the bird was thus described:
'The Night-hawk is singing his frog-like tune,
Twirling his watchman's rattle about--'
but from unwillingness to startle the reader at the outset by so bold a
mode of expression, the passage was altered as it now stands.
III
After the line, 'Can any mortal clog come to her', followed in the MS.
an incident which has been kept back. Part of the suppressed verses
shall here be given as a gratification of private feeling, which the
well-disposed reader will find no difficulty in excusing. They are now
printed for the first time.
Can any mortal clog come to her?
It can: . . .
. . .
But Benjamin, in his vexation,
Possesses inward consolation;
He knows his ground, and hopes to find
A spot with all things to his mind,
An upright mural block of stone,
Moist with pure water trickling down.
A slender spring; but kind to man
It is, a true Samaritan;
Close to the highway, pouring out
Its offering from a chink or spout;
Whence all, howe'er athirst, or drooping
With toil, may drink, and without stooping.
Cries Benjamin, "Where is it, where?
Voice it hath none, but must be near. "
--A star, declining towards the west,
Upon the watery surface threw
Its image tremulously imprest,
That just marked out the object and withdrew:
Right welcome service!
