What a
picture!
William Wordsworth
There's weakness, and strength both redundant and vain; 5
Such strength as, if ever affliction and pain
Could pierce through a temper that's soft to disease,
Would be rational peace--a philosopher's ease.
There's indifference, alike when he fails or [2] succeeds,
And attention full ten times as much as there needs; 10
Pride where there's no envy, there's so much of joy;
And mildness, and spirit both forward and coy.
There's freedom, and sometimes a diffident stare
Of shame scarcely seeming to know that she's there,
There's virtue, the title it surely may claim, 15
Yet wants heaven knows what to be worthy the name.
This picture from nature may seem to depart, [3]
Yet the Man would at once run away with your heart;
And I for five centuries right gladly would be
Such an odd such a kind happy creature as he. 20
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1837.
For the weight and the levity seen in his face: 1800. ]
[Variant 2:
1837.
. . . and . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 3:
1837.
What a picture! 'tis drawn without nature or art, 1800. ]
The full title of this poem, in "Lyrical Ballads," 1800, is 'A
Character, in the antithetical Manner'. It was omitted from all
subsequent editions till 1837. With this early friend, Robert Jones--a
fellow collegian at St. John's College, Cambridge--Wordsworth visited
the Continent (France and Switzerland), during the long vacation of
1790; and to him he dedicated the first edition of 'Descriptive
Sketches', in 1793. With him he also made a pedestrian tour in Wales in
1791. Jones afterwards became the incumbent of Soulderne, near
Deddington, in Oxfordshire; and Wordsworth described his parsonage there
in the sonnet, beginning "Where holy ground begins, unhallowed ends. "
(See Wordsworth's note to the sonnet 'Composed near Calais', p.
333. )--Ed.
* * * * *
INSCRIPTION FOR THE SPOT WHERE THE HERMITAGE STOOD ON ST. HERBERT'S
ISLAND, DERWENT-WATER
Composed 1800. --Published 1800
Included in 1815 among the "Poems referring to the Period of Old Age,"
and in all subsequent editions among the "Inscriptions. "--Ed.
If thou in the dear love of some one Friend
Hast been so happy that thou know'st what thoughts
Will sometimes in the happiness of love
Make the heart sink, [A] then wilt thou reverence
This quiet spot; and, Stranger!
