start not at that sparkling light;
'Tis but the moon that shines so bright
On the window pane bedropped with rain:
Then, little Darling!
'Tis but the moon that shines so bright
On the window pane bedropped with rain:
Then, little Darling!
William Wordsworth
'
Dr. Cradock remarks,
"As to there being more than one beech, Wordsworth would not have
hesitated to sacrifice servile exactness to poetical effect. " He had a
fancy for "one"--
'Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky;'
"'One' abode, no more;" Grasmere's "one green island;" "one green
field. "
Since the above note was printed, new light has been cast on the
"Inscription of the Pathway," for which see volume viii. of this
edition. --Ed.
* * * * *
THE COTTAGER TO HER INFANT
BY MY SISTER
Composed 1805. --Published 1815
[Suggested to her, while beside my sleeping children. --I. F. ]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections. "--Ed.
The days are cold, the nights are long,
The north-wind sings a doleful song;
Then hush again upon my breast;
All merry things are now at rest,
Save thee, my pretty Love! 5
The kitten sleeps upon the hearth,
The crickets long have ceased their mirth;
There's nothing stirring in the house
Save one _wee_, hungry, nibbling mouse,
Then why so busy thou? 10
Nay!
start not at that sparkling light;
'Tis but the moon that shines so bright
On the window pane bedropped with rain:
Then, little Darling! sleep again,
And wake when it is day. 15
This poem underwent no change in successive editions. The title in all
the earlier ones (1815 to 1843) was 'The Cottager to her Infant. By a
Female Friend'; and in the preface to the edition of 1815, Wordsworth
wrote,
"Three short pieces (now first published) are the work of a Female
Friend; . . . if any one regard them with dislike, or be disposed to
condemn them, let the censure fall upon him, who, trusting in his own
sense of their merit, and their fitness for the place which they
occupy, _extorted_ them from the Authoress. "
In the edition of 1845, he disclosed the authorship; and gave the more
natural title, 'By my Sister'. Other two poems by her were introduced
into the edition of 1815, and subsequent ones, viz. the 'Address to a
Child', and 'The Mother's Return'. In an appendix to a MS. copy of the
'Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland', by Dorothy Wordsworth,
transcribed by Mrs. Clarkson, I find the poem 'The Cottager to her
Infant' with two additional stanzas, which are there attributed to
Wordsworth. The appendix runs thus:
"To my Niece Dorothy, a sleepless Baby
THE COTTAGER TO HER INFANT
(The third and fourth stanzas which follow by W. W.
Dr. Cradock remarks,
"As to there being more than one beech, Wordsworth would not have
hesitated to sacrifice servile exactness to poetical effect. " He had a
fancy for "one"--
'Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky;'
"'One' abode, no more;" Grasmere's "one green island;" "one green
field. "
Since the above note was printed, new light has been cast on the
"Inscription of the Pathway," for which see volume viii. of this
edition. --Ed.
* * * * *
THE COTTAGER TO HER INFANT
BY MY SISTER
Composed 1805. --Published 1815
[Suggested to her, while beside my sleeping children. --I. F. ]
One of the "Poems founded on the Affections. "--Ed.
The days are cold, the nights are long,
The north-wind sings a doleful song;
Then hush again upon my breast;
All merry things are now at rest,
Save thee, my pretty Love! 5
The kitten sleeps upon the hearth,
The crickets long have ceased their mirth;
There's nothing stirring in the house
Save one _wee_, hungry, nibbling mouse,
Then why so busy thou? 10
Nay!
start not at that sparkling light;
'Tis but the moon that shines so bright
On the window pane bedropped with rain:
Then, little Darling! sleep again,
And wake when it is day. 15
This poem underwent no change in successive editions. The title in all
the earlier ones (1815 to 1843) was 'The Cottager to her Infant. By a
Female Friend'; and in the preface to the edition of 1815, Wordsworth
wrote,
"Three short pieces (now first published) are the work of a Female
Friend; . . . if any one regard them with dislike, or be disposed to
condemn them, let the censure fall upon him, who, trusting in his own
sense of their merit, and their fitness for the place which they
occupy, _extorted_ them from the Authoress. "
In the edition of 1845, he disclosed the authorship; and gave the more
natural title, 'By my Sister'. Other two poems by her were introduced
into the edition of 1815, and subsequent ones, viz. the 'Address to a
Child', and 'The Mother's Return'. In an appendix to a MS. copy of the
'Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland', by Dorothy Wordsworth,
transcribed by Mrs. Clarkson, I find the poem 'The Cottager to her
Infant' with two additional stanzas, which are there attributed to
Wordsworth. The appendix runs thus:
"To my Niece Dorothy, a sleepless Baby
THE COTTAGER TO HER INFANT
(The third and fourth stanzas which follow by W. W.
