No More Learning

This practice of making an instrument of their own
fingers is known to most boys, though some are more skilful at it than
others. William Raincock of Rayrigg, a fine spirited lad, took the lead
of all my schoolfellows in this art. --I. F. ]

This "extract" will be found in the fifth book of 'The Prelude', ll.
364-397. It was included among the "Poems of the Imagination. " In the
editions of 1800 to 1832 it had no title, except in the table of
contents. In 1836, the finally adopted title of the poem was given in
the text, as well as in the table of contents. --Ed.



There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs
And islands of Winander! --many a time,
At evening, when the earliest stars began [1]
To move along the edges of the hills,
Rising or setting, would he stand alone, 5
Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake;
And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands
Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth
Uplifted, he, as through an instrument,
Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls, 10
That they might answer him. --And they would shout
Across the watery vale, and shout again,
Responsive to his call,--with quivering peals,
And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loud
Redoubled and redoubled; concourse wild 15
Of jocund din! [2] And, when there came a pause
Of silence such as baffled his best skill: [3]
Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hung
Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise
Has carried far into his heart the voice 20
Of mountain-torrents; or the visible scene
Would enter unawares into his mind
With all its solemn imagery, its rocks,
Its woods, and that uncertain heaven received
Into the bosom of the steady lake. 25

This boy was taken from his mates, and died [4]
In childhood, ere he was full twelve years old.
[5]
Pre-eminent in beauty is the vale
Where he was born and bred: the church-yard hangs [6]
Upon a slope above the village-school; 30
And, through that church-yard when my way has led
On summer-evenings, I believe, that there [7]
A long half-hour together I have stood
Mute--looking at the grave in which he lies! [A] [8]



Wordsworth sent this fragment in MS. to Coleridge, who was then living
at Ratzeburg, and Coleridge wrote in reply on the 10th Dec. 1798:

"The blank lines gave me as much direct pleasure as was possible in
the general bustle of pleasure with which I received and read your
letter. I observed, I remember, that the 'fingers woven,' etc. , only
puzzled me; and though I liked the twelve or fourteen first lines very
well, yet I liked the remainder much better. Well, now I have read
them again, they are very beautiful, and leave an affecting
impression. That

'uncertain heaven received
Into the bosom of the steady lake,'

I should have recognised anywhere; and had I met these lines, running
wild in the deserts of Arabia, I should have instantly screamed out
'Wordsworth'! "

The MS. copy of this poem sent to Coleridge probably lacked
the explanatory line,

'Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth,'

as another MS. , in the possession of the poet's grandson, lacks it; and
the line was possibly added--as the late Mr. Dykes Campbell
suggested--"in deference to S. T. C. 's expression of puzzlement. "

Fletcher Raincock--an elder brother of the William Raincock referred to
in the Fenwick note to this poem, as Wordsworth's schoolfellow at
Hawkshead--was with him also at Cambridge.