No More Learning

[3] On the other hand, the series of "Poems composed during a Tour
in Scotland, and on the English Border, in the Autumn of 1831"--and
first published in the year 1835, in the volume entitled "Yarrow
Revisited, and Other Poems"--contains two, which Wordsworth himself
tells us were composed earlier; and there is no reason why these poems
should not be restored to their chronological place. The series of
itinerary sonnets, published along with them in the Yarrow volume of
1835, is the record of another Scottish tour, taken in the year 1833;
and Wordsworth says of them that they were "composed 'or suggested'
during a tour in the summer of 1833. " We cannot now discover which of
them were written during the tour, and which at Rydal Mount after his
return; but it is obvious that they should be printed in the order in
which they were left by him, in 1835. It may be noted that almost all
the "Evening Voluntaries" belong to these years--1832 to 1835--when the
author was from sixty-two to sixty-five years of age.

Wordsworth's habit of revision may perhaps explain the mistakes into
which he occasionally fell as to the dates of his Poems, and the
difficulty of reconciling what he says, as to the year of composition,
with the date assigned by his sister in her Journal. When he says
"written in 1801, or 1802," he may be referring to the last revision
which he gave to his work. Certain it is, however, that he sometimes
gave a date for the composition, which was subsequent to the publication
of the poem in question.

In the case of those poems to which no date was attached, I have tried
to find a clue by which to fix an approximate one. Obviously, it would
not do to place all the undated poems in a class by themselves. Such an
arrangement would be thoroughly artificial; and, while we are in many
instances left to conjecture, we can always say that such and such a
poem was composed not later than a particular year. When the precise
date is undiscoverable, I have thought it best to place the poem in or
immediately before the year in which it was first published.

Poems which were several years in process of composition, having been
laid aside, and taken up repeatedly; 'e. g. The Prelude', which was
composed between the years 1799 and 1805--are placed in the year in
which they were finished. Disputable questions as to the date of any
poem are dealt with in the editorial note prefixed or appended to it.
There is one Poem which I have intentionally placed out of its
chronological place, viz. the 'Ode, Intimations of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood'. It was written at intervals from 1803
to 1806, and was first published in the edition of 1807, where it stood
at the end of the second volume. In every subsequent edition of the
collected Works--1815 to 1850--it closed the groups of poems; 'The
Excursion' only following it, in a volume of its own. This was an
arrangement made by Wordsworth, of set purpose, and steadily adhered
to--the 'Ode' forming as it were the High Altar of his poetic Cathedral.
As he wished it to retain that place in subsequent editions of his
Works, it retains it in this one.

Mr. Arnold's arrangement of the Poems, in his volume of Selections [4],
is extremely interesting and valuable; but, as to the method of grouping
adopted, I am not sure that it is better than Wordsworth's own. As a
descriptive title, "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection" is quite as good
as "Poems akin to the Antique," and "Poems of the Fancy" quite as
appropriate as "Poems of Ballad Form. "

Wordsworth's arrangement of his Poems in groups was psychologically very
interesting; but it is open to many objections. Unfortunately Wordsworth
was not himself consistent--in the various editions issued by
himself--either in the class into which he relegated each poem, or the
order in which he placed it there. There is tantalising topsy-turvyism
in this, so that an editor who adopts it is almost compelled to select
Wordsworth's latest grouping, which was not always his best.

Sir William Rowan Hamilton wrote to Mr. Aubrey de Vere in 1835 that Dora
Wordsworth told him that her father "was sometimes at a loss whether to
refer her to the 'Poems of the Imagination,' or the 'Poems of the
Fancy,' for some particular passage. " Aubrey de Vere himself considered
Wordsworth's arrangement as "a parade of system," and wrote of it, "I
cannot help thinking that in it, he mistakes classification for method. "
[5] I confess that it is often difficult to see why some of the poems
were assigned by their author to the realm of the "Fancy," the
"Imagination," and "Sentiment and Reflection" respectively.