for, who aspires
To genuine greatness but from just desires,
And knowledge such as _He_ could never gain?
To genuine greatness but from just desires,
And knowledge such as _He_ could never gain?
William Wordsworth
'Tis not in battles that from youth we train 5
The Governor who must be wise and good,
And temper with the sternness of the brain
Thoughts motherly, and meek as womanhood.
Wisdom doth live with children round her knees:
Books, leisure, perfect freedom, and the talk 10
Man holds with week-day man in the hourly walk
Of the mind's business: these are the degrees
By which true Sway doth mount; this is the stalk
True Power doth grow on; and her rights are these.
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1837.
. . . grief! the vital blood
Of that man's mind, what can it be? What food
Fed his first hopes? what knowledge could he gain? 1802.
. . . grief!
for, who aspires
To genuine greatness but from just desires,
And knowledge such as _He_ could never gain? 1815. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: It had twice seen the light previously in 'The Morning
Post', first on September 16, 1802, unsigned, and again on January 29,
1803, when it was signed W. L. D. --Ed. ]
Wordsworth's date 1801, in the Fenwick note, should have been 1802. His
sister writes, in her Journal of 1802:
"May 21. --W. wrote two sonnets on Buonaparte, after I had read
Milton's sonnets to him. "
The "irregular" sonnet, written "at school," to which Wordsworth refers,
is probably the one published in the 'European Magazine' in 1787, vol.
xi. p. 202, and signed Axiologus. --Ed.
* * * * *
A FAREWELL
Composed May 29, 1802.
