" In the
original
MS.
William Wordsworth
31st, 1802,--the following
occurs:
"I found a strawberry blossom in a rock. The little slender flower had
more courage than the green leaves, for _they_ were but half expanded
and half grown, but the blossom was spread full out. I uprooted it
rashly, and I felt as if I had been committing an outrage; so I
planted it again. It will have but a stormy life of it, but let it
live if it can. "
With this poem compare a parallel passage in Marvel's 'The Picture of T.
C. in a Prospect of Flowers':
'But oh, young beauty of the woods,
Whom nature courts with fruits and flowers,
Gather the flowers, but spare the buds;
Lest Flora, angry at thy crime
To kill her infants in their prime,
Should quickly make the example yours;
And, ere we see,
Nip in the blossom all our hopes in thee. '
Ed.
* * * * *
TO THE SMALL CELANDINE [A]
Composed April 30, 1802. --Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. It is remarkable that this flower,
coming out so early in the spring as it does, and so bright and
beautiful, and in such profusion, should not have been noticed earlier
in English verse. What adds much to the interest that attends it is its
habit of shutting itself up and opening out according to the degree of
light and temperature of the air. --I. F. ]
One of the "Poems of the Fancy.
" In the original MS. this poem is called
'To the lesser Celandine', but in the proof "small" was substituted for
"lesser. "
In Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal the following occurs, under date April
30, 1802:
"We came into the orchard directly after breakfast, and sat there. The
lake was calm, the sky cloudy. William began to write the poem of 'The
Celandine'. . . . I walked backwards and forwards with William. He
repeated his poem to me, then he got to work again, and would not give
over. "
Ed.
Pansies, lilies, kingcups, daisies,
Let them live upon their praises;
Long as there's a sun that sets,
Primroses will have their glory;
Long as there are violets, 5
They will have a place in story:
There's a flower that shall be mine,
'Tis the little Celandine.
Eyes of some men travel far
For the finding of a star; 10
Up and down the heavens they go,
Men that keep a mighty rout!
I'm as great as they, I trow,
Since the day I found thee out,
Little Flower! --I'll make a stir, 15
Like a sage [1] astronomer.
Modest, yet withal an Elf
Bold, and lavish of thyself;
Since we needs must first have met
I have seen thee, high and low, 20
Thirty years or more, and yet
'Twas a face I did not know;
Thou hast now, go where I may,
Fifty greetings in a day.
occurs:
"I found a strawberry blossom in a rock. The little slender flower had
more courage than the green leaves, for _they_ were but half expanded
and half grown, but the blossom was spread full out. I uprooted it
rashly, and I felt as if I had been committing an outrage; so I
planted it again. It will have but a stormy life of it, but let it
live if it can. "
With this poem compare a parallel passage in Marvel's 'The Picture of T.
C. in a Prospect of Flowers':
'But oh, young beauty of the woods,
Whom nature courts with fruits and flowers,
Gather the flowers, but spare the buds;
Lest Flora, angry at thy crime
To kill her infants in their prime,
Should quickly make the example yours;
And, ere we see,
Nip in the blossom all our hopes in thee. '
Ed.
* * * * *
TO THE SMALL CELANDINE [A]
Composed April 30, 1802. --Published 1807
[Written at Town-end, Grasmere. It is remarkable that this flower,
coming out so early in the spring as it does, and so bright and
beautiful, and in such profusion, should not have been noticed earlier
in English verse. What adds much to the interest that attends it is its
habit of shutting itself up and opening out according to the degree of
light and temperature of the air. --I. F. ]
One of the "Poems of the Fancy.
" In the original MS. this poem is called
'To the lesser Celandine', but in the proof "small" was substituted for
"lesser. "
In Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal the following occurs, under date April
30, 1802:
"We came into the orchard directly after breakfast, and sat there. The
lake was calm, the sky cloudy. William began to write the poem of 'The
Celandine'. . . . I walked backwards and forwards with William. He
repeated his poem to me, then he got to work again, and would not give
over. "
Ed.
Pansies, lilies, kingcups, daisies,
Let them live upon their praises;
Long as there's a sun that sets,
Primroses will have their glory;
Long as there are violets, 5
They will have a place in story:
There's a flower that shall be mine,
'Tis the little Celandine.
Eyes of some men travel far
For the finding of a star; 10
Up and down the heavens they go,
Men that keep a mighty rout!
I'm as great as they, I trow,
Since the day I found thee out,
Little Flower! --I'll make a stir, 15
Like a sage [1] astronomer.
Modest, yet withal an Elf
Bold, and lavish of thyself;
Since we needs must first have met
I have seen thee, high and low, 20
Thirty years or more, and yet
'Twas a face I did not know;
Thou hast now, go where I may,
Fifty greetings in a day.
