I
fancied to myself, while I was sitting in the parlour, that Burns
might have caroused there, for most likely his rounds extended so far,
and this thought gave a melancholy interest to the smoky walls.
fancied to myself, while I was sitting in the parlour, that Burns
might have caroused there, for most likely his rounds extended so far,
and this thought gave a melancholy interest to the smoky walls.
William Wordsworth
19th,
1803. The extract which follows from the Journal is a further
illustration of the poem. August 8th.
". . . Travelled through the vale of Nith, here little like a vale, it
is so broad, with irregular hills rising up on each side, in outline
resembling the old-fashioned valances of a bed. There is a great deal
of arable land; the corn ripe; trees here and there--plantations,
clumps, coppices, a newness in everything. So much of the gorse and
broom rooted out that you wonder why it is not all gone, and yet there
seems to be almost as much gorse and broom as corn; and they grow one
among another you know not how. Crossed the Nith; the vale becomes
narrow, and very pleasant; cornfields, green hills, clay cottages; the
river's bed rocky, with woody banks. Left the Nith about a mile and a
half, and reached Brownhill, a lonely inn, where we slept. The view
from the windows was pleasing, though some travellers might have been
disposed to quarrel with it for its general nakedness; yet there was
abundance of corn. It is an open country--open, yet all over hills. At
a little distance were many cottages among trees, that looked very
pretty. Brownhill is about seven or eight miles from Ellisland.
I
fancied to myself, while I was sitting in the parlour, that Burns
might have caroused there, for most likely his rounds extended so far,
and this thought gave a melancholy interest to the smoky walls. . . . "
On Dec. 23, 1839, Wordsworth wrote to Professor Henry Reed,
Philadelphia:
"The other day I chanced to be looking over a MS. poem belonging to
the year 1803, though not actually composed till many years
afterwards. It was suggested by visiting the neighbourhood of
Dumfries, in which Burns had resided, and where he died: it concluded
thus:
'Sweet Mercy! to the gates of Heaven, etc. '
I instantly added, the other day,
'But why to Him confine the prayer, etc. '
The more I reflect upon this, the more I feel justified in attaching
comparatively small importance to any literary monument that I may be
enabled to leave behind. It is well however, I am convinced, that men
think otherwise in the earlier part of their lives. . . . "
It may be mentioned that in his note to the "Poems, chiefly
of Early and Late Years," (1842), Wordsworth does not quote
from the text of his sister's Journal,--which was first published
in 1875,--but from some other copy of it.
1803. The extract which follows from the Journal is a further
illustration of the poem. August 8th.
". . . Travelled through the vale of Nith, here little like a vale, it
is so broad, with irregular hills rising up on each side, in outline
resembling the old-fashioned valances of a bed. There is a great deal
of arable land; the corn ripe; trees here and there--plantations,
clumps, coppices, a newness in everything. So much of the gorse and
broom rooted out that you wonder why it is not all gone, and yet there
seems to be almost as much gorse and broom as corn; and they grow one
among another you know not how. Crossed the Nith; the vale becomes
narrow, and very pleasant; cornfields, green hills, clay cottages; the
river's bed rocky, with woody banks. Left the Nith about a mile and a
half, and reached Brownhill, a lonely inn, where we slept. The view
from the windows was pleasing, though some travellers might have been
disposed to quarrel with it for its general nakedness; yet there was
abundance of corn. It is an open country--open, yet all over hills. At
a little distance were many cottages among trees, that looked very
pretty. Brownhill is about seven or eight miles from Ellisland.
I
fancied to myself, while I was sitting in the parlour, that Burns
might have caroused there, for most likely his rounds extended so far,
and this thought gave a melancholy interest to the smoky walls. . . . "
On Dec. 23, 1839, Wordsworth wrote to Professor Henry Reed,
Philadelphia:
"The other day I chanced to be looking over a MS. poem belonging to
the year 1803, though not actually composed till many years
afterwards. It was suggested by visiting the neighbourhood of
Dumfries, in which Burns had resided, and where he died: it concluded
thus:
'Sweet Mercy! to the gates of Heaven, etc. '
I instantly added, the other day,
'But why to Him confine the prayer, etc. '
The more I reflect upon this, the more I feel justified in attaching
comparatively small importance to any literary monument that I may be
enabled to leave behind. It is well however, I am convinced, that men
think otherwise in the earlier part of their lives. . . . "
It may be mentioned that in his note to the "Poems, chiefly
of Early and Late Years," (1842), Wordsworth does not quote
from the text of his sister's Journal,--which was first published
in 1875,--but from some other copy of it.
