No More Learning

Ed. ]


[Sub-Footnote iii: In the editions of 1820 to 1832 the four lines
beginning "The Grison gypsey," etc. , precede those beginning "The mind
condemned," etc. --Ed. ]


[Sub-Footnote iv: In the edition of 1793 Wordsworth put the following
note:

"Red came the river down, and loud, and oft
The angry Spirit of the water shriek'd. "

(HOME'S _Douglas_. )

See Act III. l. 86; or p. 32 in the edition of 1757. --Ed. ]


[Sub-Footnote v: This and the following line are only in the editions of
1815 and 1820. --Ed. ]


[Sub-Footnote vi: Compare the Sonnet entitled 'The Author's Voyage down
the Rhine, thirty years ago', in the "Memorials of a Tour on the
Continent' in 1820, and the note appended to it. --Ed.
]





* * * * *





GUILT AND SORROW; OR, INCIDENTS UPON SALISBURY PLAIN


Composed 1791-4. --Published as 'The Female Vagrant' in "Lyrical Ballads"
in 1798, and as 'Guilt and Sorrow' in the "Poems of Early and Late
Years," and in "Poems written in Youth," in 1845, and onward.


ADVERTISEMENT, PREFIXED TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS POEM, PUBLISHED
IN 1842.

Not less than one-third of the following poem, though it has from time
to time been altered in the expression, was published so far back as
the year 1798, under the title of 'The Female Vagrant'. The extract is
of such length that an apology seems to be required for reprinting it
here; but it was necessary to restore it to its original position, or
the rest would have been unintelligible. The whole was written before
the close of the year 1794, and I will detail, rather as matter of
literary biography than for any other reason, the circumstances under
which it was produced.

During the latter part of the summer of 1793, having passed a month in
the Isle of Wight, in view of the fleet which was then preparing for
sea off Portsmouth at the commencement of the war, I left the place
with melancholy forebodings. The American war was still fresh in
memory. The struggle which was beginning, and which many thought would
be brought to a speedy close by the irresistible arms of Great Britain
being added to those of the allies, I was assured in my own mind would
be of long continuance, and productive of distress and misery beyond
all possible calculation. This conviction was pressed upon me by
having been a witness, during a long residence in revolutionary
France, of the spirit which prevailed in that country. After leaving
the Isle of Wight, I spent two [A] days in wandering on foot over
Salisbury Plain, which, though cultivation was then widely spread
through parts of it, had upon the whole a still more impressive
appearance than it now retains.

The monuments and traces of antiquity, scattered in abundance over
that region, led me unavoidably to compare what we know or guess of
those remote times with certain aspects of modern society, and with
calamities, principally those consequent upon war, to which, more than
other classes of men, the poor are subject. In those reflections,
joined with some particular facts that had come to my knowledge, the
following stanzas originated.

In conclusion, to obviate some distraction in the minds of those who
are well acquainted with Salisbury Plain, it may be proper to say,
that of the features described as belonging to it, one or two are
taken from other desolate parts of England.


* * * * *

[Unwilling to be unnecessarily particular, I have assigned this poem
to the dates 1793 and '94; but, in fact, much of the Female Vagrant's
story was composed at least two years before. All that relates to her
sufferings as a sailor's wife in America, and her condition of mind
during her voyage home, were faithfully taken from the report made to
me of her own case by a friend who had been subjected to the same
trials, and affected in the same way.