stanza 22,
"In truth he was a strange and wayward wight,"
and adds
"That verse of Beattie's 'Minstrel' always reminds me of him, and
indeed the whole character of Edwin resembles much what William was
when I first knew him after leaving Halifax.
"In truth he was a strange and wayward wight,"
and adds
"That verse of Beattie's 'Minstrel' always reminds me of him, and
indeed the whole character of Edwin resembles much what William was
when I first knew him after leaving Halifax.
William Wordsworth
20.
'And oft the craggy cliff he loved to climb
When all in mist the world below was lost. '
Book I. st. 21.
'And of each gentle, and each dreadful scene
In darkness, and in storm, he found delight. '
Book I. st. 22. Ed. ]
[Footnote B: Compare the stanza in 'A Poet's Epitaph' (p. 77), beginning
'He is retired as noontide dew. '
Ed. ]
[Footnote C: Many years ago Canon Ainger pointed out to me a parallel
between Beattie's description of 'The Minstrel' and Wordsworth's account
of himself in this poem. It is somewhat curious that Dorothy Wordsworth,
writing to Miss Pollard from Forncett in 1793, quotes the line from 'The
Minstrel', book I.
stanza 22,
"In truth he was a strange and wayward wight,"
and adds
"That verse of Beattie's 'Minstrel' always reminds me of him, and
indeed the whole character of Edwin resembles much what William was
when I first knew him after leaving Halifax. "
Mr. T. Hutchinson called the attention of Professor Dowden to the same
resemblance between the two pictures. With lines 35, 36, compare in
Shelley's 'Adonais', stanza xxxi. :
'And his own thoughts, along that rugged way,
Pursued, like raging hounds, their father and their prey. '
Ed. ]
There can now be no doubt that, in the first four of these 'Stanzas',
Wordsworth refers to himself; and that, in the last four, he refers to
Coleridge. For a time it was uncertain whether in the earlier stanzas he
had Coleridge, or himself, in view; and whether, in the later ones, some
one else was, or was not, described. De Quincey, quoting (as he often
did) in random fashion, mixes up extracts from each set of the stanzas,
and applies them both to Coleridge; and Dorothy Wordsworth, in her
Journal, gives apparent (though only apparent) sanction to a reverse
order of allusion, by writing of "the stanzas about C. and himself" (her
brother). The following are her references to the poem in that Journal:
"9th May (1802). -After tea he (W. ) wrote two stanzas in the manner of
Thomson's 'Castle of Indolence', and was tired out.
"10th May. --William still at work, though it is past ten o'clock .
'And oft the craggy cliff he loved to climb
When all in mist the world below was lost. '
Book I. st. 21.
'And of each gentle, and each dreadful scene
In darkness, and in storm, he found delight. '
Book I. st. 22. Ed. ]
[Footnote B: Compare the stanza in 'A Poet's Epitaph' (p. 77), beginning
'He is retired as noontide dew. '
Ed. ]
[Footnote C: Many years ago Canon Ainger pointed out to me a parallel
between Beattie's description of 'The Minstrel' and Wordsworth's account
of himself in this poem. It is somewhat curious that Dorothy Wordsworth,
writing to Miss Pollard from Forncett in 1793, quotes the line from 'The
Minstrel', book I.
stanza 22,
"In truth he was a strange and wayward wight,"
and adds
"That verse of Beattie's 'Minstrel' always reminds me of him, and
indeed the whole character of Edwin resembles much what William was
when I first knew him after leaving Halifax. "
Mr. T. Hutchinson called the attention of Professor Dowden to the same
resemblance between the two pictures. With lines 35, 36, compare in
Shelley's 'Adonais', stanza xxxi. :
'And his own thoughts, along that rugged way,
Pursued, like raging hounds, their father and their prey. '
Ed. ]
There can now be no doubt that, in the first four of these 'Stanzas',
Wordsworth refers to himself; and that, in the last four, he refers to
Coleridge. For a time it was uncertain whether in the earlier stanzas he
had Coleridge, or himself, in view; and whether, in the later ones, some
one else was, or was not, described. De Quincey, quoting (as he often
did) in random fashion, mixes up extracts from each set of the stanzas,
and applies them both to Coleridge; and Dorothy Wordsworth, in her
Journal, gives apparent (though only apparent) sanction to a reverse
order of allusion, by writing of "the stanzas about C. and himself" (her
brother). The following are her references to the poem in that Journal:
"9th May (1802). -After tea he (W. ) wrote two stanzas in the manner of
Thomson's 'Castle of Indolence', and was tired out.
"10th May. --William still at work, though it is past ten o'clock .
