Composed 1798.--Published 1800
83 lines✦
Written in Germany, 1799. This is an extract from the Poem on my ownpoetical education. This practice of making an instrument of their ownfingers is known to most boys, though some are more skilful at it thanothers. William Raincock of Rayrigg, a fine spirited lad, took the leadof all my schoolfellows in this art.--I. F.] This "extract" will be found in the fifth book of 'The Prelude', ll.364-397. It was included among the "Poems of the Imagination." In theeditions of 1800 to 1832 it had no title, except in the table ofcontents. In 1836, the finally adopted title of the poem was given inthe text, as well as in the table of contents.--Ed. There was a Boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffsAnd islands of Winander!--many a time,At evening, when the earliest stars began [1]To move along the edges of the hills,Rising or setting, would he stand alone, 5Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake;And there, with fingers interwoven, both handsPressed closely palm to palm and to his mouthUplifted, he, as through an instrument,Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls, 10That they might answer him.--And they would shoutAcross the watery vale, and shout again,Responsive to his call,--with quivering peals,And long halloos, and screams, and echoes loudRedoubled and redoubled; concourse wild 15Of jocund din! [2] And, when there came a pauseOf silence such as baffled his best skill: [3]Then, sometimes, in that silence, while he hungListening, a gentle shock of mild surpriseHas carried far into his heart the voice 20Of mountain-torrents; or the visible sceneWould enter unawares into his mindWith all its solemn imagery, its rocks,Its woods, and that uncertain heaven receivedInto the bosom of the steady lake. 25 This boy was taken from his mates, and died [4]In childhood, ere he was full twelve years old. [5]Pre-eminent in beauty is the valeWhere he was born and bred: the church-yard hangs [6]Upon a slope above the village-school; 30And, through that church-yard when my way has ledOn summer-evenings, I believe, that there [7]A long half-hour together I have stoodMute--looking at the grave in which he lies![A] [8] Wordsworth sent this fragment in MS. to Coleridge, who was then livingat Ratzeburg, and Coleridge wrote in reply on the 10th Dec. 1798: "The blank lines gave me as much direct pleasure as was possible inthe general bustle of pleasure with which I received and read yourletter. I observed, I remember, that the 'fingers woven,' etc., onlypuzzled me; and though I liked the twelve or fourteen first lines verywell, yet I liked the remainder much better. Well, now I have readthem again, they are very beautiful, and leave an affectingimpression. That 'uncertain heaven receivedInto the bosom of the steady lake,' I should have recognised anywhere; and had I met these lines, runningwild in the deserts of Arabia, I should have instantly screamed out'Wordsworth'!" The MS. copy of this poem sent to Coleridge probably lackedthe explanatory line, 'Pressed closely palm to palm and to his mouth,' as another MS., in the possession of the poet's grandson, lacks it; andthe line was possibly added--as the late Mr. Dykes Campbellsuggested--"in deference to S. T. C.'s expression of puzzlement." Fletcher Raincock--an elder brother of the William Raincock referred toin the Fenwick note to this poem, as Wordsworth's schoolfellow atHawkshead--was with him also at Cambridge. He attended Pembroke College,and was second wrangler in 1790. [B] John Fleming of Rayrigg, hishalf-brother--the boy with whom Wordsworth used to walk round the lakeof Esthwaite, in the morning before school-time, ("five miles ofpleasant wandering")--was also at St. John's College, Cambridge, at thistime, and had been fifth Wrangler in the preceding year, 1789. He isreferred to both in the second and the fifth books of 'The Prelude'(see notes to that poem). It is perhaps not unworthy of note thatWrangham, whose French stanzas on "The Birth of Love" Wordsworthtranslated into English, was in the same year--1789--third Wrangler,second Smith's prizeman, and first Chancellor's medallist; while RobertGreenwood, "the Minstrel of the Troop," who "blew his flute, alone uponthe rock" in Windermere,--also one of the characters referred to in thesecond book of 'The Prelude',--was sixteenth Wrangler inWordsworth's year, viz. 1791. William Raincock was at St. John'sCollege, Cambridge.--Ed. * * * * *
✦