One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.
91 lines✦
here is a little unpretending RillOf limpid water, humbler far than aught[1]That ever among Men or Naiads soughtNotice or name!--It quivers down the hill,Furrowing its shallow way with dubious will; 5Yet to my mind this scanty Stream is brought[2]Oftener than Ganges or the Nile; a thoughtOf private recollection sweet and still![3]Months perish with their moons; year treads on year;But, faithful Emma! thou with me canst say 10That, while ten thousand pleasures disappear,And flies their memory fast almost as they,[4]The immortal Spirit of one happy dayLingers beside that Rill,[5] in vision clear.[6] One of the MS. readings of the ninth line of this sonnet gives the dateof the incident as "now seven years gone"; but I leave the date ofcomposition undetermined. If we could know accurately the date of the"first visit" to the district with his sister (referred to in theFenwick note), and if we could implicitly trust this MS. reading, itmight be possible to fix it; but we can do neither. Wordsworth visitedthe Lake District with his sister as early as 1794, and in December 1799he took up his abode with her at Dove Cottage. I have no doubt that thesonnet belongs to the year 1806, or was composed at an earlier date. Asto the locality of the rill, the late Rev. R. Perceval Graves, ofDublin, wrote to me:-- "It was in 1843, when quitting the parsonage at Bowness, I went toreside at Dovenest, that, calling one day at Rydal Mount, I wastold by both Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth, as a fact in which I shouldtake a special interest, that the 'little unpretending rill'associated by the poet with 'the immortal spirit of one happyday,' was the rill which, rising near High Skelgill at the back ofWansfell, descends steeply down the hill-side, passes behind thehouse at Dovenest, and crossing beneath the road, enters the lakenear the gate of the drive which leads up to Dovenest. "The authority on which I give this information is decisive of thequestion. I have often traced upwards the course of the rill; andthe secluded hollow, which by its source is beautified with freshherbage and wild straggling bushes, was a favourite haunt ofmine."--ED. VARIANTS: [1] 1820. There is a tiny water, neither rill,Motionless well, nor running brook, nor aught MS. There is a noiseless water, neither rill,Nor spring enclosed in sculptured stone, nor aught MS. There is a trickling water, neither rill,Fountain inclosed, or rivulet, nor aught MS. 1806. [2] 1820. ... It trickles down the hill,So feebly, just for love of power and will,Yet to my mind the nameless thing is brought MS. ... It totters down the hill,So feebly, quite forlorn of power and will;Yet nameless Thing it to my mind is brought MS. [3] 1827. Oftener than mightiest Floods, whose path is wroughtThrough wastes of sand, and forests dark and chill.1820. [4] 1827. Do thou, even thou, O faithful Anna! sayWhy this small Streamlet is to me so dear;Thou know'st, that while enjoyments disappearAnd sweet remembrances like flowers decay, 1820. [5] 1827. Lingers upon its marge, ... 1820. [6] 1820. For on that day, now seven years gone, when firstTwo glad foot-travellers, through sun and showerMy Love and I came hither, while thanks burstOut of our hearts ...We from that blessed water slaked our thirst. MS. ... seven years back, ... ... hearts to God for that good hour,Eating a traveller's meal in shady bower,We ... MS. 1807 In few instances is it more evident that the dates which Wordsworthaffixed to his poems, in the editions of 1815, 1820, 1836, and1845,--and those assigned in the Fenwick notes--cannot be absolutelyrelied upon, than in the case of the poems referring to Coleorton.Trusting to these dates, in the absence of contrary evidence, one wouldnaturally assign the majority of the Coleorton poems to the year 1808.But it is clear that, while the sonnet _To Lady Beaumont_ may have beenwritten in 1806, the "Inscription" _For a Seat in the Groves ofColeorton_, beginning-- Beneath yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound, was written, not in 1808 (as stated by Wordsworth himself), but in 1811;and that the other "Inscription" designed for a Niche in theWinter-garden at Coleorton, belongs (I think) to the same year; a yearin which he also wrote the sonnet on Sir George Beaumont's picture ofBredon Hill and Cloud Hill, beginning--
✦