The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume I Part 40

[Footnote Z: As Schreck-Horn, the pike of terror. Wetter-Horn, the pike of storms, etc., etc.--W. W. 1793.]

[Footnote Aa: The effect of the famous air called in French Ranz des Vaches upon the Swiss troops.--W. W. 1793.]

[Footnote Bb: This shrine is resorted to, from a hope of relief, by mult.i.tudes, from every corner of the Catholick world, labouring under mental or bodily afflictions.--W. W. 1793.]

[Footnote Cc: Compare the Stanzas 'Composed in one of the Catholic Cantons', in the "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent" (1820), which refer to Einsiedlen.--Ed.]

[Footnote Dd: Rude fountains built and covered with sheds for the accommodation of the pilgrims, in their ascent of the mountain.--W. W.

1793.]

[Footnote Ee: Compare Coleridge's 'Hymn before Sun-rise, in the Vale of Chamouni':

And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad!

... Who, with living flowers Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet?

O struggling with the darkness all the night, And visited all night by troops of stars, ...

The Arve and Arveiron at thy base Rave ceaselessly;

Compare also Sh.e.l.ley's 'Mont Blanc'.--Ed.]

[Footnote Ff: See note on Coleridge's 'Hymn before Sun-rise' on previous page.--Ed.[in Footnote Ff directly above]]

[Footnote Gg: An insect so called, which emits a short, melancholy cry, heard, at the close of the summer evenings, on the banks of the Loire.--W. W, 1793.]

[Footnote Hh: The duties upon many parts of the French rivers were so exorbitant that the poorer people, deprived of the benefit of water carriage, were obliged to transport their goods by land.--W. W. 1793.]

SUB-FOOTNOTES

[Sub-Footnote i: In the edition of 1815, the 28 lines, from "No sad vacuities" to "a wanderer came there," are ent.i.tled "Pleasures of the Pedestrian."--Ed.]

[Sub-Footnote ii: See 'Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude', l.

54:

The meanest floweret of the vale, The simplest note that swells the gale.

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 ent.i.tled '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.

ADVERTIs.e.m.e.nT, 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 t.i.tle 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 circ.u.mstances under which it was produced.

During the latter part of the summer of 1793, having pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sured 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, princ.i.p.ally those consequent upon war, to which, more than other cla.s.ses 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.