The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 8 (of 8) — Context and Discussion

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Authors: Wordsworth, William, 1770-1850, Knight, William Angus, 1836-1916 [Editor] Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2016 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: English poetry -- 19th century; English poetry -- 18th century Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 125,803

Reading time 547 min

Text sections 27

The catalog record for The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 8 (of 8) — Context and Discussion provides practical reading context through 125,803 words, 9 hr 7 min estimated reading time, and 27 detected text sections.

The text analysis averages about 18.9 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “English poetry -- 19th century,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #52836

This eighth and final volume of William Knight's 1896 edition collects Wordsworth's later poems (1834–1847), including the 'Memorials of a Tour in Italy, 1837' and the first publication of 'Home at Grasmere' from the unpublished 'Recluse' manuscript, with extensive editorial notes.

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THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

EDITED BY WILLIAM KNIGHT

London MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD. New York: Macmillan & Co. 1896

_All rights reserved._

Lines suggested by a Portrait from the Pencil of F. Stone 1

The foregoing Subject resumed 6

Lines written in the Album of the Countess of Lonsdale, Nov. 5, 1834 8

“Why art thou silent? Is thy love a plant” 12

Written after the Death of Charles Lamb 17

Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg 24

Upon seeing a Coloured Drawing of the Bird of Paradise in an Album 29

“Desponding Father! mark this altered bough” 31

“Four fiery steeds impatient of the rein” 31

Roman Antiquities discovered at Bishopstone, Herefordshire 33

St. Catherine of Ledbury 34

“By a blest Husband guided, Mary came” 35

“Oh what a Wreck! how changed in mien and speech!” 36

To a Redbreast--(In Sickness) 38

“Six months to six years added he remained” 39

Memorials of a Tour in Italy, 1837--To Henry Crabb Robinson 41

I. Musings near Aquapendente, April, 1837 42

II. The Pine of Monte Mario at Rome 58

IV. At Rome--Regrets--in Allusion to Niebuhr and other Modern Historians 60

VI. Plea for the Historian 61

VIII. Near Rome, in Sight of St. Peter’s 63

X. “Near Anio’s stream, I spied a gentle Dove” 65

XI. From the Alban Hills, looking towards Rome 65

XII. Near the Lake of Thrasymene 66

XIII. Near the same Lake 67

XIV. The Cuckoo at Laverna 67

XV. At the Convent of Camaldoli 72

XVII. At the Eremite or Upper Convent of Camaldoli 74

XVIII. At Vallombrosa 75

XX. Before the Picture of the Baptist, by Raphael, in the Gallery at Florence 79

XXI. At Florence--From Michael Angelo 80

XXII. At Florence--From Michael Angelo 81

XXIII. Among the Ruins of a Convent in the Apennines 82

XXV. After leaving Italy 84

At Bologna, in Remembrance of the late Insurrections, 1837.--I. 86

“What if our numbers barely could defy” 87

The Widow on Windermere Side 89

To the Planet Venus 92

“Hark! ’tis the Thrush, undaunted, undeprest” 93

“’Tis He whose yester-evening’s high disdain” 94

Composed at Rydal on May Morning, 1838 94

Composed on a May Morning, 1838 97

A Plea for Authors, May 1838 99

“Blest Statesman He, whose Mind’s unselfish will” 101

Valedictory Sonnet 102

Sonnets upon the Punishment of Death--

I. Suggested by the View of Lancaster Castle (on the Road from the South) 103

II. “Tenderly do we feel by Nature’s law” 104

III. “The Roman Consul doomed his sons to die” 105

IV. “Is _Death_, when evil against good has fought” 106

V. “Not to the object specially designed” 106

VI. “Ye brood of conscience--Spectres! that frequent” 107

VII. “Before the world had past her time of youth” 107

VIII. “Fit retribution, by the moral code” 108

IX. “Though to give timely warning and deter” 109

X. “Our bodily life, some plead, that life the shrine” 109

XI. “Ah, think how one compelled for life to abide” 110

XII. “See the Condemned alone within his cell” 110

“Men of the Western World! in Fate’s dark book” 112

On the same Subject 115

On a Portrait of the Duke of Wellington upon the Field of Waterloo, by Haydon 118

Epitaph in the Chapel-Yard of Langdale, Westmoreland 120

“Intent on gathering wool from hedge and brake” 122

Prelude, prefixed to the Volume entitled “Poems chiefly of Early and Late Years” 123

“The Crescent-moon, the Star of Love” 127

“_A Poet!_--He hath put his heart to school” 127

“The most alluring clouds that mount the sky” 128

“Feel for the wrongs to universal ken” 129

In Allusion to various Recent Histories and Notices of the French Revolution 130

“Lo! where she stands fixed in a saint-like trance” 132

Suggested by a Picture of the Bird of Paradise 140

Airey-Force Valley 146

“Lyre! though such power do in thy magic live” 147

Love lies Bleeding 148

“They call it Love lies bleeding! rather say” 150

Companion to the Foregoing 150

“Wansfell! this Household has a favoured lot” 153

“Though the bold wings of Poesy affect” 154

“Glad sight wherever new with old” 154

“While beams of orient light shoot wide and high” 156

Inscription for a Monument in Crosthwaite Church, in the Vale of Keswick 157

To the Rev. Christopher Wordsworth, D.D., Master of Harrow School 162

“So fair, so sweet, withal so sensitive” 164

On the projected Kendal and Windermere Railway 166

“Proud were ye, Mountains, when, in times of old” 167

“Forth from a jutting ridge, around whose base” 170

The Westmoreland Girl 172

“Yes! thou art fair, yet be not moved” 176

“What heavenly smiles! O Lady mine” 177

To the Pennsylvanians 179

“Young England--what is then become of Old” 180

“Where lies the truth? has Man, in wisdom’s creed” 182

To Lucca Giordano 183

“Who but is pleased to watch the moon on high” 184

Illustrated Books and Newspapers 184

Sonnet. To an Octogenarian 185

“I know an aged Man constrained to dwell” 186

“The unremitting voice of nightly streams” 187

“How beautiful the Queen of Night, on high” 188

On the Banks of a Rocky Stream 188

Ode. Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood 189

POEMS BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH AND BY DOROTHY WORDSWORTH NOT INCLUDED IN THE EDITION OF 1849-50

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This volume presents Wordsworth's poetry from 1834 to 1847, as edited by William Knight in 1896. It includes the complete 'Memorials of a Tour in Italy, 1837,' a sequence of 26 poems that record the poet's responses to Italian landscapes, artworks, and historical sites. The volume also contains the first print publication of 'Home at Grasmere,' a canto from Wordsworth's unpublished autobiographical poem The Recluse, which Knight prints from the original manuscript with notes by Gordon Wordsworth. Knight's editorial apparatus—footnotes, cross-references, and headnotes—provides a scholarly framework that situates these late poems within Wordsworth's broader oeuvre.

Editorial Interventions and the Manuscript Record

Knight's edition is notable for its editorial transparency. In the headnote to 'Home at Grasmere,' he explains that the poem was 'kept back by him during his lifetime' and that its posthumous publication was 'omitted by his representatives—with what must be regarded as true critical insight.' He acknowledges the poem's uneven quality, noting that 'certain passages are very inferior, but there are others that posterity must cherish.' This candid assessment is paired with detailed textual notes: Knight records that the manuscript heading is 'THE RECLUSE. BOOK FIRST, PART FIRST. HOME AT GRASMERE' and that the text 'has been carefully compared with the original MS. by Mr. Gordon Wordsworth.' Such remarks give the reader a clear sense of the editorial decisions behind the printed text.

Italy Through Wordsworth's Late Style

The 'Memorials of a Tour in Italy, 1837' showcase Wordsworth's later poetic manner—meditative, allusive, and often anchored in specific locales. In 'Musings near Aquapendente,' the speaker reflects on the landscape with a characteristic blend of sensory detail and moral reflection. Knight's footnotes frequently cross-reference other poems in the Wordsworth canon, such as comparing a line in 'To the Moon' (p. 15) with an 'Evening Voluntary' of 1846. These annotations reveal how Wordsworth's later work reworks earlier themes and images. The sequence also includes sonnets on historical subjects, such as 'At Rome—Regrets—in Allusion to Niebuhr and other Modern Historians,' which engage with contemporary historiography. The poems are not travelogue but a poet's grappling with the weight of the past.

The Recluse Fragment and Autobiographical Retrospect

'Home at Grasmere' offers a rare glimpse into Wordsworth's unfinished magnum opus. The poem opens with a schoolboy's first view of the valley—'Once to the verge of yon steep barrier came / A roving school-boy'—and the speaker later identifies himself as 'that same young and happy being.' The passage moves from a boy's fantasy of 'unfettered liberty' to a mature recognition of the valley as 'a haunt / Of pure affections.' Knight notes that internal evidence—'the numerous allusions to Dorothy, and the reference to John Wordsworth'—dates the poem to shortly after Wordsworth's arrival at Grasmere and before his marriage. The fragment thus serves as a companion to The Prelude, offering a more localized, domestic counterpart to that poem's epic scope.

Late Sonnets and Public Themes

The volume includes a series of sonnets on the punishment of death, written in 1839, which engage with legal and moral questions. The first, 'Suggested by the View of Lancaster Castle,' uses the castle as a symbol of judicial authority. Knight's edition places these sonnets alongside occasional poems on contemporary events, such as 'At Bologna, in Remembrance of the late Insurrections, 1837.' These works show Wordsworth turning his sonnet form to public subjects, a practice he had maintained since the early 1800s. The editorial notes do not provide historical context for these events, leaving the reader to infer the political background from the poems themselves.

Readers approaching this volume should be aware that it is a scholarly edition, not a reading text. Knight's footnotes and headnotes are integral to understanding the poems' composition history and textual variants. The inclusion of 'Home at Grasmere' makes this volume essential for those interested in Wordsworth's autobiographical project, while the Italian poems offer a late-career perspective on a poet who had long meditated on nature and memory. The volume rewards careful attention to both the poems and the editorial apparatus that frames them.

Sometimes I think of Wordsworth, late in life, turning toward memory’s quiet shelter, and it puts me in mind of another homemade comfort — the patient little volume Blottentots, and How to Make Them — Text and Context. Both are crafts of gathering small, ordinary things until they become a kind of home. No grand noise, just the soft persistence of making and remembering.

Noah Davis

1 week ago

5 out of 5 (1 User reviews )

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William Johnson - 4 weeks ago

As the final volume in an eight-part series, this book delivers a satisfying conclusion for collectors. The poems are well-presented, and the inclusion of various pieces is valuable. However, some of the later works lack the brilliance of his earlier period, and the volume feels a bit uneven. Still, it's an essential part of a complete Wordsworth library, and the quality of the edition is solid.

Michael Shane Cooper - 3 weeks ago

This final volume of Wordsworth's poetical works is a treasure trove for poetry lovers and scholars. It completes the comprehensive collection, featuring some of his lesser-known later poems alongside editorial notes that enhance understanding. The beauty of nature and the depth of human emotion are captured with Wordsworth's signature clarity. A must-have for anyone wanting the complete picture of his genius. The edition is well-annotated and a pleasure to read.

Jill Paul - 3 weeks ago

Only for the most devoted Wordsworth scholars. This volume is mostly filler, with many poems that feel like lesser imitations of his earlier greatness. The endless nature descriptions become monotonous, and the absence of contextualization makes it hard to appreciate what's here. If you're not a completist, skip it. Even the editor's notes are dry and academic. A disappointment compared to the rich content of earlier volumes.