The Prelude — William Wordsworth
The Prelude THE PRELUDE, OR GROWTH OF A POET'S MIND; AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL POEM; BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. LONDON: EDWARD MOXON, DOVER STREET. 1850. LONDON: BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. ADVERTISEMENT. The following Poem was commenced in the beginning of the year 1799, and completed in the summer of 1805. The design and occasion of the work are described by the Author in his Preface to the Excursion , first published in 1814, where he thus speaks:— "Several years ago, when the Author retired to his native mountains with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary work that might live, it was a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his own mind, and examine how far Nature and Education had qualified him for such an employment. "As subsidiary to this preparation, he undertook to record, in verse, the origin and progress of his own powers, as far as he was acquainted with them. "That work, addressed to a dear friend, most distinguished for his knowledge and genius, and to whom the author's intellect is deeply indebted, has been long finished; and the result of the investigation which gave rise to it, was a determination to compose a philosophical Poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society, and to be entitled the 'Recluse;' as having for its principal subject the sensations and opinions of a poet living in retirement. "The preparatory poem is biographical, and conducts the history of the Author's mind to the point when he was emboldened to hope that his faculties were sufficiently matured for entering upon the arduous labour which he had proposed to himself; and the two works have the same kind of relation to each other, if he may so express himself, as the Ante-chapel has to the body of a Gothic Church. Continuing this allusion, he may be permitted to add, that his minor pieces, which have been long before the public, when they shall be properly arranged, will be found by the attentive reader to have such connection with the main work as may give them claim to be likened to the little cells, oratories, and sepulchral recesses, ordinarily included in those edifices." Such was the Author's language in the year 1814. It will thence be seen, that the present Poem was intended to be introductory to the Recluse , and that the Recluse , if completed, would have consisted of Three Parts. Of these, the Second Part alone, viz., the Excursion , was finished, and given to the world by the Author. The First Book of the First Part of the Recluse still remains in manuscript; but the Third Part was only planned. The materials of which it would have been formed have, however, been incorporated, for the most part, in the Author's other Publications, written subsequently to the Excursion . The Friend, to whom the present Poem is addressed, was the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge , who was resident in Malta, for the restoration of his health, when the greater part of it was composed. Mr. Coleridge read a considerable portion of the Poem while he was abroad; and his feelings, on hearing it recited by the Author (after his return to his own country) are recorded in his Verses, addressed to Mr. Wordsworth, which will be found in the "Sibylline Leaves," p. 197, ed. 1817, or "Poetical Works, by S. T. Coleridge," vol. i., p. 206. Rydal Mount , July 13 th , 1850. CONTENTS. BOOK I. PAGE INTRODUCTION.—CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL-TIME 1 BOOK II. SCHOOL-TIME.—( Continued ) 31 BOOK III. RESIDENCE AT CAMBRIDGE 53 BOOK IV. SUMMER VACATION 83 BOOK V. BOOKS 105 BOOK VI. CAMBRIDGE AND THE ALPS 133 BOOK VII. RESIDENCE IN LONDON 169 BOOK VIII. RETROSPECT.—LOVE OF NATURE LEADING TO LOVE OF MAN 205 BOOK IX. RESIDENCE IN FRANCE 237 BOOK X. RESIDENCE IN FRANCE.—( Continued ) 265 BOOK XI. FRANCE.—( Concluded ) 293 BOOK XII. IMAGINATION AND TASTE, HOW IMPAIRED AND RESTORED 315 BOOK XIII. IMAGINATION AND TASTE, HOW IMPAIRED AND RESTORED.—( Concluded ) 333 BOOK XIV. CONCLUSION 351 NOTES 373 INTRODUCTION.—CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL-TIME BOOK FIRST. INTRODUCTION—CHILDHOOD AND SCHOOL-TIME. O there is blessing in this gentle breeze, A visitant that while it fans my cheek Doth seem half-conscious of the joy it brings From the green fields, and from yon azure sky. Whate'er its mission, the soft breeze can come To none more grateful than to me; escaped From the vast city, where I long had pined A discontented sojourner: now free, Free as a bird to settle where I will. What dwelling shall receive me? in what vale Shall be my harbour? underneath what grove Shall I take up my home? and what clear stream Shall with its murmur lull me into rest? The earth is all before me. With a heart Joyous, nor scared at its own liberty, I look about; and should the chosen guide Be nothing better than a wandering cloud, I cannot miss my way. I breathe again! Trances of thought and mountings of the mind Come fast upon me: it is shaken off, That burthen of my own unnatural self, The heavy weight of many a weary day Not mine, and such as were not made for me. Long months of peace (if such bold word accord With any promises of human life), Long months of ease and undisturbed delight Are mine in prospect; whither shall I turn, By road or pathway, or through trackless field, Up hill or down, or shall some floating thing Upon the river point me out my course? Dear Liberty! Yet what would it avail But for a gift that consecrates the joy? For I, methought, while the sweet breath of heaven Was blowing on my body, felt within A correspondent breeze, that gently moved With quickening virtue, but is now become A tempest, a redundant energy, Vexing its own creation. Thanks to both, And their congenial powers, that, while they join In breaking up a long-continued frost, Bring with them vernal promises, the hope Of active days urged on by flying hours,— Days of sweet leisure, taxed with patient thought Abstruse, nor wanting punctual service high, Matins and vespers of harmonious verse! Thus far, Friend! did I, not used to make A present joy the matter of a song