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Show the keen wizard Frost prevails upon
Even rivers; a low clink bewrays a slim
Bird who hath lighted on the marge to drink.
Aerial webs invisible, that link

Sere russet fern with glumes of yellow grass,
And green fir-needles, are palpable star-chains
Of fairy jewels; from furze points they pass;
Every dark green lance of broom sustains
Like burden; all are fledged with crystal soft,
Mist frozen in plumelets; many a taper tuft
Adorns the wine-stained bramble, and the
blade,

And bronzy twigs of trees bereft of shade.

II.

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Splashed upon all green brambles, and redfruited

Hollies, or thorns, or briars, where they roam;
Our ever sweet-songed robin richly suited,
And birds reserving for a leafier home
And lovelier lands the voice wherein love
luted,

Nestle where beast or man hath trodden deep
Erewhile in yon dead summer: shadows blue
Thatched roof, wain, barn and byre, and slowly
In crisp-starred snow; fur mantles fair endue

creep

To a fringe of diamond icicle: the waters are asleep.

Brakes white with frost, and orange reeds are No skaters whirr and whirl, as erst, upon the

fair,

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Snow falls. hath fallen - all the land is white.

Pure snow clings frozen to labyrinths of trees:
They in a narrow lane aloft unite;

Winter hath clothed with a pure foliage these,
Pitying them, bereft of spring's delight.
How fairylike their veiled pale silences!
Feathery shadows a grey mist informing
With beauty, as frail corallines dim sea.
Some alien planet our earth seems to be!
Earth lies fair in her shroud and slumbereth;
So fair the pure white silence of dim death!
Lo! the sun's fleeting phantom faintly warm-
ing

Mists into heaven's blue, while they flush and

flee:

Budding birchsprays hang laughing jewelry Of opal ice athwart the lift that clears; Clinking it falls, or melts in jubilant tears.

IV.

Gaily snow flounces earthward in the sun, Or frozen glisters with an icy edge

imprisoned grey

Smooth water; no chubby children slide and shout and play.

Pile the illumining logs within, and let them crackle gay!

Bright holly and green mistletoe cheering our hearths we keep:

Warm glint the polished chairs and glasses, while yule-fires glow deep.

But when dear babes lie dreaming, with a And at their nursery doors are set small fairyhalo near the moon, There will float a voice of mystic bells over appealing shoon, earth's pale swound,

And sweet sad fays of memory to haunt us in their sound!

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From The Fortnightly Review.

THE PROSE WORKS OF WORDSWORTH. THE prose works of Wordsworth, now for the first time collected, and some of which are now first published, form a gift for which all who have ever truly listened to Wordsworth, and learned from him, will be grateful with no common gratitude. To some men now in middle life, the poetry of Wordsworth in its influence upon their early years has been somewhat like a lofty mountain,

though to us, who have ranged, it cannot continue quite the same, but seems now a little more abrupt and rigid in its outlines, and, it may be, seems a narrow tract of elevation in contrast with the broad bosom of common earth, the world of pasture-land and city and sea which we have traversed, and which we shall not henceforth forsake.

That three substantial volumes could be collected of Wordsworth's prose writings will be to some readers a surprise. The contents of the volumes are miscellaneous, An eminence, of these our hills but upon almost every page we find imThe last that parleys with the setting sun, pressed the unity of a common origin; which rose as chief presence and power all that is here, or nearly all, essentially near the home of their boyhood, which belongs to Wordsworth's mind. Now, a was the resort of their solitary walks, quarter of a century after the writer's which kindled their most ardent thoughts, death, these pieces have been brought towhich consecrated their highest resolves, gether, under the authority of the Wordswhich created moods of limitless aspira- worth family, by the indefatigable zeal tion, which strengthened and subdued, and care of Mr. Grosart. Students of from which came forth clear yet mysteri- our older English poetry owe a large debt ous echoes, against whose front the glories to the erudite enthusiasm of the editor of dawns that were sacred had been man- of the Fuller Worthies' Library. This ifested, and on whose edges stars, like service now rendered to a great poet of our kindling watchfires, had paused at night own century deserves a word of earnest for a moment in their course. Not less gratitude. The editor has done his work than this Wordsworth's poetry was to accurately, judiciously, and without obthem, as they can remember now. But truding himself between the reader and for such men the Wanderjahre, the years of travel, needful and inevitable, came; they went hither and thither; they took gifts from this one and from that; they saw strange ways and strange faces of men; they parted, it may be, too cheaply with old things that had been dear; they looked, or seemed to look, at truth askance and strangely. And now, if they are drawn back once more into the haunts of early years, they return not without dread and foreboding and tender remorse; to pass the barriers and re-enter the solitude seems as though it needed preparatory discipline and penance and absolution; having entered it, however, the consciousness of one's own personality and its altering states ceases; the fact which fills the mind is the permanence of that lofty, untroubled presence. "There it is," we say, "the same as ever," the same,

the author. Some of these intended "alms for oblivion," which he has recovered from the wallet on Time's back. make richer in spiritual possessions the life of each of us, and of our century.

The contents, miscellaneous as they are, fall into certain principal groups: first, the political writings, which represent three periods in the growth of Wordsworth's mind, that of his ardent, youthful republicanism (represented by the "Apology for the French Revolution "), that of the patriotic enthusiasm of his manhood (represented by his pamphlet on the Convention of Cintra), and lastly, that of his uncourageous elder years.* Certain essays and letters upon education, together with a deep-thoughted letter of "Advice to the Young," reprinted from "The Friend," lie nearest to the political writings, having

"Years have deprived me of courage, in the sense "The Prose Works of William Wordsworth." the word bears when applied by Chaucer to the aniEdited with Preface, etc., by the Rev. A. B. Grosart.mation of birds in spring-time."-"Prose Works," 3 vols. London: Edward Moxon, Son, & Co., 1875.

vol. iii. p. 317.

indirect bearings upon politics, but being | faculties takes place under new condiimmediately, and in the first instance, tions. The imagination, used as an inethical. The group entitled by the editor strument for the discovery of truth, will “Esthetical and Literary" comprises the pierce through the accidental circum"Letter to a Friend of Robert Burns," not-stances of the hour and the place in its able for its fine charity, and at the same effort to deliver from the incidents of time time strength of moral judgment, the "Es- the divine reality which they conceal; ocsays upon Epitaphs," admirable pieces of casional and local events will be looked on philosophical criticism (printed in part as of chief significance in reference to from hitherto unpublished manuscripts), what is abiding and universal; and the and the several essays and prefaces which poet's loyalty to certain ideals will probaccompanied the editions of Wordsworth's ably take the form of a strenuous confipoems. Hard by these is rightly placed dence in the future of nations or of manWordsworth's "Guide through the Dis- kind. Thus, if he essays to write a polittricts of the Lakes;" this, beside being a ical pamphlet, it is probable that the singularly perfect piece of topographical pamphlet will come forth a prophecy. No description, is of unique interest as ex-prose writer knows better than the poet hibiting Wordsworth's mind, in reference (writing, in Milton's expressive words, to external nature, at work not in the "with his left hand ") the limits to which imaginative, but in the analytic manner. he has subjected himself; yet he cannot The "Letters on the Kendal and Winder- quite subdue the desire to push back the mere Railway" belong to the same group limits, and assert the full privileges of his of writings. In the third volume the ed-nature. No poet, indeed, as far as I am itor has placed the notes to the poems, aware, has written in that hybrid species, collected from many editions; and the which is the form of ostentation dear to whole of the precious and delightful mem- the vulgarly ambitious, unimaginative oranda, having reference chiefly to the mind, and which calls itself prose-poetry. occasions on which Wordsworth's poems The poet who writes in prose has made a were conceived or written, dictated by the surrender, and is conscious of self-denial poet to Miss Fenwick, and known to and a loss of power; but, to compensate Wordsworth students as the I. F. MSS. this, some of the force and intensity which Letters and extracts of letters follow, comes through sacrifice for a sufficient and the volume closes with various cause may add itself to his mood and to personal reminiscences of Wordsworth, its outcome. There will be in such writamong which must be distinguished for ing a quiver as of wings that have often its deep sympathy with the character and winnowed the air; and mastering this, genius of the poet, and the interest of its there will be a poise, a steadfast advance, details, the notice contributed by a living and in the high places of contemplation or poet, kindred in spirit to Wordsworth, of joy a strong yet tranquil flight, a conMr. Aubrey de Vere. In the present ar- tinued equilibration of passion and of ticle it will be possible only to gather up thought. the suggestions which arise from one division of these various writings, the political division.

Mr. Mill in a celebrated essay, with the object of illustrating by typical examples the true nature of poetry, contrasted the When a poet on great occasions, and poetry of Wordsworth with that of Shelley. with a powerful motive, expresses himself The latter was described as the offspring in prose, it may be anticipated that his of a nature essentially poetical, vivid emowork will possess certain precious and tion uttering itself directly in song, while peculiar qualities. While working in this the former, Wordsworth's poetry, was set foreign material, he does not divest him- down as the resultant of culture, and of a self of his fineness of nerve, of his emo- deliberate effort of the will, its primary tional ardour and susceptibility, nor can he factor being a thought, around which, at disregard the sustenance through beauty the command of the writer, or according of his imagination; but the play of his to a habit which he had acquired, were

In such access of mind, in such high hour
Of visitation from the living God
Thought was not, in enjoyment it expired.

"The excellence of writing,

whether in prose or verse," Wordsworth has said, "consists in the conjunction of reason and passion." And as this may be noted as the excellence of Wordsworth's own poetry, the conjunction being no result of an act of the will, or of mere habit, but vital, primitive, immediate, and necessary, so it must be set down as the first distinguishing quality of whatever is highest and noblest in these his writings in prose.

grouped appropriate feelings and images. | of the man to be transformed and transAny one who has been deeply penetrated fused into silent rapture : — by Wordsworth's poetry must perceive, in a way which leaves no room for vague statement, that while Mr. Mill received its influences up to a certain point, he yet remained outside the sphere of Words- And yet in such an hour thought rather worth's essential power; and perhaps no lay hidden in "the light of thought" than piece of criticism, seeming to outsiders to had ceased to be. The forces of Wordspossess so considerable a portion of truth, worth's nature, like the forces of the physcould be more entirely alien to the con- ical universe, were correlated by a marvelsciousness of those who have adequately lous law, according to which one could felt the power of Wordsworth's poetry pass and be transformed into another, than that of Mr. Mill. Each writer of what was at this moment a sensuous affechigh and peculiar genius, whose genius tion becoming forthwith a spiritual presnotwithstanding fails to be world-wide, or ence, what was now contemplation appear: universal as the sun, may be said to exer- ing presently as passion, or what was now cise over his readers an election of grace a state of passive, brooding receptivity -one is taken and another left; and transforming itself into the rapturous adthat a person who has been thus elected vance and controlling mastery of the imshould speak with decision about the mis-agination. ter, implies no arrogance. As a man asserts confidently what has been clearly shown by the report of the senses, so one who has been admitted to the presence of a writer of such high and peculiar genius as Wordsworth, knows and declares that the fact is so, and not otherwise. There will be no dissent among those who have approached nearest to Wordsworth, when it is said that a most essential characteristic of Wordsworth's writing, when he wrote in his most characteristic manner, is The earliest in date of the more imporprecisely the reverse of what Mr. Mill tant pieces in the present collection is "An has stated it to be. In the poems of Apology for the French Revolution." It Wordsworth, which are the most distinctly is now printed for the first time, having Wordsworthian, there is an entire consen- been preserved in manuscript by the writer taneity of thought and feeling; no critical during nearly half a century. Bishop analysis can separate or distinguish the Watson, who had been a conspicuous Entwo, nor can we say with accuracy that glish sympathizer with the great moveeither has preceded and initiated the movement in France during its earlier stages, ment of the other; thought lives in feeling, deserted of a sudden the cause which to feeling lives in thought; in their dual Wordsworth at that time appeared the unity neither "is afore or after other," neither "is greater or less than another." If ever, indeed, there appears a tendency to severance of these two elements of Wordsworth's poetry (it being assumed that Wordsworth is writing at his best), this occurs in those occasional trances of thought and mountings of the mind, when all intellection and all operancy of will seem to be suspended, and the whole being

cause of freedom and of the human race. An appendix to a sermon of the bishopa sermon that bore an odious title-had signalized his change of faith by an attack upon the principles and the conduct of the Revolution. Wordsworth's pamphlet is a reply to this appendix. In dexterous use of his weapons the bishop is the more practised combatant; Wordsworth's style suffers in some degree from a sense of the

by the September massacres and the execution of Louis XVI., he still retains unshaken faith in France and in the republic. Until his twenty-second year external nature had possessed all his deeper sym

conventional dignity of the political pamphlet as employed in the eighteenth century. A young writer can hardly afford to be quite direct and free in his movements, lest he should be violent and awkward. "Alluding to our natural existence, Addi-pathies, and been the inspirer of his most son, in a sublime allegory well known to intimate hopes, and joys, and fears. This, your lordship, has represented us as cross- therefore, was the season of the first loveing an immense bridge, from whose surface making of Wordsworth's soul with hum in from a variety of causes we disappear one society. The easy-going sociability of his after another, and are seen no more." This laxer hours at Cambridge had been felt to simile of the opening paragraph, formed be a carelessness towards that higher self from the "Vision of Mirza," with its appall- within him, which when he was alone asing image of the Bishop of Llandaff falling serted its authority and condemned his "through one of the numerous trap-doors, casual pleasures. But now for Wordsinto the tide of contempt, to be swept worth to unite himself with mankind was away into the ocean of oblivion," belongs to widen the life and reinforce the enerto the manner of majestic scorn or indig-gies of that higher self. He could not nation of the political letter-writer of the period. It is more important to observe that in all higher and stronger qualities of mind the advantage lies with Wordsworth. And very remarkable from a biographical point of view it is to ascertain, as we do from this pamphlet, that not only was Wordsworth's whole emotional nature aroused and quickened by the beauty of promise which the world in that hour of universal dawn seemed to wear, but that his intellect had so clearly comprehended and adopted with conviction so decided the principles of republican government. Wordsworth had reached the age of twenty-three. His character, naturally simple, stern, and ardent, had received at first no shock of either fear or joy from the events in France; they seemed only natural and right. But when he entered into actual contact with the soil and people, he could not but become aware of the marvellous change in progress. On the eve of the day on which the king pledged his faith to the new constitution, Wordsworth saw with his own eyes the joy upon the faces of all men. "A homeless sound of joy was in the sky;" and to such primitive, unshaped sounds, whether from trees and mountain torrents, or the waves of the sea, or the tumultuous movement of the people, Wordsworth's imagination responded with peculiar energy. France was standing "on the top of golden hours;" in Paris the English wanderer had gathered from among the rubbish of the Bastille a fragment to be cherished as a relic; upon the banks of the Loire he had discussed with Beaupuis the end and wisest forms of civil government; he had listened to the speeches of the Girondins in the National Assembly. And now that his republican faith might seem to be tried and tested, perhaps somewhat strained,

quickly or without a struggle renounce the new existence which had opened for him. Acts of violence had been perpetrated; but "a time of revolution," Wordsworth pleaded, "is not the season of true liberty." "Alas," he goes on, "the obstinacy and perversion of man is such that liberty is too often obliged to borrow the very arms of despotism to overthrow him, and in order to reign in peace must establish herself by violence. She deplores such stern necessity, but the safety of the people, her supreme law, is her consolation." A certain sternness and hardness in Wordsworth's temperament, his youthful happiness, and his freedom from tender, personal bonds, enabled him to look, with out shrinking, upon some severe measures enforced by the leaders of the Revolution. Such tenderness as shed tears over the fallen body of a king seemed to Wordsworth a specious sensibility. His sorrow was yielded to the violated majesty of public order; he lamented "that any combination of circumstances should have rendered it necessary or advisable to veil for a moment the statues of the laws, and that by such emergency the cause of twenty-five millions of people, I may say of the whole human race, should have been so materially injured. Any other sorrow for the death of Louis is irrational and weak." This is a young man's somewhat haughty devotion to a cause, untempered and uninformed as yet by concrete Kuman sympathies, or the "humble cares and delicate fears" which come with adult life.

In this pamphlet Wordsworth's republican faith is distinctly formulated. A republic is the least oppressive form of government, because, as far as is possible, the governors and the governed become one. The property qualification of voters must be set aside; the mechanic and the peas

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