selections suitable for elocution. earlier; 'my Love' in this line is Dorothy.
8. William's poem beginning 'Among all lovely
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39 8 / DOROTHY WORDSWORTH
of the highest hills, yellow palms, purple & green twigs on the Birches, ashes with their glittering spikes quite bare. The hawthorn a bright green with black stems under the oak. The moss of the oak glossy. We then went on, passed two sisters at work, they first passed us, one with two pitch forks in her hand. The other had a spade. We had some talk with them. They laughed aloud after we were gone perhaps half in wantonness, half boldness. William finished his poem before we got to the foot of Kirkstone.9 * * *
Thursday [Apr.] 29. A beautiful morning. The sun shone & all was pleasant. We sent off our parcel to Coleridge by the waggon. Mr Simpson heard the Cuckow today. Before we went out after I had written down the Tinker (which William finished this morning)1 Luff called. He was very lame, limped into the kitchen?he came on a little Pony. We then went to John's Grove, sate a while at first. Afterwards William lay, & I lay in the trench under the fence?he with his eyes shut & listening to the waterfalls & the Birds. There was no one waterfall above another2?it was a sound of waters in the air?the voice of the air. William heard me breathing & rustling now & then but we both lay still, & unseen by one another?-he thought that it would be as sweet thus to lie so in the grave, to hear the peaceful sounds of the earth & just to know that our dear friends were near. The Lake was still. There was a Boat out. Silver How reflected with delicate purple & yellowish hues as I have seen Spar?Lambs on the island & running races together by the half dozen in the round field near us. The copses greenish, hawthorn green.?Came home to dinner then went to Mr Simpson. We rested a long time under a wall. Sheep & Iambs were in the field?cottages smoking. As I lay down on the grass, I observed the glittering silver line on the ridges of the Backs of the sheep, owing to their situation respecting the Sun?which made them look beautiful but with something of strangeness, like animals of another kind?as if belonging to a more splendid world. Met old Mr S at the door?Mrs S poorly?I got mullens & pansies?I was sick & ill & obliged to come home soon. We went to bed immediately?I slept up stairs. The air coldish where it was felt somewhat frosty.
Tuesday May 4th. William had slept pretty well & though he went to bed nervous & jaded in the extreme he rose refreshed. I wrote the Leech Gatherer3 for him which he had begun the night before & of which he wrote several stanzas in bed this Monday morning. It was very hot, we called at Mr Simpson's door as we passed but did not go in. We rested several times by the way, read & repeated the Leech Gatherer. We were almost melted before we were at the top of the hill. We saw Coleridge on the Wytheburn side of the water. He crossed the Beck to us. Mr Simpson was fishing there. William & I ate a Luncheon, then went on towards the waterfall. It is a glorious wild solitude under that lofty purple crag. It stood upright by itself. Its own self & its shadow below, one mass?all else was sunshine. We went on further. A Bird at the top of the crags was flying round & round & looked in thinness & transparency,
9. The short lyric 'Written in March.' 3. The poem that was published as 'Resolution 1. William never published his comic poem 'The and Independence.' For its origin see the entrvfor Tinker.' It was first printed in 1897. October 3, 1800 (p. 393).
2. I.e., no waterfall could be heard individually.
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THE GRASMERE JOURNALS / 399
shape & motion like a moth. We climbed the hill but looked in vain for a shade except at the foot of the great waterfall, & there we did not like to stay on account of the loose stones above our heads. We came down & rested upon a moss covered Rock, rising out of the bed of the River. There we lay ate our dinner & stayed there till about 4 o'clock or later?Wm & C repeated & read verses. I drank a little Brandy & water & was in Heaven. The Stags horn is very beautiful & fresh springing upon the fells. Mountain ashes, green. We drank tea at a farm house. The woman had not a pleasant countenance, but was civil enough. She had a pretty Boy a year old whom she suckled. We parted from Coleridge at Sara's Crag after having looked at the Letters which C carved in the morning. I kissed them all. Wm deepened the T with C's penknife. 4 We sate afterwards on the wall, seeing the sun go down & the reflections in the still water. C looked well & parted from us chearfully, hopping up upon the side stones. On the Rays we met a woman with 2 little girls one in her arms the other about 4 years old walking by her side, a pretty little thing, but half starved. She had on a pair of slippers that had belonged to some gentleman's child, down at the heels?it was not easy to keep them on?but, poor thing! young as she was, she walked carefully with them. Alas too young for such cares & such travels?The Mother when we accosted her told us that her husband had left her & gone off with another woman & how she 'pursued' them. Then her fury kindled & her eyes rolled about. She changed again to tears. She was a Cockermouth woman?30 years of age a child at Cocker- mouth when I was?I was moved & gave her a shilling, I believe 6d more than I ought to have given. We had the crescent moon with the 'auld moon in her arms.'5?We rested often:?always upon the Bridges. Reached home at about
10 o'clock. The Lloyds had been here in our absence. We went soon to bed. I repeated verses to William while he was in bed?he was soothed & I left him. 'This is the Spot'6 over & over again.
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6th May Thursday 1802. A sweet morning we have put the finishing stroke to our Bower & here we are sitting in the orchard. It is one o'clock. We are sitting upon a seat under the wall which I found my Brother building up when I came to him with his apple?he had intended that it should have been done before I came. It is a nice cool shady spot. The small Birds are singing?Lambs bleating, Cuckow calling?The Thrush sings by Fits. Thomas Ashburner's axe is going quietly (without passion) in the orchard?Hens are cackling, Flies humming, the women talking together at their doors?Plumb & pear trees are in Blossom?apple trees greenish?the opposite woods green, the crows are cawing. We have heard Ravens. The ash trees are in blossom, Birds flying all about us. The stitchwort is coming out, there is one budding Lychnis, the primroses are passing their prime. Celandine violets & wood sorrel for ever more little?geraniums & pansies on the wall. We walked in the evening to Tail End to enquire about hurdles for the orchard shed & about Mr Luff's flower?The flower dead?no hurdles. I went to look at the falling wood? Wm also when he had been at Benson's went with me. They have left a good
4. The rock, which has since been blasted away to 5. From the 'Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens.' Cole- make room for a. new road, contained the carved ridge quoted the stanza, of which this phrase is
letters W. W., M. H., D. W., S.T.C., J. W., S. H. part, as epigraph to 'Dejection: An Ode' (p. 466).
(M. H. and S. H. are Mary and Sara Hutchinson; 6. William never completed this poem. J. W. is John Wordsworth.)
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