VI When, to the attractions of the busy world

Ernest De Selincourt (ed.), The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. 2: Poems Founded on the Affections; Poems on the Naming of Places; Poems of the Fancy; Poems of the Imagination (Second Edition)

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Editor’s NoteEditor’s NoteVI

[Begun August 29, 30, 1800.—Finished 1802.—Published 1815.]

Critical Apparatus1When, to the attractions of the busy world

2Preferring studious leisure, I had chosen

3A habitation in this peaceful Vale,

4Sharp season followed of continual storm

5In deepest winter; and, from week to week,

6Pathway, and lane, and public road, were clogged

pg 1197With frequent showers of snow. Upon a hill,

8At a short distance from my cottage, stands

9A stately Fir-grove, whither I was wont

Critical Apparatus10To hasten, for I found, beneath the roof

11Of that perennial shade, a cloistral place

12Of refuge, with an unincumbered floor.

13Here, in safe covert, on the shallow snow,

14And, sometimes, on a speck of visible earth,

15The redbreast near me hopped; nor was I loth

16To sympathize with vulgar coppice birds

Critical Apparatus17That, for protection from the nipping blast,

18Hither repaired.—A single beech-tree grew

19Within this grove of firs! and, on the fork

20Of that one beech, appeared a thrush's nest;

21A last year's nest, conspicuously built

Critical Apparatus22At such small elevation from the ground

Critical Apparatus23As gave sure sign that they, who in that house

24Of nature and of love had made their home

25Amid the fir-trees, all the summer long

Critical Apparatus26Dwelt in a tranquil spot. And oftentimes

Critical Apparatus27A few sheep, stragglers from some mountain-flock,

28Would watch my motions with suspicious stare,

29From the remotest outskirts of the grove,—

30Some nook where they had made their final stand,

31Huddling together from two fears—the fear

32Of me and of the storm. Full many an hour

Critical Apparatus33Here did I lose. But in this grove the trees

34Had been so thickly planted, and had thriven

35In such perplexed and intricate array,

36That vainly did I seek, beneath their stems,

37A length of open space, where to and fro

pg 12038My feet might move without concern or care;

Critical Apparatus39And, baffled thus, though earth from day to day

40Was fettered, and the air by storm disturbed,

41I ceased the shelter to frequent,—and prized,

42Less than I wished to prize, that calm recess.

43 The snows dissolved, and genial Spring returned

44To clothe the fields with verdure. Other haunts

45Meanwhile were mine; till one bright April day,

46By chance retiring from the glare of noon

47To this forsaken covert, there I found

48A hoary pathway traced between the trees,

49And winding on with such an easy line

50Along a natural opening, that I stood

Critical Apparatus51Much wondering how I could have sought in vain

52For what was now so obvious. To abide,

pg 12153For an allotted interval of ease,

54Under my cottage-roof, had gladly come

55From the wild sea a cherished Visitant;

56And with the sight of this same path—begun,

57Begun and ended, in the shady grove,

58Pleasant conviction flashed upon my mind

59That, to this opportune recess allured,

60He had surveyed it with a finer eye,

61A heart more wakeful; and had worn the track

62By pacing here, unwearied and alone,

63In that habitual restlessness of foot

Critical Apparatus64That haunts the Sailor measuring o'er and o'er

65His short domain upon the vessel's deck,

66While she pursues her course through the dreary sea.

Critical Apparatus67 When thou hadst quitted Esthwaite's pleasant shore,

68And taken thy first leave of those green hills

69And rocks that were the play-ground of thy youth,

pg 12270Year followed year, my Brother! and we two,

71Conversing not, knew little in what mould

72Each other's mind was fashioned; and at length,

73When once again we met in Grasmere Vale,

74Between us there was little other bond

75Than common feelings of fraternal love.

76But thou, a School-boy, to the sea hadst carried

77Undying recollections; Nature there

78Was with thee; she, who loved us both, she still

79Was with thee; and even so didst thou become

80A silent Poet; from the solitude

81Of the vast sea didst bring a watchful heart

82Still couchant, an inevitable ear,

83And an eye practised like a blind man's touch.

84—Back to the joyless Ocean thou art gone;

Critical Apparatus85Nor from this vestige of thy musing hours

86Could I withhold thy honoured name,—and now

87I love the fir-grove with a perfect love.

88Thither do I withdraw when cloudless suns

89Shine hot, or wind blows troublesome and strong;

90And there I sit at evening, when the steep

Critical Apparatus91Of Silver-how, and Grasmere's peaceful lake,

92And one green island, gleam between the stems

Critical Apparatus93Of the dark firs, a visionary scene!

94And while I gaze upon the spectacle

95Of clouded splendour, on this dream-like sight

96Of solemn loveliness, I think on thee,

97My Brother, and on all which thou hast lost.

98Nor seldom, if I rightly guess, while Thou,

99Muttering the verses which I muttered first

100Among the mountains, through the midnight watch

Critical Apparatus101Art pacing thoughtfully the vessel's deck

102In some far region, here, while o'er my head,

103At every impulse of the moving breeze,

104The fir-grove murmurs with a sea-like sound,

105Alone I tread this path;—for aught I know,

106Timing my steps to thine; and, with a store

107Of undistinguishable sympathies,

pg 123108Mingling most earnest wishes for the day

109When we, and others whom we love, shall meet

110A second time, in Grasmere's happy Vale.

Note.—This wish was not granted; the lamented Person not long after perished by shipwreck, in discharge of his duty as Commander of the Honourable East India Company's Vessel, the Earl of Abergavenny.

Notes Settings

Editor’s Note

p. 118. VI. When, to the attractions of the busy world. "1805. The grove still exists, but the plantation has been walled in, and is not so accessible as when my brother John wore the path in the manner here described. The grove was a favourite haunt with us all while we lived at Town-End."—I. F.

The poem was dated 1802 by W. in edd. 1815 and 1820, but 1805 in 1836 and I. F. An entry in D. W.'s Journal for Sept. 1, 1800: "W. read Joanna and The Firgrove to Coleridge", suggests that an early draft of ll. 1–83 was in existence at that date, though the view of Dowden and Hutchinson that this is the poem to which she refers on Aug. 30 as the Inscription of the Pathway is made unlikely by the discovery, in the Longman MS., of six lines, headed The Orchard Pathway, and intended as the motto for a group of poems:

Orchard Pathway, to and fro,

Ever with thee, did I go,

Weaving Verses, a huge store!

These, and many hundreds more,

And, in memory of the same,

This little lot shall bear thy name!

It seems probable that the poem was complete in the form given in the extant MSS. (one of which is found in MS. M, in the hand of D. W. and the other in the hand of S. H.) in 1802, when John was on a voyage to China; the revision into something like its first published form may have been the work of 1805. But it is clear, from the note appended to the poem in 1815 and subsequently, that it was not substantially altered after Feb. 11, 1805, the day on which the news of John W.'s death reached Grasmere. John W.'s sojourn at Town End had been from Jan. or Feb. to May 14, and from June 8 to Sept. 29, 1800.

The "Firgrove" is situated in Ladywood, above and almost exactly opposite to the Wishing Gate. From the reference to Silver How in l. 91, it has been conjectured that this is the poem D. W. refers to on March 26, 1802, as "his Silver How poem".

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William Wordsworth

Ernest De Selincourt (ed.), The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. 2: Poems Founded on the Affections; Poems on the Naming of Places; Poems of the Fancy; Poems of the Imagination (Second Edition)

Main Text

Editor’s NoteEditor’s NoteVI

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