who strove to liberate Germany from the power of the French; also Gustavus IV, the Swede, who "never did to Fortune bend the knee," and whose conduct in this respect is contrasted with Napoleon's in still another sonnet, beginning "Look now on that Adventurer who hath paid." If we omit the epitaphs translated from Chiabrera (nine in number), and the work done from time to time on "The Excursion," nearly all of Wordsworth's poetic activity in 1810 was engaged with political sonnets. Like those of the previous year, they relate almost entirely to political events on the Continent, and the brave resistance of the Spaniards to Napoleon. These sonnets, like all of those "dedicated to National Independence and Liberty," evince intense loyalty to Man as Man. There is no partisanship here, no provincial patriotism, no circumscribed love of freedom. Wordsworth loves liberty and justice not merely as an Englishman, but as a man, and for all men. They belong to men as men, and the Poet's soul is aflame with indignation when men are ruthlessly stripped of them, whether they be his compatriots or not. If, in conclusion, we review these years spent at Coleorton, Stockton-on-Tees, and Allan Bank, it may be said that they merely repeat the old story of Wordsworth contemplating Nature, and apprehending her, as heretofore, to be on intimate terms with Man. Especially does he emphasize her moralizing influence. It must be evident by this time, that Wordsworth does not conceive of Nature as exercising a moral influence on the human soul merely through natural laws, which somehow make for righteousness. His conception is much more personal than this. There is a mighty Spirit in things, akin to the spirit of Man, interested in his moral life, ministering to it in admonition and love, and leading it into righteousness and truth. This, however, is a period in which Man is conspicuously supreme in his heart. During these years he is just as ardently the "patriot of the world" as in the early part of the French Revolution, if not, indeed, more so. He watches the course of events in Europe with profound emotion and anxious thought. Man is dear to his soul, and the glorious principles of liberty and independence are conceived of as his essential birthright. They are his priceless possessions, and the Poet's soul is stirred with just and profound indignation as he notes them threatened by the aggressions of a mighty Power-a Power apparently bent on subjugating the civilized world; hence the superb sonnets of this period, breathing love of liberty and love of Man, and hurling powerful denunciations at tyranny and the tyrant. The history of poetry abounds in names writ large and imperishable in the annals of Freedom, and these sonnets of Wordsworth entitle his name to a conspicuous place on this glorious roll of Immortals. CHAPTER XV THE EXCURSION We have already seen that Wordsworth, while still living in Racedown and Alfoxden, had in mind the composition of an elaborate philosophical poem on "Man, Nature and Society." It was to be entitled "The Recluse." In our interpretation of "The Prelude" we noticed how this autobiographical poem was to constitute the first part of the work. It was to be a preparatory poem conducting "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 antechapel has to the body of a Gothic church."1 In the preface to "The Excursion" the author tells us that "his minor Pieces, which have been 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." "The Recluse" itself was to consist of three parts. The first and third parts were to be composed "chiefly of meditations in the Author's own person." "The Excursion" was to constitute the second or intermediate part, the main features of which were to be the "intervention of characters speaking," and the adoption of "something of a dramatic form." 3 "The Recluse," as thus planned, was never completed. As previously stated, the First Part of Book I was left in manuscript. 1 The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, edited by Thomas Hutchinson, 754. 2 Ibid. Ibid. The Second Part, "The Excursion," was completed. The Third Part was only planned; but, as Professor Knight says, "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.'" 1 In the Preface to the edition of 1814 of "The Excursion" the author states the subject, or rather subjects, of the poem. He tells us that he does not intend "to formally announce a system," but he intimates that a system is latent in the poem, and leaves the reader to construct it for himself. It is really questionable whether Wordsworth, notwithstanding his undoubted mental power, could really have formulated a system. His was not a real philosophic mind. He was preeminently a poet, and, so far as we may call him a philosophic poet, preeminently an intuitionist. Up to this point we have seen that virtually all of his poetry, so far as it deals with basal conceptions, is intuitional in character. He seldom reasons; he sees. He is a seer rather than a philosopher. Here, however, in "The Excursion," he reasons, but the reasoning is often disjointed, and frequently issues into mere musing. There is not a carefully, consecutively, and logically reasoned-out world-view, nor a real philosophy of life. The reasoning is often interrupted by narrative and description, and, indeed, not only interrupted, but sometimes almost lost. In the Preface, after calling attention to the fact that it is not his purpose to announce a system, he proceeds to give us a "kind of Prospectus of the design and scope of the whole Poem," in the form of a quotation from the conclusion of the first book of "The Recluse," as follows: On Man, on Nature, and on Human Life, Musing in solitude, I oft perceive Fair trains of imagery before me rise, 1 Poetical Works, edited by William Knight, III, 122 n. 2 This is especially true in his poetry of Nature, although he does reason about Nature in his prose writings. Pure, or with no unpleasing sadness mixed; - To these emotions, whencesoe'er they come, Of moral strength, and intellectual Power; To Conscience only, and the law supreme I sing: -" fit audience let me find though few!" 1 This Prospectus itself in a measure illustrates what has been said above. It does not present a number of concepts to be considered, on subjects in an orderly relation, such as would lead us to expect the development of a system of thought, or of rational belief. Indeed, the Prospectus itself properly characterizes the nature of the mental process revealed in this poem. It is "musing in solitude" on Man, Nature, and Human Life, rather than systematically reasoning concerning them. He is to weigh the good and evil of life. He is to sing of truth, grandeur, beauty, love, hope, melancholy fear subdued by faith, blessed consolations, moral strength, intellectual power, widespread joy; of the individual mind living in solitude, subject only to the laws of conscience and the law of God. And when, a little farther on, he reveals the ethical aim of his poem to be to arouse the sensual from their sleep Of Death, and win the vacant and the vain To noble raptures,2 1 The Recluse. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, edited by Thomas Hutchinson, Prospectus, 1-23. Prospectus to The Excursion, 60-62. |