E-text prepared by Al Haines
Edited, with Introduction and Notes
by
PELHAM EDGAR, Ph.D.
Professor of English, Victoria Coll., Univ. of Toronto
Toronto
The Macmillan Company of Canada, Limited
1917
The poems contained in this volume are those required for Junior
Matriculation, Ontario 1918.
Wordsworth
Michael
To the Daisy
To the Cuckoo
Nutting
Influence of Natural Objects
To the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth
Elegiac Stanzas
"It is Not to be Thought of"
Written in London, September, 1802
London, 1802
"Dark and More Dark the Shades of Evening Fell"
"Surprised by Joy—Impatient as the Wind"
"Hail, Twilight, Sovereign of One Peaceful Hour"
"I Thought of Thee, My Partner and My Guide"
"Such Age, How Beautiful!"
Tennyson
Oenone
The Epic
Morte d'Arthur
The Brook
In Memoriam
Wordsworth
Biographical Sketch
Chronological Table
Appreciations
References on Life and Works
Notes
Tennyson
Biographical Sketch
Chronological Table
Appreciations
References on Life and Works
Notes
If from the public way you turn your steps
Up the tumultuous brook of Green-head Ghyll,
You will suppose that with an upright path
Your feet must struggle; in such bold ascent
The pastoral mountains front you, face to face.
But, courage! for around that boisterous brook
The mountains have all opened out themselves,
And made a hidden valley of their own.
No habitation can be seen; but they
Who journey thither find themselves alone 10
With a few sheep, with rocks and stones, and kites
That overhead are sailing in the sky.
It is in truth an utter solitude;
Nor should I have made mention of this Dell
But for one object which you might pass by, 15
Might see and notice not. Beside the brook
Appears a straggling heap of unhewn stones,
And to that simple object appertains
A story,—unenriched with strange events,
Yet not unfit, I deem, for the fireside, 20
Or for the summer shade. It was the first
Of those domestic tales that spake to me
Of Shepherds, dwellers in the valleys, men
Whom I already loved:—not verily
For their own sakes, but for the fields and hills 25
Where was their occupation and abode.
And hence this Tale, while I was yet a Boy
Careless of books, yet having felt the power
Of Nature, by the gentle agency
Of natural objects, led me on to feel 30
For passions that were not my own, and think
(At random and imperfectly indeed)
On man, the heart of man, and human life.
Therefore, although it be a history
Homely and rude, I will relate the same 35
For the deli