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| Note: |
| |
| = around word indicates bold =CAPSULE.= |
| _ around word indicated italics _Erebus_ |
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OF
[Illustration: _William Wordsworth_
_after Margaret Gillies_
_Printed by Wittmann Paris_]
OF
[Illustration]
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO.
1896
_All rights reserved_
PAGE
THE EXCURSION--
PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1814 20
BOOK FIRST--THE WANDERER 26
BOOK SECOND--THE SOLITARY 67
BOOK THIRD--DESPONDENCY 105
BOOK FOURTH--DESPONDENCY CORRECTED 142
BOOK FIFTH--THE PASTOR 195
BOOK SIXTH--THE CHURCH-YARD AMONG
THE MOUNTAINS 235
BOOK SEVENTH--THE CHURCH-YARD AMONG
THE MOUNTAINS--_Continued_ 283
BOOK EIGHTH--THE PARSONAGE 326
BOOK NINTH--DISCOURSE OF THE WANDERER,
AND AN EVENING VISIT TO THE LAKE 352
NOTES 383
NOTE A 391
NOTE B 392
NOTE C 393
NOTE D 396
NOTE E 398
Composed 1795-1814.--Published 1814
[Something must now be said of this poem, but chiefly, as has been done
through the whole of these notes, with reference to my personal friends,
and especially to her who has perseveringly taken them down from my
dictation. Towards the close of the first book, stand the lines that were
first written,--beginning "Nine tedious years," and ending "Last human
tenant of these ruined walls." These were composed in 1795, at Racedown;
and for several passages describing the employment and demeanour of
Margaret during her affliction, I was indebted to observations made
in Dorsetshire, and afterwards at Alfoxden, in Somersetshire, where
I resided in 1797 and 1798. The lines towards the conclusion of the
fourth book, "Despondency corrected,"--beginning "For the man who in
this spirit," to the words "intellectual soul,"--were in order of time
composed the next, either at Racedown or Alfoxden, I do not remember
which. The rest of the poem was written in the vale of Grasmere, chiefly
during our residence at Allan Bank. The long poem on my own education
was, together with many minor poems, composed while we lived at the
cottage at Town-end. Perhaps my purpose of giving an additional interest
to these my poems, in the eyes of my nearest and dearest friends, may be
promoted by saying a few words upon the character of the Wanderer, the
Solitary, and the Pastor, and some other of the persons introduced. And
first of the principal one, the Wanderer.
My lamented friend Southey (for this is written a month after his
decease[A]) used to say that had he been born a Papist, the course of
life which would in all probability have been his, was the one for which
he was most fitted and most to his mind, that of a Benedictine monk, in
a convent, furnished, as many once were, and some still are, with an
inexhaustible library. _Books_, as appears from many passages in his
writings, and was evident to those who had opportunities of observing his
daily life, were in fact _his passion_; and _wandering_, I can with truth
affirm, was _mine_; but this propensity in me was happily counteracted by
inability from want of fortune to fulfil my wishes.