shared his opinions and felt as he did, stood up in opposition to the reformers of that period, it is questionable whether the Church would ever have recovered its lost ground and become the blessing it now is, and will, I trust, become in a still greater degree, both to those of its communion and to those who unfortunately are separated from it.—I. F.]

PART I

FROM THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY INTO BRITAIN, TO THE CONSUMMATION OF THE PAPAL DOMINION

A verse may catch a wandering Soul, that flies
Profounder Tracts, and by a blest surprise
Convert delight into a Sacrifice.*

I

INTRODUCTION

1

I, WHO accompanied with faithful pace
Cerulean Duddon from its 2 cloud-fed spring, †
And loved with spirit ruled by his to sing

The text of 1857 (edited by Mr. Carter) returned to that of 1822.

*

Compare, in George Herbert's "The Temple," The Church Porch, i. 1—
A verse may find him, who a Sermon flies,
And turn delight into a Sacrifice.

ED.

+ See "The River Duddon, a Series of Sonnets" (vol. vi. p. 225).—ED.

CONJECTURES

5

Of mountain-quiet and boon nature's grace;1
I, who essayed the nobler Stream to trace
Of Liberty,* and smote the plausive string
Till the checked torrent, proudly triumphing,
Won for herself a lasting resting-place; 2
Now seek upon the heights of Time the source
Of a HOLY RIVER,† on whose banks are found
Sweet pastoral flowers, and laurels that have crowned
Full oft the unworthy brow of lawless force;
And, for delight of him who tracks its course, ‡
Immortal amaranth and palms abound.

5

ΤΟ

1

II

CONJECTURES

IF there be prophets on whose spirits rest
Past things, revealed like future, they can tell
What. Powers, presiding o'er the sacred well
Of Christian Faith, this savage Island blessed
With its first bounty. Wandering through the west,
Did holy Paul § a while in Britain dwell,

1827.

And of my wild Companion dared to sing,

In verse that moved with strictly-measured pace; 1822.

2 1827.

Torrent, fiercely combating,

In victory found her natural resting-place;

1822.

6

3 1837. Where,

1822.

* See the series of "Poems dedicated to National Independence and Liberty."-ED.

+ Compare the last sonnet of this Series (Part III. XLVII., p. 1C8).-ED. It may not be unworthy of note that in the first edition of this sonnet Wordsworth made the stream of the Duddon masculine, that of Liberty feminine, and that of the Church neuter.-ED.

§ Stillingfleet adduces many arguments in support of this opinion, but they are unconvincing. The latter part of this Sonnet refers to a favourite notion of Roman Catholic writers, that Joseph of Arimathea and his com

And call the Fountain forth by miracle,

And with dread signs the nascent Stream invest?
Or He, whose bonds dropped off, whose prison doors
Flew open, by an Angel's voice unbarred ?

*

Or some of humbler name, to these wild shores
Storm-driven; who, having seen the cup of woe
Pass from their Master, sojourned here to guard
The precious Current they had taught to flow?

ΤΟ

III

TREPIDATION OF THE DRUIDS

SCREAMS round the Arch-druid's brow the seamew †
white

As Menai's foam; and toward the mystic ring
Where Augurs stand, the Future questioning,
Slowly the cormorant aims her heavy flight,
Portending ruin to each baleful rite,

That, in the lapse of ages,1 hath crept o'er
Diluvian truths, and patriarchal lore.

Haughty the Bard: can these meek doctrines blight
His transports? wither his heroic strains?
But all shall be fulfilled;—the Julian spear

5

IO

A way first opened; ‡ and, with Roman chains,
The tidings come of Jesus crucified;

They come they spread—the weak, the suffering, hear; Receive the faith, and in the hope abide.

1 1827.

seasons

1822.

panions brought Christianity into Britain, and built a rude church at Glastonbury; alluded to hereafter, in a passage upon the dissolution of monasteries.-W. W. 1822.

*St. Peter.-ED.

This water-fowl was, among the Druids, an emblem of those traditions connected with the deluge that made an important part of their mysteries. The Cormorant was a bird of bad omen.-W. W. 1822.

The reference is to the conquest of Britain by Julius Cæsar.-ED.

UNCERTAINTY

7

IV

DRUIDICAL EXCOMMUNICATION

MERCY and Love have met thee on thy road,
Thou wretched Outcast, from the gift of fire
And food cut off by sacerdotal ire,
From every sympathy that Man bestowed!
Yet shall it claim our reverence, that to God,
Ancient of days! that to the eternal Sire,
These jealous Ministers of law aspire,

As to the one sole fount whence wisdom flowed,
Justice, and order. Tremblingly escaped,
As if with prescience of the coming storm,
That intimation when the stars were shaped ;
And still, 'mid yon thick woods, the primal truth
Glimmers through many a superstitious form1
That fills the Soul with unavailing ruth.

5

10

1

V

UNCERTAINTY

DARKNESS surrounds us: seeking, we are lost
On Snowdon's wilds, amid Brigantian coves,*
Or where the solitary shepherd roves
Along the plain of Sarum, by the ghost

Of Time and shadows of Tradition, crost; 2

1827.

And yon thick woods maintain the primal truth,
Debased by many a superstitious form,

2 1827.

Of silently departed ages crossed;

1822.

1822.

5

* The reference is to Yorkshire. The Brigantes inhabited England from sea to sea, from Cumberland to Durham, but more especially Yorkshire. See Tacitus, Annals, book xii. 32; Ptolemy, Geographia, 27, 1; Camden, Britannia, 556-648.-ED.

And where the boatman of the Western Isles
Slackens his course-to mark those holy piles
Which yet survive on bleak Iona's coast.*
Nor these, nor monuments of eldest name,1
Nor Taliesin's unforgotten lays,†

Nor characters of Greek or Roman fame,
To an unquestionable Source have led ;
Enough-if eyes, that sought the fountain-head
In vain, upon the growing Rill may gaze.

10

VI

PERSECUTION

LAMENT! for Diocletian's fiery sword
Works busy as the lightning; but instinct
With malice ne'er to deadliest weapon linked,
Which God's ethereal store-houses afford :
Against the Followers of the incarnate Lord
It rages; some are smitten in the field-
Some pierced to the heart through the ineffectual shield 2
Of sacred home ;-with pomp are others gored
And dreadful respite. Thus was Alban tried, ‡

5

*Compare the four sonnets on Iona, in the "Poems composed or suggested during a Tour in the Summer of 1833."-ED.

See note t, p. 13.-ED.

"The first man who laid down his life in Britain for the Christian faith was Saint Alban. During the tenth, and most rigorous of the persecutions, a Christian priest, flying from his persecutors, came to the City of Verulamium, and took shelter in Alban's house: he, not being of the faith himself, concealed him for pure compassion; but when he observed the devotion of his guest, how fervent it was, and how firm, his heart was touched. When the persecutors came to search the house, Alban,