Selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson by Alfred Lord Tennyson;William Wordsworth
page 45 of 190 (23%)
page 45 of 190 (23%)
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Within the surface of the fleeting river The wrinkled image of the city lay, Immovably unquiet, and for ever It trembles, but it never fades away. _Evening_. 9-10. The calm was so complete that it did not seem a transient mood of the sea, a passing sleep. 13-16. Compare with the above original reading of 1807 (restored after 1827) the lines which Wordsworth substituted in 1820 and 1827. Ah! THEN, if mine had been the Painter's hand, To express what then I saw; and add a gleam, The lustre, known to neither sea nor land, But borrowed from the youthful Poet's dream. 35-36. A POWER IS GONE--SOUL. The reference is to the death at sea of his brother Captain John Wordsworth. The poet can no longer see things wholly idealized. His brother's death has revealed to him, however, the ennobling virtue of grief. Thus a personal loss is converted into human gain. Note especially in this connection l. 35 and ll. 53-60. 54. FROM THE KIND. From our fellow-beings. "IT IS NOT TO BE THOUGHT OF" |
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