William Wordsworth THE POET OF NATURE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21404, 21 February 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

William Wordsworth THE POET OF NATURE

It. was announced in the cabled news last week that Gordon Wordsworth, grandson •of the poet, William Wordsworth, has presented to the nation the daffodil field overlooking Rydal Water, Westmorland. This field was bought and planted by Wordsworth for his daughter, Dora, and many people think it was the field that inspired him to write his famous poem "The Daffodils." But it is more likely that the daffodils he saw on the occasion—in 1804—when he wrote the poem were wild ones blowing golden on the brink of the lovely lake of Ullswater on the border of Cumberland and Westmorland not far distant from Rydal Water. The poet loved to walk among the lakes in the spring and summer days of his university vacations and at many times in his later life.

For periods of varying lengths Wordsworth lived in close friendship with the young poets Coleridge and Southey; Dorothy Wordsworth, the poet's artistic and poetic sister, lived with him for many years and was an unfailing source of encouragement and comfort to him. In many places 'we find references to the walks and talks enjoyed by the three very good friends, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and the two Wordsworths. It has been suggested that Dorothy gave to both poets some of the most delicate thoughts in their poems. Her love for the movements of the moon, it is said, probably influenced Coleridge to write:— The moving Moon went up the sky And nowhere did abide: i Softly she was going up. And a star or two beside. But it is hard to think that the gifted and sensitive Coleridge did not think those perfect lines for himself. Living as they did in the quiet places by the lakes the poets could come near to the movements and sounds and colours of the creatures and growths in nature: it is not surprising to find Wordsworth becoming the poet of all the small growing things and of their wonder.

His poems of flowers and plants lead us to believe that he was very often in the mood of appreciation and sympathy which he describes when he declares: — My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky. His poem "The Daffodils" is probably his best-known piece; those of you who do not know it may be glad to find it here in full: I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath tha trees, Fluttering and dancing in llu breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the Milky Way, • They stretch in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in a sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay In such a jocund company; I gazed, and gazed, but little thought What wealth the show i,o me had brought: For oft when on my couch I lie, In vacant or in pensive mood. They ' :>sh upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils, —William Wordsworth, 3770-1850 THE STREAMLET (By Joan Thompson, Oxford; nine years) Dancing and rippling over the stones. The little streamlet goes; Sometimes it sings and sometimes it moans, But ever and on it flows. What does it see as it ripples by? Through forest, meadow, and dale, The lamb at play, the lark on high. And the ship with the silver sailt