object:1.ww - Extempore Effusion upon the Death of James Hogg
author class:William Wordsworth
book class:Wordsworth - Poems
subject class:Poetry
class:chapter
. When first, descending from the moorlands,
I saw the Stream of Yarrow glide
Along a bare and open valley,
The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide.
When last along its banks I wandered,
Through groves that had begun to shed
Their golden leaves upon the pathways,
My steps the Border-minstrel led.
The mighty Minstrel breathes no longer,
'Mid mouldering ruins low he lies;
And death upon the braes of Yarrow,
Has closed the Shepherd-poet's eyes:
Nor has the rolling year twice measured,
From sign to sign, its stedfast course,
Since every mortal power of Coleridge
Was frozen at its marvellous source;
The rapt One, of the godlike forehead,
The heaven-eyed creature sleeps in earth:
And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle,
Has vanished from his lonely hearth.
Like clouds that rake the mountain-summits,
Or waves that own no curbing hand,
How fast has brother followed brother,
From sunshine to the sunless land!
br> Yet I, whose lids from infant slumber
Were earlier raised, remain to hear
A timid voice, that asks in whispers,
"Who next will drop and disappear?"
Our haughty life is crowned with darkness,
Like London with its own black wreath,
On which with thee, O Crabbe! forth-looking,
I gazed from Hampstead's breezy heath.
As if but yesterday departed,
Thou too art gone before; but why,
O'er ripe fruit, seasonably gathered,
Should frail survivors heave a sigh?
Mourn rather for that holy Spirit,
Sweet as the spring, as ocean deep;
For Her who, ere her summer faded,
Has sunk into a breathless sleep.
No more of old romantic sorrows,
For slaughtered Youth or love-lorn Maid!
With sharper grief is Yarrow smitten,
And Ettrick mourns with her their Poet dead.
NOTES
abcb
Composition Date:
Nov. 1835
1.
"These verses were written extempore, immediately after reading a notice of
the Ettrick Shepherd's death in the Newcastle paper, to the Editor of which I sent
a copy for publication." Hogg died on November 21, 1835. He was a shepherd,
sheep-farmer, and minor poet whose considerable reputation was enhanced by
the fact that he was an "uneducated" writer. Wordsworth refers to six of his
literary friends or acquaintances who had died within the previous three years:
Hogg, Scott, Coleridge, Lamb, Crabbe, and Felicia Hemans.
1-4.
On September 2, 1814; on an earlier tour of the Border region, in 1803,
Wordsworth had decided not to "turn aside to Yarrow" (Yarrow Unvisited).
3.
Ettrick: river and parish of Selkirkshire. The Ettrick, joined by the Yarrow,
flows into the Tweed.
5-8.
On September 20, 1831, just before Scott's departure for Italy (see note to
the previous poem).
9-10.
Scott died in September 1832, and was buried amid the "mouldering ruins"
of Melrose Abbey.
19.
the frolic and the gentle: adjectives chosen as true of Lamb and a lamb.
20.
lonely hearth. Mary Lamb, who was her brother's housekeeper, suffered
recurring spells of insanity and confinement in an asylum.
30-32.
Wordsworth mentioned in a note on this poem that he had frequently met
Crabbe at the home of a common friend who lived at Hampstead, and he referred
to "our rambles together on Hampstead Heath."
35-40.
Crabbe had lived to be seventy-eight; Felicia Hemans died at forty-two.
41-42.
Wordsworth had in mind, particularly, the story of the ballad entitled The
Braes of Yarrow. It is glanced at, presumably, at line 11.
questions, comments, suggestions/feedback, take-down requests, contribute, etc
contact me @ integralyogin@gmail.com or via the comments below
or join the integral discord server (chatrooms)
if the page you visited was empty, it may be noted and I will try to fill it out. cheers