Modern Language Association

Wordsworth's Descriptive Sketches and the Prelude, Book VI

Author(s): Janette Harrington
Source: PMLA, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Dec., 1929), pp. 1144-1158
Published by: Modern Language Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/457715
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 LIII
WORDSWORTH'S DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES
AND THE PRELUDE, BOOK VI
IN THE summer of 1790 William Wordsworth and his friend,
Robert Jones, spent their summer vacation in France and Swit-
zerland. The record of this memorable journey has been left to
us in two of Wordsworth's poems: Descriptive Sketches written
in 1792 and The Prelude, Book VI, written probably in 1804. The
journey described in each is, of course, the same, yet variations
in the accounts are quite marked. The immediate reaction as to
the causes of the differences, no doubt, is that Wordsworth had
forgotten many of the details of the journey. Yet this explanation
cannot be true, as a careful analysis shows. Garrod,1 in his para-
graph concerning Wordsworth's poetical theory that poetry "takes
its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity," hints at the
real reason for the discrepancies:
The question [he says] is interesting, not only in connection with De-
scriptive Sketches, but also as affecting the problem of the essential. truth-
fulness of large parts of The Prelude.
Then in speaking of Descriptive Sketches and The Prelude, Part VI, he
says:
I have not space here .... to institute a detailed comparison of the two
pieces. It will, however, be relevant to .... show, as it can be shown,
the essential untruthfulness of Descriptive Sketches. Wordsworth was two
years distant from his object; but he did not yet understand, I would sup-
pose, the conditions of his art. I will try and show how this was so; and
when I have done so, I will point a contrast by calling attention to por-
tions of the sixth book of The Prelude which exhibit, as I think, a remark-
able truth to impressions fourteen years old.
It is evident that Garrod, judging between the two accounts as
given in Descriptive Sketches and in The Prelude inclines to the
latter as essentially the nearer to the truth.
It is my purpose in this paper to analyze the two records of this
journey a little more fully than Mr. Garrod has done, in order to
show, first, the variations in relating the itinerary itself; secondly,
the changes in Wordsworth's attitude towards certain subjects
treated in both of the poems. My conclusions, I may say frankly
at the outset, do not agree in all respects with Mr. Garrod's.
When the two boys arrived in France they were a singular look-
ing pair, according to Wordsworth's description:
H. G. Garrod,Wordsworth,p. 46.
1144
 Janette Harrington 1145

Ourcoats, whichwe had madelight on purposefor the journey,areof the

same piece:-our manner of carryingour bundles, which is upon our
heads, with each an oak stick in our hands, contributes not a little to
that generalcuriositywhichwe seem to excite.2
Unburdened with luggage, they walked over a great portion of
France, the Alps, and even into Italy between July thirteenth and
September twenty-ninth. They landed at Calais, July 14, 1790,
went through Ardres, Soissons, Chateau Thierry, Bar-le-Duc,
Nuits, Charlons, Lyons, Condrieu, Moreau, Voreppe, and into
Chartreuse by August third. Up to this point the Descriptive
Sketchessays nothing of the tour, while The Prelude has mentioned
only Calais, the Soane, and the Rhone River.
But with Chartreuse, one begins to find changes in the course of
the journey as related in the poems. In Descriptive Sketches one is
told "Of Como Bosom'd deep in chestnut groves"3 and of fair Lo-
carno almost immediately after Chartreuse, whereas in The Prelude
Wordsworth speaks of proceeding to Locarno's lake and of Como
just before the close of the journey.
Again in the Descriptive Sketches Wordsworth mentions in line
243
Now, passingUrseren'sopen vale serene
while in The Prelude it is not until lines 500-550 that he speaks of
the enticing valleys of Urseren greeting them. In Descriptive
Sketchesthe account of Urseren comes directly after they had cross-
ed Simplon Pass, whereas in The Prelude the Pass is described in
lines 562-590, some sixty lines before the description of the Lake
Still again, in the DescriptiveSketches, line 690, the view of Mont
Blanc is given directly after the description of Chamouny, line
680;while in The Prelude one reads of "the summit of Mont Blanc"4
immediately before "the wondrous vale of Chamouny"5 is men-
tioned.
On September 6, 1790, at Keswill, Wordsworth started a letter
to his sister Dorothy in which he outlines his itinerary, and
which one may expect to find a reliable source of information.
Those places which were mentioned in different orders in the
Descriptive Sketches and The Prelude are given in the letter in the
2 Prose Works of William Wordsworth,III, 230.
3
Descriptive Sketches, lines 81, 82.
4
Prelude, VI, 525.
5 Prelude, VI, 528.
1146 Wordsueorth's "Descriptive Sketches"

following order: Chartreuse, Chamouny, Simplon Pass, Lake

Locarno, Lake Como, Gravedona, Urseren, and Einsiedlen.6 From
a comparison of this journey with the other two, one discovers
that no one of the three coincides with the other two. Since a per-
sonal letter of this kind written during the progress of a journey is
likely to be reliable, the course of events as given in the poems is
evidently wrong.
Harper, in commenting on the journey says,
The poet makes no attempt, in The Prelude, to narrate in order the
principaldetails of this momentousjourney. He concentratesattention
on its inwardresults. Events, places, and times, are blurred-it would
almost seem purposely-for it cannot be that, after the lapse of only
about fifteenyears,his memorywouldhave confusedBlois and Orleans.7
Was it not, perhaps, a habit of Wordsworth's to blur purposely
events if so doing were advantageous to the final effect of his poem?
A few illustrations will show that such was the case. In the prefato-
ry note to Hart-Leap Well Wordsworth writes, "Hart-Leap Well
is a small spring of water, about five miles from Richmond in York-
shire."8 In his note at the conclusion of the poem Knight quotes
from Mr. John R. Tutin of Hull:

Visited Hart-LeapWell, the subjectof Wordsworth'spoem. It is situated

on the roadsideleadingfrom Richmondto Askrigg,at a distanceof not
more than three and a half miles from Richmond, and notfive miles as
stated in the prefatory note.9

Here is found a discrepancy as to distance. In line 153 of the poem

Wordsworth speaks of the "flowering thorn." In Mr. Knight's
concluding notes is found this statement taken from a letter written
by the Reverend Thomas Hutchinson of Kimbolton, "The tree
is not a Thorn, but a Lime."'10-This time it is nature herself which
is not accurately described. After Wordsworth had related the
story of the well he stood lost in thought when one
who was in shepherd's garb attired
Came up the Hollow.1'
6 As traced in the Keswill
letter, in Wordsworth's Prose Works, III, 222, 226-7
7
Harper, William Wordsworth,I, 139.
8 Poems of William Wordszworth, ed. Knight, III, 128.
9bid., II, 137.
10
Ibid., II, 137.
' DescriptiveSketches, line 118.
 Janette Harrington1 1147

Of this the Reverend Mr. Hutchinson says, "The ascent from the
well is a gentle one, not 'sheer,' nor does there appear to be any
hollow by which the shepherd could ascend."12
The Brothers, another of Wordsworth's poems, shows the same
method in regard to the inexact and untruthful use of details.
Mr. Knight's note once again goes to prove that Wordsworth
sacrificed truth for effect whenever he so desired.
You see yon precipice;
.... called,The Pillar.
Upon its aery summitcrownedwith heath,
The loiterer,not unnoticedby his comrades,
Lay stretchedat ease.
So says the poem. The editor makes the following comment:
The 'aery summitcrownedwith heath,' however,on which the 'loiterer'
'lay stretched at ease,' could neither be the top of this 'rock' nor the
summit of the 'mountain:'not the former,becausethere is no heath on
it, and it wouldbe impossiblefor a wearyman, loiteringbehindhis com-
panions,to ascendit to rest; not the latter, becauseno one restingon the
summitof the mountaincouldbe "not unnoticedby his comrades.l3
Upon examining still another poem, Michael, one finds in Words-
worth's own words the recording of the combination of facts gather-
ed from various sources into one whole:
The characterandcircumstancesof Lukeweretakenfroma familyto whom
hadbelonged,manyyearsbefore,the housewe lived in at Town-end,along
with some fields and woodlandson the eastern shore of Grasmere. The
name of the Evening Star was not in fact given to his house, but to
anotheron the same side of the valley, moreto the north.-I. F.14
The late Bishop of Lincoln in his Memoirs of Wordsworthmakes a
different statement as to the source of the poem. He says:
Michaelwas foundedon the son of an old couplehavingbecomedissolute,
and run away from his parents; and on an old shepheredhaving been
seven years in buildingup a sheep-foldin a solitaryvalley.15
Since in various poems Wordsworth has combined various facts
to make one story; since he has paid no attention to exact detail;
and since he has elsewhere been deliberately inaccurate, it seems
that the variation of the itinerary in Descriptive Sketches and in
12Knight,Op. cit., vol. II, p. 137.
13
Ibid., II, 203.
14Knight,Poems
of WilliamWordsworth,
II, 215.
15 Ibid.,
p. 233.
1148 Wordsworth's "Descriptive Sketches"

The Prelude from the true itinerary as recorded by himself in his

letter at the time of the journey was not the result of accident,
but of purpose, or rather, of two purposes at the respective dates
of the composition of the two poems. It will be the task of the re-
maining part of this paper to show what those two purposes were
and why, therefore, the two subsequent accounts of the journey
differ from each other and from that of the letter. This I may per-
haps best accomplish by pointing out briefly the changes which oc-
curred in Wordsworth's attitudes towards (a) the French Revolu-
tion, (b) Nature, (c) Religion; and, finally, by showing also (d) the
differences due to the development of the "conditions of Words-
worth's art".16
The French had declared their independence in 1789; by the
summer of 1790 the very air of France was permeated with Revo-
lutionary doctrines. One would expect Wordsworth, the young
Cambridge student, to be keenly interested in French politics,
and to have his interest reflected in the poems which tell of his
summer spent on the continent. One does indeed find references
to the Revolution in both Descriptive Sketches and The Prelude,
but whereas the references in Descriptive Sketchesare charged with
the intense feeling of one who is experiencing the struggle itself, in
The Prelude they are introduced in a far more detached manner.
Only two passages in The Prelude, Part VI, deal directly with
the Revolution but these are highly significant. The travellers
on coming to Chartreuse had seen there a group of Revolution-
ists who had come probably to destroy the place. Wordsworth
comments upon the incident thus:
our eyes had seen,
As towardthe sacredmansionwe advanced,
Armsflashing,and a militaryglare
Of riotousmen commissionedto expel
The blamelessinmates,and belike subvert
That frameof social being.17
Here is no exclamation of an ardent enthusiast ready to fight
for a cause, but rather a mere statement of one who is almost out
of sympathy with the undertaking. Turning to DescriptiveSketches
one finds the comment far more zealous and more personal.
Even now I sigh at hoary Chartreuse'doom
Weepingbeneathhis chill of mountaingloom
16
Garrod,Wordsworth, p. 46.
17
Prelude,VI, 423-428.
 Janette Harrington 1149

Where now is fled that Power whose frown severe

Fam'd 'Sober Reason' till she crouch'd in fear?18
Thus he writes in the 1793 edition. Reason (the slogan of the Rev-
olutionists) has overpowered religion and in the lines there seems
to be a certain satisfaction because this is true. No such attitude
is found in the incident as related in The Prelude, nor was this
attitude manifested in future editions of the Descriptive Sketches.
The various editions read as follows:
1815 I sigh at hoary Chartreuse' doom
Where now is fled that Power whose frown severe
Fam'd 'Sober Reason' till she crouched in fear?

1820 Even now emerging from the forest's gloom

I heave a sigh at hoary Chartreuse' doom
Where now is fled that Power whose frown severe
Fam'd 'Sober Reason' till she crouched in fear?
Finally, in the 1845 edition, one finds the passage far less vehe-
ment than it was in the original.
And now emerging from the forest's gloom
I greet thee Chartreuse while I mourn thy doom
Whither is fled that Power whose frown severe
Awed sober Reason till she crouched in fear?
The second Revolutionary passage in "The Prelude gives what
Wordsworth says was his reaction toward the political affairs
in 1790, thus:
When shortening fast
Our pilgrimage, nor distant far from home,
We crossed the Brabant armies on the fret
For battle in the cause of Liberty.
A stripling, scarcely of the household then
Of social life, I looked upon these things
As from a distance; heard, and saw, and felt,
Was touched, but with no intimate concern.l9
Immediately one questions the two attitudes, and wonders
which was the true one. If Wordsworth were so vitally concerned
with the Revolution as the 1793 edition of Descriptive Sketches
seems to indicate, why did he alter it so as "to take the very heart
out of pages pulsing with ardent enthusiasm for liberty?"20
18 Poems ed. Knight, I, 312, lines 53-56.
of Wordsworth,
19Prelude,VI, 762-769.
20 Harper, op. cit., I, 96.
1150 1Wordse,orth's "Descriptive Sketches"

Since only the 1793 edition shows the passionate support of

the Revolution, does not this edition give Wordsworth's attitude
toward these events in 1793 and not the attitude of 1790 (when
the journey was made) nor the attitude of 1804 when The Prelude
was written? Without a doubt, in 1792 and 1793, Wordsworth was
a patriot in every sense of the word, but what was his attitude
in 1790?
One's interest usually causes one to talk about the things con-
cerned, and if possible to visit the seat of events. Did Words-
worth in his letters written while on his journey discuss politics,
or other phases of life? Did he spend his time in the center of the
political world or in the rural communities where the strife was
not so poignant?
In the Keswill letter already referred to we find over four pages
devoted to the description of the places visited; much of it an ex-
cellent account of the Alpine and Italian scenery. But the Revo-
lution, which from Descriptive Sketches one might expect to con-
sume a large part of Wordsworth's thinking, is thus disposed
of:
But I must remindyou that we crossedat the time whenthe wholenation
was mad with joy in consequenceof the Revolution. It was a most in-
terestingperiod to be in France; and we had many delightful scenes,
where the interest of the picturewas owing solely to this cause.
Here indeed one finds no undercurrent of deep emotion which
would inspire the writing of such sentiments as
Yet, yet rejoice,thoughPride'spervertedire
Rouze Hell's own aid, and warpthy hills in fire.
Lo! from the innocuousflamesa lovely birth!
With its own Virtuesspringsanotherearth21
as
which, Harper says, is "the French Revolution with a vengeance,"
and which it is small wonder that the author softened in later edi-
tions.
As has been stated, Wordsworth, had he been especially con-
cerned with politics in 1790, would have spent some time in the
large political centers. This was not true; for Paris was not visited
at all, though the boys passed within fifty miles of it. At one time
the travellers did turn aside from the direct route, not to see war cen-
ters, but to visit the Grande Chartreuse, noted for its great natural
beauty. Here he spent something over a day admiring its beauty-
21
Descriptive Sketches, lines 775-785.
 Janette Harrizgton 1151

later he spent two days at beautiful Lake Como and three whole
days at the Lake of Morat; places which are described at length in
the Keswill letter.
It would seem, then, that in 1790, Wordsworth's real attitude
was that of a boy who passed through these affairs, yet scarcely
sensed them, as it is related in The Prelude; and that the attitude
toward the French Revolution as found in Descriptive Sketches
is highly colored by events of 1792 and 1973 which were occupying
such a large place in his thoughts at the time of composition of
the poem that he could not eliminate them from a narration of
experiences which occurred two years previously.
As has been hinted, Wordsworth's chief interest in 1790 was
not in politics but in nature. The first few books of The Prelude
are concerned with the growth of his interest in and love for nature;
a development which, though gradual, was strong. Though the
great outburst of feeling was to show itself in poetry later, in the
Keswill letter there is found the true spirit of nature worship ex-
perienced during his first tour of France. In this account of the
journey he writes:
I am a perfectenthusiastin my admirationof naturein all her various
forms,and I have lookedupon,and, as it were,conversedwith the objects
which this country has presentedto my view so long and with such in-
creasingpleasure,that the idea of partingfrom them oppressesme with
a sadnesssimilarto what I have alwaysfelt in quittinga beloved friend.22
It was Wordsworth's intention at first to give "to these sketches
the title of Picturesque: but the Alps are insulted in applying to
them that term. Whoever, in attempting to describe their sublime
features, should confine himself to the cold rules of painting would
give his reader but a very imperfect idea of those emotions which
they have the irresistible power of communicating to the most im-
passive imaginations" ;23and in the reason for changing the name
is found a love for nature vastly superior to that found within
the poem itself.
Both the Keswill letter and the quotation in regard to the
title of Descriptive Sketches show Wordsworth's love of nature:
which evidently was his real feeling both in 1790 and 1792. Why,
then, does he not infuse more of his feelings into Descriptive Sket-
ches? For this, it would seem, there are two distinct reasons.
First, Wordsworth was only a college youth still under the
22ProseWorks,III, 225.
23
Legouis,Youthof WilliamWordsworth,
p. 152.
1152 W/ordsworth's "Descriptive Sketches"

influence of all that the classic school held most dear. One should
not be surprised, therefore, when the fledgeling poet uses verse
forms and methods of the age, and discusses nature in a stilted
form through the use of many personifications and metaphors.
The traditions of the age influenced Wordsworth to such an ex-
tent that few nature passages in Descriptive Sketches are sponta-
neous and powerful.
But there was still another reason why he wrote about nature as
he did. The explanation is to be found in the manner in which
Wordsworth reacted toward nature (1) immediately, and (2)
ultimately. Undoubtedly, the passages in the two poems de-
scribing the crossing of the Alps illustrate these attitudes better
than any others.
This was the time in Wordsworth's life when nature was to
him a source of sensuous pleasure only with no deeper signifi-
cance, as he tells us in Tintern Abbey.
The sounding cataract
Hauntedme like a passion: the tall rock,
The mountainand the deep and gloomy wood,
Their coloursand their forms,were then to me
An appetite;a feelingand a love
That had no need of a remotercharm,
By thought supplied,nor any interest
Unborrowedfrom the eye.24
Realizing, then, that at the time that Wordsworth crossed the
Alps, nature was the source only of immediate pleasure through
the senses, it is not surprising that in Descriptive Sketches "this
central and supreme memory is wholly lost."25
In The Prelude, Wordsworth admits that many incidents which
were without special significance to him at the time of their oc-
currence led to
tenderthoughtsby means
Less often instantaneousin effect;
Led .... to these by paths that, in the main
Weremore circuitous,but not less sure
Duly to reachthe point markedout by Heaven.26
Such, indeed, was the crossing of the Alps, which in The Prelude
becomes the supreme memory of the entire tour. In it Wordsworth
says that at the time that he crossed the Alps he felt as if he saw
24 Tintern Abbey, lines 75-83. 26
Prelude, VI, 748-'53.
25
Garrod, op. cit., p. 52.
 Janette Harrington 1153

their beauties, yet as one estranged and dazed thereby-"halted

without an effort to break through."27 Imagination, to him the
"awful Power," seemed an
unfatheredvapourthat enwraps
At once somelonely traveller.28
By 1804-and the time of the writing of The Prelude Words-
worth had realized the full significance of the experience and knew
that often one's senses are temporarily extinguished by emotion
and that only later
With an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony,and the deep powerof joy
We see into the life of things.29
So it was that at the time of the crossing of the Alps Words-
worth felt his faculties shrouded in a mist, while years later he
realized that this was the beginning of his deeper understanding
of nature; and that
To my conscioussoul I now can say
'I recognizethy glory.'30
The third and perhaps most important reason for Wordsworth's
treating nature in Descriptive Sketchesas he does is due to the fact
that the poem was written in 1792 and not 1790. The poem was
written on the banks of the Loire river, in the midst, therefore,
of the Revolutionary scenes in which Wordsworth was so highly
interested at the date of composition, 1792. Here again, as was
noted before, interest caused him to talk about things in which he
was vitally concerned. In the descriptions of the mountains he
"mingles many varying moods and many references to Swiss
history,"31but it is in the descriptions of the French scenery that
one finds the influence of political conditions.
The vale of Chamouny was a beautiful spot, from the higher
part of which Mont Blanc was visible. One would expect Words-
worth to describe the place in some detail; but not so, for his chief
interest in the scene seemed to be drawn to the half-starved peas-
ants found there. This sight led to a sympathetic passage on the
place as a "slave of slaves,-doom'd to pine"32and to a panegyric
on freedom, in which nature is described as it would be when tyr-
anny and oppression are no longer in the land.
27
Ibid., line 597. 30
Prelude, VI, 598-'99.
28
Prelude, VI, 595-6. 31
Harper, op. cit., I, 97.
29 Tintern Abbey, lines 46-48. 32
DescriptiveSketches,line 706.
1154 Wordswvorth's "Descriptive Sketches"

Wordsworth sums up his attitude toward nature in 1792 at the

close of his apostrophe to France when he says

Yet, hast thou found that Freedom spreads her pow'r

Beyond the cottage hearth, the cottage door:
All nature smiles,33
and again

Yes, as I roam'd where Loiret's waters glide

Methought from every cot the watchful bird

Crowed with ear-piercing power till then unheard;
Each clacking mill, that broke the murmuring streams,
Rock'd the charm'd thought in more delightful dreams;
Chasing those long, long dreams the falling leaf
Awoke a fainter pang of moral grief;
The measured echo of the distant flail
Winded in sweeter cadence down the vale.34

The nature passages in The Prelude show a vastly different atti-

tude from that in Descriptive Sketches. In contrast with the stereo-
typed description of Chamouny found in the latter poem, in The
Prelude it becomes a real place.

The wondrous vale

Of Chamouny stretched far below, and soon
With its dumb cataracts and streams of ice,
A motionless array of mighty waves,
Five rivers broad and vast, made rich amends,
And reconciled us to realities.35

Even superior to this description are the lines in praise of Lake

Como in which he speaks of
thy chestnut woods, and garden plots
Of Indian corn tended by dark-eyed maids;
Thy lofty steeps, and pathways roofed with vines,
Winding from house to house, from town to town,
Sole link that bands them to each other.36
The description of the restless night at Gravedona is so vivid
that the experience becomes real to the reader.
33 Ibid., lines 756-'58. 3 Prelude, VI, 528-'33.
34 Ibid., Lines 760-771. 36 Prelude, VI, 663-7.
 Janette Harrington 1155

An open place it was, and overlooked,

From high, the sullen water far beneath,
On which a dull red image of the moon
Lay bedded, changing oftentimes its form
Like an uneasy snake. From hour to hour
We sate and sate, wondering, as if the night
Had been ensnared by witchcraft .....

[We] could not sleep, tormented by the stings

Of insects, which, with noise like that of noon,
Filled all the woods.37

During the years immediately following Wordsworth's summer

in France, nature more and more became a source not only of
inspiration, but even of divine inspiration and eventually a Divini-
ty in itself. The Descriptive Sketches and The Prelude show Words-
worth's religious attitudes at variance and in these attitudes one
may trace the essential doctrines of Wordsworth's religious beliefs.
The passage telling of the soldier's visit to Grand Chartreuse
has already been quoted to show Wordsworth's attitude toward
the French Revolution, but it may well be referred to again as
showing Wordsworth's religious feelings at the time. Says Garrod:
In Dcscriptive Sketches the incident is viewed in a manner, obviously de-
tached and skeptical. Though he talks of 'Blasphemy within the shudder-
ing fane' yet it is not difficult to see that, upon the whole he derives some
satisfaction from the fact that 'the power whose frown severe' used to
tame reason till she crouched in fear' (i.e. the power of religious supersti-
tion) is now obliged to crouch before the revolutionary arms of 'Reason.'38
Even more pronounced skepticism is shown in the passage in
which he compares his melancholy with the faith of the Swiss and
wishes their delusions were his own. He says that,
Without one hope her written griefs to blot,
Save in the land where all things are forgot,
My heart, alive to transports long unknown
Half wishes your delusion were it's own.39

This passage was eventually suppressed, so that in the later

editions the lines dealing with the Swiss have no personal note
whatever and read merely:
37Ibid., VI, 703-713.
38 Garrod,Wordsworth, page 51.
39 Descriptive Sketches, lines 676-679.
1156 Wordsworth's "Descriptive Sketches"

In that glad momentwill for you a sigh

Be heaved, of charitablesympathy.
Here we have the doubting, skeptical youth who was so filled
with the Revolutionary theories that he was willing to allow Reason
to be the supreme power, and yet who felt a slight yearning for
the simple faith of the Swiss peasants. This was the Wordsworth
of 1793, but not the Wordsworth of 1790 as the Keswill letter
again proves. "Among the more awful scenes of the Alps," he
writes, "I had not a thought of man, or a single created being;
my whole soul was turned to Him who produced the terrible maj-
esty before me."40 The Wordsworth of that day was one who be-
lieved in God the Creator of Nature and not in Nature as God; nor
in Reason as God.
What were Wordsworth's religious beliefs in 1804, the date at
which The Prelude presumably was written? Here one finds various
mentions of God Himself, which was a new development, for it
is only in poems written after 1804 that God seems to be a person-
ality to Wordsworth other than the Supreme Power mentioned
in Tintern Abbey. Wordsworth's greatest nature poetry had been
written; and with the decay of his interest in Nature there came
a deepening interest in personal Christianity, so that one is not
surprised to hear God characterized as "the giver of all joy" who
"is thanked religiously, in silent blessedness."4'
Quite different, too, is Wordsworth's attitude in The Prelude
toward the convent of Chartreuse and the soldiers who came there.
Instead of any feeling of joy as was found in the 1793 attitude there
is found a deeply religious prayer for the place. He asks that they
"Spare these courts of mystery," realizing that the penitential
tears of the suppliants result in an equality in "God's pure sight
of monarch and peasant." No devotee of religion could be more
reverent and sincere than Wordsworth appears in these lines, and
such, in general, was his attitude throughout The Prelude.
Even a casual reader of the two poems must notice the difference
in the tone. The early poem is infused with a spirit of melancholy
and gloom, while The Prelude is permeated with the joy any per-
son would naturally expect to feel on such a trip.
Oh, most belove'dFriend! a glorioustime,
And happy time that was42
and
42
40 Prose Works, III, 226. Prelude, VI, 663-7.
41
Prelude, VI, 685.
 Janette Harrington1 1157

I wanted not that joy, I did not need

Such help; the ever-living universe
Turn where I might, was opening out its glories,
And the independent spirit of pure youth
Called forth, at every season, new delights,
Spread round my steps like sunshine o'er green fields.43
This spirit is the same as that described in his letter to Dorothy.
Here he says,
I assure you that I am in excellent health and spirits, and have had no rea-
son to complain of the contrary during our whole tour. My spirits have
been kept in a perpetual hurry of delight, by the almost uninterrupted
succession of sublime and beautiful objects which have passed before my
eyes during the course of the last month.44
To understand the full significance then of such lines as the
following, in Descriptive Sketches,-
Me, lur'd by hope her sorrows to remove
A heart, that could not much itself approve (45-46)

But doubly pitying Nature loves to show'r

Soft on his wounded heart her healing pow'r (13-14)

No sad vacuities his heart annoy (17)

Alas! in every clime a flying ray

Is all we have to chear our wintry way,
Condemn'd, in mists and tempests ever rife,
To pant slow up the endless Alp of life (590-593)
one must again examine conditions of the time. Once more, one
must remember that Wordsworth had not yet thrown off the poet-
ical conventions of his day. He, no doubt, had read the works
of the Graveyard Poets in which melancholy was an outstanding
quality. Indeed, if one may rely on the veracity of The Prelude, such
was the case, for in it Wordsworth says,
How sweet at such a time, with such delight
On every side, in prime of youthful strength,
To feed a Poet's tender melancholy
And fond conceit of sadness.45
But surely convention alone would not cause the deeply melan-
choly note which predominates in the poem. In 1792, when De-
scriptive Sketches was written, mingled with the joy which the poet
43Ibid., 773-778. 45 Prelude,VI, 364-367.
44ProseWorks,III, 230.
1158 W1Vordsworth's"Descriptive Sketches"

felt over the French Revolution, there certainly was a sense of

sadness. He believed with all his soul that the cause was right,
and yet he must have felt a deep sense of gloom over the affairs of
the day. This unrest of his senses and feelings made it impossible
in treating the events of an earlier period to avoid imparting to
them something of the sombre colors of contemporary events.
There was still another reason, far more personal for the gloom
which he discloses. Sometime in the year 1791 (probably) Words-
worth had met Annette Vallon and had loved her. In 1792 she
had borne him a child, Caroline, and, although Wordsworth seem-
ingly loved her and intended to marry her, conditions made this
marriage impossible. Wordsworth undoubtedly grieved to think
he must leave Annette and Caroline in France while he returned
to England. Hence, there was a real personal question in the
lines
When the poor heart has all its joys resigned
Why does their sad remembrancescleave behind?
which is not found in The Prelude, for the experience was a thing of
the past in 1804 when the latter poem was written. Legouis it
was who asked:
Is it ThePreludethat errsin representingthe Swiss tour as a triumphal
march,or the DescriptiveSketcheswhich, instead of describingthe young
man as he was, presentsus with the pictureof an imaginaryhero of the
melancholytype then in fashion?47
The preceding analysis of the Descriptive Sketches and The Pre-
lude, Book VI, and of the Keswill letter, justifies, it seems to me,
the following conclusions:
First; that the poems differ from each other and from the Keswill
letter;
Second; that in poetic composition, Wordsworth used his ma-
terial not with literal accuracy but with a view to produce a de-
sired effect;
Third; that the poems reflect accurately, therefore, not the
original journey which inspired them, but the respective mood at
the time of the composition of each;
Fourth; that the question as to which is the more accurate,
is, therefore, meaningless.
JANETTE HARRINGTON
University of Arkansas
46 Descriptive Sketches, lines
622-23.
47Legouis, Early Life of William Wordsworth,p. 157.