I stopped, and said with inly-muttered voice, "It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold: This neither is its courage nor its choice, 15 But its necessity in being old.
"The sunshine may not cheer [2] it, nor the dew; It cannot help itself in its decay; Stiff in its members, withered, changed of hue."
And, in my spleen, I smiled that it was grey. 20
To be a Prodigal"s Favourite--then, worse truth, A Miser"s Pensioner--behold our lot!
O Man, that from thy fair and shining youth Age might but take the things Youth needed not!
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1837.
... itself, ... 1807.]
[Variant 2:
1827
... bless ... 1807.]
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: Common Pilewort.--W. W. 1807.]
With the last stanza compare one from "The Fountain", vol. ii. p. 93:
"Thus fares it still in our decay: And yet the wiser mind Mourns less for what age takes away Than what it leaves behind."
Compare also the other two poems on the Celandine, vol. ii. pp. 300, 303, written in a previous year.--Ed.
AT APPLETHWAITE, NEAR KESWICK
1804
Composed 1804.--Published 1842
[This was presented to me by Sir George Beaumont, with a view to the erection of a house upon it, for the sake of being near to Coleridge, then living, and likely to remain, at Greta Hall, near Keswick. The severe necessities that prevented this arose from his domestic situation. This little property, with a considerable addition that still leaves it very small, lies beautifully upon the banks of a rill that gurgles down the side of Skiddaw; and the orchard and other parts of the grounds command a magnificent prospect of Derwent Water, the mountains of Borrowdale and Newlands. Not many years ago I gave the place to my daughter.--I. F.]
In pencil on the opposite page in Dora Wordsworth"s (Mrs. Quillinan"s) handwriting--"Many years ago, Sir; for it was given when she was a frail feeble monthling."
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--Ed.
BEAUMONT! it was thy wish that I should rear A seemly Cottage in this sunny Dell, On favoured ground, thy gift, where I might dwell In neighbourhood with One to me most dear, That undivided we from year to year 5 Might work in our high Calling--a bright hope To which our fancies, mingling, gave free scope Till checked by some necessities severe.
And should these slacken, honoured BEAUMONT! still Even then we may perhaps in vain implore 10 Leave of our fate thy wishes [1] to fulfil.
Whether this boon be granted us or not, Old Skiddaw will look down upon the Spot With pride, the Muses love it evermore. [2] [A]
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
... pleasure ... MS.]
[Variant 2:
... will be proud, and that same spot Be dear unto the Muses evermore. MS.]
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT