Part 71 (1/2)

237. *_Sonnet_ x.x.xVI.

'Oh, what a wreck,' &c.

The sad condition of poor Mrs. Southey put me upon writing this. It has afforded comfort to many persons whose friends have been similarly affected.

238. *_Sonnet_ x.x.xVII.

'Intent on gathering wool,' &c.

Suggested by a conversation with Miss F., who along with her sister had during their childhood found much delight in such gatherings for the purpose here alluded to.

239. _Sonnet_ XLII.

Wansfel.

The Hill that rises to the south-east above Ambleside.

240. _Sonnet_ XLIII.

----'a little rural town.'

Ambleside.

VIII. MEMORIALS OF A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, 1803.

241. *_Setting out_.

Mr. Coleridge, my sister, and myself started together from Town-End, to make a tour in Scotland, August [14th]. Poor Coleridge was at that time in bad spirits, and somewhat too much in love with his own dejection, and he departed from us, as is recorded in my sister's Journal, soon after we left Loch Lomond. The verses that stand foremost among these memorials were not actually written for the occasion, but transplanted from my Epistle to Sir G. Beaumont.

242. *_To the Sons of Burns after visiting the Grave of their Father_.

[iv.]

See, in connection with these verses, two other poems upon Burns, one composed actually at the time, and the other, though then felt, not put into words till several years afterwards [viz. 'At the Grave of Burns, 1803, Seven Years after his Death (II.);' and 'Thoughts suggested the Day following, on the Banks of Nith, near the Poet's Residence.' (III.) Another Note in I.F. MSS. is nearly the same as this: viz. To be printed among the Poems relating to my first Tour in Scotland: for ill.u.s.trations see my Sister's Journal. It may be proper to add that the second of these pieces, though _felt_ at the time, was not composed till many years after].

243. *_Ellen Irwin, or the Braes of Kirtle_. [v.]

It may be worth while to observe, that as there are Scotch poems on this subject, in the simple ballad strain, I thought it would be both presumptuous and superfluous to attempt treating it in the same way; and accordingly, I chose a construction of stanza quite new in our language; in fact, the same as that of Burgher's 'Leonora,' except that the first and third lines do not in my stanzas rhyme. At the outset, I threw out a cla.s.sical image, to prepare the reader for the style in which I meant to treat the story, and so to preclude all comparison. [Note.--The Kirtle is a river in the southern part of Scotland, on the banks of which the events here related took place.]

244. *_To a Highland Girl_. [VI.]