IN WORDSWORTH'S COUNTRY 151 



Falls and cascades are a great feature all through 

 this country, as they are a marked feature in Words- 

 worth's poetry. One's ear is everywhere haunted 

 by the sound of falling water; and, when the ear 

 cannot hear them, the eye can see the streaks or 

 patches of white foam down the green declivities. 

 There are no trees above the valley bottom to ob- 

 struct the view, and no hum of woods to muffle the 

 sounds of distant streams. When I was at Gras- 

 mere there was much rain, and this stanza of the 

 poet came to mind : 



" Loud is the Vale ! The voice is up 

 With which she speaks when storms are gone, 

 A mighty unison of streams 1 

 Of all her voices, one! " 



The words " vale " and " dell " come to have a new 

 meaning after one has visited Wordsworth's coun- 

 try, just as the words "cottage" and "shepherd" 

 also have so much more significance there and in 

 Scotland than at home. 



" Dear child of Nature, let them rail! 

 There is a nest in a green dale, 



A harbor and a hold, 

 Where thou, a wife and friend, shalt see 

 Thy own delightful days, and be 

 A light to young and old." 



Every humble dwelling looks like a nest; that in 

 which the poet himself lived had a cozy, nest-like 

 look ; and every vale is green, a cradle amid rocky 

 heights, padded and carpeted with the thickest turf. 

 Wordsworth is described as the poet of nature. 

 He is more the poet of man, deeply wrought upon 



