﻿Wordsworth's mind 



17 



Wither, Marvell, Thomson, Akenside, Armstrong, Cowper, Dyer, 

 Miekle, Beattie, all in the vein Wordsworth thought it profitable 

 to uncover. Armstrong and Mickle are represented by descriptions 

 of romantic forest scenery suggesting mystery and seclusion ; 

 Armstrong by that 'sublime apostrophe to the great rivers of the 

 earth,' as Wordsworth called it, and Mickle by a passage from a 

 poem thoroughly un-Wordsworthian in character, 'Sir Martyn' — 

 originally entitled ' The Concubine. ' The lines Wordsworth quotes 

 describe very romantically a woodland grotto. 'The Ruins of 

 Rome, ' another thoroughly un-Wordsworthian poem is chosen from 

 Dyer. But Wordsworth thought it 'a beautiful instance of the 

 modifying and investive power of the imagination,' thus attaching 

 it to his theory. Apparently he had a strong regard for Dyer and 

 in a sonnet addressed to him he says : 



A grateful few shall love tliy modest lay 

 Long as tlie slieplierd'.s bleating flock shall stray 

 O'er naked Snowdon's wide aerial waste ; 

 Long as the thrush shall pipe on Grongar Hill. 



It is possible, of course, to quote very WordsivortJiian lines from 

 'The Fleece,' but I will save the reader this, reminding him only 

 that Wordsworth was often very Wordsworthian when he was not 

 at his best. 



The Wordsworthian note in Thomson is not so apparent as a 

 certain Thomsonian elegance in Wordsworth's own earliest poems 

 and as is the occasional similarity of the 'Lyrical Ballads' to the 

 purer style of 'The Seasons.' Miss Reynolds, in her study of 'Na- 

 ture between Pope and Wordsworth,' remarks that Thomson knew 

 little of the appeal of nature to the soul, but that 'he attributes to 

 nature, in at least a partially Wordsworthian sense, the power of 

 soothing, elevating, and instructing.' She cites the following pas- 

 sages in illustration: 



When heaven and earth as if contending vie 

 To raise his being, and serene his senl : 



At the soft evening hour, he lonely loves 

 To seek the distant hills and there converse 

 With nature, there to harmonize his heart. 



Wordsworth selects only from Thomson's rhymed verse, passages 

 of great smoothness but decidedly of the Augustan age. It is pos- 

 sible, however, to take from 'The Seasons' certain short passages 

 that somewhat resemble Wordsw^orth 's earlier manner: 



3—33918 



