THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH - VOL. 2 (Completed)

TO JOANNA

Composed 1800.--Published 1800

[Written at Grasmere. The effect of her laugh is an extravagance, though the effect of the reverberation of voices in some parts of the mountains is very striking. There is, in 'The Excursion', an allusion to the bleat of a lamb thus re-echoed, and described without any exaggeration, as I heard it, on the side of Stickle Tarn, from the precipice that stretches on to Langdale Pikes.--I.F.]

Amid the smoke of cities did you pass

The time [1] of early youth; and there you learned,

From years of quiet industry, to love

The living Beings by your own fire-side,

With such a strong devotion, that your heart

Is slow to meet [2] the sympathies of them

Who look upon the hills with tenderness,

And make dear friendships with the streams and groves.

Yet we, who are transgressors in this kind,

Dwelling retired in our simplicity

Among the woods and fields, we love you well, Joanna! and

I guess, since you have been

So distant from us now for two long years,

That you will gladly listen to discourse,

However trivial, if you thence be taught [3]

That they, with whom you once were happy, talk

Familiarly of you and of old times.

While I was seated, now some ten days past,

Beneath those lofty firs, that overtop

Their ancient neighbour, the old steeple-tower,

The Vicar from his gloomy house hard by [A]

Came forth to greet me; and when he had asked,

"How fares Joanna, that wild-hearted Maid!

And when will she return to us?" he paused;

And, after short exchange of village news,