THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, VOL. 8 (Completed)

LINES WRITTEN BY WORDSWORTH AS A SCHOOL EXERCISE AT HAWKSHEAD, ANNO AETATIS14

In the "Autobiographical Memoranda"--dictated at Rydal Mount in 1847--Wordsworth said, "The first verses which I wrote were a task imposed by my master: the subject The Summer Vacation, and of my own accord I added others upon Return to School. There was nothing remarkable in either poem; but I was called upon, among other scholars, to write verses upon the completion of the second century from the foundation of the school in 1585, by Archbishop Sandys. These verses were much admired, far more than they deserved, for they were but a tame imitation of Pope's versification, and a little in his style. This exercise, however, put it into my head to compose verses from the impulse of my own mind; and I wrote, while yet a schoolboy, a long poem running upon my own adventures, and the scenery of the county in which I was brought up."

The Summer Vacation, and the Return to School, were destroyed by Wordsworth.--ED.

And has the Sun his flaming chariot driven

Two hundred times around the ring of heaven,

Since Science first, with all her sacred train,

Beneath yon roof began her heavenly reign?

While thus I mused, methought, before mine eyes,

The Power of EDUCATION seemed to rise;

Not she whose rigid precepts trained the boy

Dead to the sense of every finer joy;

Nor that vile wretch who bade the tender age

Spurn Reason's law and humour Passion's rage;

But she who trains the generous British youth

In the bright paths of fair majestic Truth:

Emerging slow from Academus' grove

In heavenly majesty she seem'd to move.

Stern was her forehead, but a smile serene

"Soften'd the terrors of her awful mien."[339]

Close at her side were all the powers, design'd

To curb, exalt, reform the tender mind:

With panting breast, now pale as winter snows,

Now flushed as Hebe, Emulation rose;

Shame follow'd after with reverted eye,

And hue far deeper than the Tyrian dye;

Last Industry appear'd with steady pace,

A smile sat beaming on her pensive face.

I gazed upon the visionary train,

Threw back my eyes, return'd, and gazed again.

When lo! the heavenly goddess thus began,

Through all my frame the pleasing accents ran.

When Superstition left the golden light

And fled indignant to the shades of night;

When pure Religion rear'd the peaceful breast

And lull'd the warring passions into rest,

Drove far away the savage thoughts that roll

In the dark mansions of the bigot's soul,