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

1819 -- "THROUGH CUMBRIAN WILDS, IN MANY A MOUNTAIN COVE"

In 1819 Wordsworth wrote the sonnet beginning, "Grief, thou hast lost an ever ready friend." In the note to that sonnet (vol. vi. p. 196)I have given a different version of its last six lines, from a MS.sonnet. But as these six lines also form the conclusion of another unpublished sonnet, it may be given in full by itself, in this Appendix.--ED.

Through Cumbrian wilds, in many a mountain cove,

The pastoral Muse laments the Wheel--no more

Engaged, near blazing hearth on clean-swept floor,

In tasks which guardian Angels might approve,

Friendly the weight of leisure to remove,

And to beguile the lassitude of ease;

Gracious to all the dear dependencies

Of house and field,--to plenty, peace, and love.

There too did Fancy prize the murmuring wheel;

For sympathies, inexplicably fine,

Instilled a confidence--how sweet to feel!

That ever in the night-calm, when the Sheep

Upon their grassy beds lay couch'd in sleep,

The quickening spindle drew a trustier line.