Remembrance of Collins
Reading edition
Composed upon the Thames near Richmond.
A
Composed 1789.—Published 1798
text variant footnote line number
Glide gently, thus for ever glide, O Thames! that other bards may see As lovely visions by thy side As now, fair river! come to me. O glide, fair stream! for ever so, Thy quiet soul on all bestowing, Till all our minds for ever flow As thy deep waters now are flowing. Vain thought!—Yet be as now thou art, That in thy waters may be seen The image of a poet's heart, How bright, how solemn, how serene! Such as did once the Poet bless, Who murmuring here a later ditty, Could find no refuge from distress But in the milder grief of pity. Now let us, as we float along, For him suspend the dashing oar; And pray that never child of song May know that Poet's sorrows more. How calm! how still! the only sound, The dripping of the oar suspended! —The evening darkness gathers round By virtue's holiest Powers attended. 1 2 3 4 5 B C D 5 10 15 20
Variant 1:
1800
Such heart did once the poet bless, 1798
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Variant 2:
1815
Who, pouring here a lateri ditty, 1798
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Variant 3:
1802
Remembrance, as we glide along, ... float ... 1798 1800
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Variant 4:
1802
For him ... 1798
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Variant 5:
1802
May know his freezing sorrows more. 1798
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Footnote A:
The title in the editions 1802-1815 was
Remembrance of Collins, written upon the Thames near Richmond
.—Ed.
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Footnote B:
Compare the
After-thought
to
The River Duddon. A Series of Sonnets
:
Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide.
Ed.
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Footnote C:
Collins's
Ode on the Death of Thomson
, the last written, I believe, of the poems which were published during his life-time. This Ode is also alluded to in the next stanza.—W. W. 1798.
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Footnote D:
Compare Collins's
Ode on the Death of Thomson
,
The Scene on the Thames near Richmond
:
Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore When Thames in summer wreaths is drest. And oft suspend the dashing oar To bid his gentle spirit rest.
As Mr. Dowden suggests, the
him
was probably italicised by Wordsworth, "because the oar is suspended not for Thomson but for Collins." The italics were first used in the edition of 1802.—Ed.
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Sub-Footnote i:
The italics only occur in the editions of 1798 and 1800.—Ed.
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