Volume 2 — Written with a Slate Pencil upon a Stone, the largest of a Heap lying near a Deserted Quarry, upon one of the IslandsA at Rydal
Reading edition
Written with a Slate Pencil upon a Stone, the largest of a Heap lying near a Deserted Quarry, upon one of the IslandsA at Rydal
Composed 1798.—Published 1800
The Poem
Included among the "Inscriptions."—Ed.
The Poem
text variant footnote line number
Stranger! this hillock of mis-shapen stones Is not a Ruin spared or made by time, Nor, as perchance thou rashly deem'st, the Cairn Of some old British Chief: 'tis nothing more Than the rude embryo of a little Dome Or Pleasure-house, once destined to be built Among the birch-trees of this rocky isle. But, as it chanced, Sir William having learned That from the shore a full-grown man might wade, And make himself a freeman of this spot At any hour he chose, the prudent Knight Desisted, and the quarry and the mound Are monuments of his unfinished task. The block on which these lines are traced, perhaps, Was once selected as the corner-stone Of that intended Pile, which would have been Some quaint odd plaything of elaborate skill, So that, I guess, the linnet and the thrush, And other little builders who dwell here, Had wondered at the work. But blame him not, For old Sir William was a gentle Knight, Bred in this vale, to which he appertained With all his ancestry. Then peace to him, And for the outrage which he had devised Entire forgiveness!—But if thou art one On fire with thy impatience to become An inmate of these mountains,—if, disturbed By beautiful conceptions, thou hast hewn Out of the quiet rock the elements Of thy trim Mansion destined soon to blaze In snow-white splendour,—think again; and, taught By old Sir William and his quarry, leave Thy fragments to the bramble and the rose; There let the vernal slow-worm sun himself, And let the redbreast hop from stone to stone. Contents 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 B 5 10 15 20 25 30
Variant 1:
1837
Is not a ruin of the ancient time, 1800
... antique ... MS.
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Variant 2:
1802
... which was to have been built 1800
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Variant 3:
1800
Of some old British warrior: so, to speak The honest truth, 'tis neither more nor less Than the rude germ of what was to have been A pleasure-house, and built upon this isle. MS.
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Variant 4:
1837
... the Knight forthwith 1800
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Variant 5:
1837
Of the ... 1800
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Variant 6:
1800
Bred here, and to this valley appertained MS. 1798.
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Variant 7:
1800
... glory, ... 1802
The text of 1815 returns to that of 1800.
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Footnote A:
In a MS. copy this is given as "the lesser Island."—Ed
.
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Footnote B:
Compare Wordsworth'
s
"objections to white, as a colour, in large spots or masses in landscape,"
in his Guide through the district of the Lakes (section third).—Ed.
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1798 Contents Main Contents
end of Volume II: 1798 → 1799
Main Contents