Volume 8 — 1835
Reading edition
“THRONED IN THE SUN’S DESCENDING CAR”
These lines were placed by Wordsworth amongst the “Evening Voluntaries” in the two editions of Yarrow Revisited and other Poems (1835, 1836); but they were never afterwards reprinted in his life-time.—Ed.
For printing the following Piece, some reason should be given, as not a word of it is original: it is simply a fine stanza of Akenside,[401] connected with a still finer from Beattie[402]by a couplet of Thomson.[403] This practice, in which the author sometimes indulges, of linking together, in his own mind, favourite passages from different authors, seemed in itself unobjectionable; but, as the publishing such compilations might lead to confusion in literature, he should deem himself inexcusable in giving this specimen, were it not from a hope that it might open to others a harmless source of private gratification.—W. W. 1835.
Throned in the Sun’s descending car, What Power unseen diffuses far This tenderness of mind? What Genius smiles on yonder flood? What God in whispers from the wood 5 Bids every thought be kind? O ever-pleasing solitude, Companion of the wise and good. Thy shades, thy silence, now be mine Thy charms my only theme; 10 Why haunt the hollow cliff whose Pine Waves o’er the gloomy stream; Whence the scared Owl on pinions grey Breaks from the rustling boughs, And down the lone vale sails away 15 To more profound repose!
“AND OH! DEAR SOOTHER OF THE PENSIVE BREAST”
The following ten lines were written by Wordsworth in a copy of his works, after the lines To the Moon (Rydal) 1835. They may have been intended as a possible sequel to them, or to the lines To the Moon, composed by the Seaside—on the coast of Cumberland (1835).—Ed.
And oh! dear soother of the pensive breast, Let homelier words without offence attest How where on random topics as they hit The moments’ humour, rough Tars spend their wit. Thy changes, which to wiser Spirits seem 5 Dark as a riddle, prove a favourite theme; Thy motions, intricate and manifold, Oft help to make bold fancy’s flight more bold; Beget strange themes; and to freaks give birth Of speech as wild as ever heightened mirth. 10