The Duddon Sonnets - Notes to Sonnet XVII

XVII. RETURN

          A DARK plume fetch me from yon blasted yew,

          Perched on whose top the Danish Raven croaks;

          Aloft, the imperial Bird of Rome invokes

          Departed ages, shedding where he flew

          Loose fragments of wild wailing, that bestrew

          The clouds and thrill the chambers of the rocks;

          And into silence hush the timorous flocks,

          That, calmly couching while the nightly dew

          Moistened each fleece, beneath the twinkling stars

          Slept amid that lone Camp on Hardknot's height,             10

          Whose Guardians bent the knee to Jove and Mars:

          Or, near that mystic Round of Druid frame

          Tardily sinking by its proper weight

          Deep into patient Earth, from whose smooth breast it came!

Title – unless there is some significance concerning the raven in relation to the idea of return, then perhaps it refers to a return to the main theme, or the return of the standing stones into the earth mentioned in the final two lines. 

The ‘Danish Raven’ was a symbol of the Viking inhabitants of the Lakes.

L3 – imperial Bird of Rome – The Eagle

The sonnet continues the theme of early settlers of the valley – the Romans and ‘Druids’.

The poets progress down the valley is not strictly sequential. The Roman fort on Hardknot Pass links the upper Duddon Valley to the Valley of the Esk, further North. As such, logically this should occur earlier in the series.

Conversely, the stone circle is situated near Ulpha some miles downstream from Donnerdale.

The photograph illustrates the impression of the stones sinking into the earth, as noted in the poem.