The Duddon Sonnets - Notes to Sonnet XXI and XXII

 XXII. TRADITION

          A LOVE-LORN Maid, at some far-distant time,

          Came to this hidden pool, whose depths surpass

          In crystal clearness Dian's looking-glass;

          And, gazing, saw that Rose, which from the prime

          Derives its name, reflected, as the chime

          Of echo doth reverberate some sweet sound:

          The starry treasure from the blue profound

          She longed to ravish;--shall she plunge, or climb

          The humid precipice, and seize the guest

          Of April, smiling high in upper air?                        10

          Desperate alternative! what fiend could dare

          To prompt the thought?--Upon the steep rock's breast

          The lonely Primrose yet renews its bloom,

          Untouched memento of her hapless doom!

It is interesting to speculate quite why Wordsworth chose to adopt in this, and other sonnets in the Duddon series, a ‘curiously elaborate’ poetic diction which in the preface to the 1805 edition of Lyrical Ballads he so roundly criticised in, amongst others, the works of Gray. The phrase ‘saw that Rose, which from the prime derives its name’ is precisely the kind of ornamentation that Wordsworth previously had abhorred.

L 3. Dian’s looking glass – Lake Nemi in Italy, site of a shrine associated with the cult of Diana.

Clearly Wordsworth is referring to come traditional belief concerning the primrose – though the precise superstition described in the poem is not easy to track down – in folk belief and ‘flower-lore’ the primrose still retains a symbolic meaning of ‘young love’ and ‘the one I cannot live without’.

XXI

          WHENCE that low voice?--A whisper from the heart,

          That told of days long past, when here I roved

          With friends and kindred tenderly beloved;

          Some who had early mandates to depart,

          Yet are allowed to steal my path athwart

          By Duddon's side; once more do we unite,

          Once more, beneath the kind Earth's tranquil light;

          And smothered joys into new being start.

          From her unworthy seat, the cloudy stall

          Of Time, breaks forth triumphant Memory;                    10

          Her glistening tresses bound, yet light and free

          As golden locks of birch, that rise and fall

          On gales that breathe too gently to recall

          Aught of the fading year's inclemency!

The Augustan interlude continues, but changing from a pastoral to an elegiac mode.

L. 3 – Might this relate to his walking tour in October 1799 with Coleridge and John Wordsworth -  John Wordsworth died in 1805 in a maritime accident.

L9 – L14 The final lines of the poem develop an epic simile with a degree of elegiac grace. This stands in notable contrast to L4 – “Some who had early mandates to depart” – which borders on the bathetic.