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Duddon Sonnets
book review
69. The River Duddon, a Series of Sonnets:
Vaudracour and Julia: and other Poems. To which is
annexed, a Topographical Description of the Country of the
Lakes, in the North of England. By William
Wordsworth. 8vo. pp.321. Longman and Co.
THE Poems in this Volume are marked by the same apparent
ease and elegant simplicity which characterize the
productions of Mr. Wordsworth. The first of them,
affectionately inscribed to his brother (the Rev. Dr.
Christopher Wordsworth) consists of XXXIII. Sonnets "called
forth by one of the most beautiful streams of his native
County;" and illustrated by some entertaining Notes;
particularly an excellent Biographical Memoir of the Rev.
Robert Walker, who lived to the age of 93, and was Curate of
Seathwaite 63 years.
"The River Duddon rises upon Wrynose Tell (sic), on the
confines of Westmorland, Cumberland, and Lancashire; and,
serving as the boundary of the two latter counties, for the
space of about twenty-five miles, enters the Irish Sea,
between the Isle of Walney and the lordship of Millum."
The scenery of that sequestered spot, and of the pious
Curate's labours, is thus described:
"A dark plume fetch me from yon blasted yew,
Perched on whose top the Danish Raven croaks;
Aloft the Imperial Bird of Rome invokes
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