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Gentleman's Magazine 1850 part 1 p.670
than before - his admirers too were at first somewhat amazed - and the only consolation which the poet obtained was from a sonnet of his own, in imitation of Milton's sonnet, beginning -

A book was writ of late called Tetrachordon.
This sonnet runs as follows:-

A book came forth of late, called Peter Bell;
Not negligent the style; - the matter? - good
As aught that song records of Robin Hood;
Or Roy, renown'd through many a Scottish dell;
But some (who brook these hacknied themes full well
Nor heat at Tam O'Shanter's name their blood)
Waxed wrath, and with foul claws, a harpy brood,
On Bard and Hero clamorously fell.
Heed not, wild Rover once through heath and glen,
Who mad'st at length the better life thy choice,
Heed not such onset! Nay, if praise of men
To thee appear not an unmeaning voice,
Lift up that grey-hair'd forehead, and rejoice
in the just tribute of thy poet's pen.
Lamb, in thanking the poet for his strange but clever poem, asked, "Where is The Waggoner?" - of which he retained a pleasant remembrance from hearing Wordsworth read it in MS. when first written in 1806. Pleased with the remembrance of the friendly essayist, the poet determined on sending The Waggoner to press, and in 1815 the poem appeared with a dedication to his old friend who had thought so favourably of it. Another publication of this period which found still greater favour with many of his admirers was The White Doe of Rylstone; founded on a tradition connected with the beautiful scenery that surrounds Bolton Priory, and on a ballad in Percy's collection called The Rising of the North.
His next work of consequence is The River Duddon, described in a noble series of sonnets, and containing some of his very finest poetry. The volume is dedicated to his brother the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, and appeared in 1820. It contained a "topographical description of the country of the Lakes," which had been previously published as an introduction to some Views of the Lakes by the Rev. Joseph Wilkinson; see the review of the work in Gentleman's Magazine for Oct. 1820, p.344. In his notes (edit. 1845) Wordsworth mentions that this series of sonnets was the growth of many years; the one which stands the 14th was the first produced; and others were added upon occasional visits to the stream, or as recollections of the scenes upon its banks awakened a wish to describe them.
In Dec. 1820 he commenced his series of Ecclesiastical Sonnets, which he completed in Jan. 1822. They were composed at the same time that Southey was writing his History of the Church.
Wordsworth's last publication of importance was his "Yarrow Revisited, and other Poems," published in 1835. The new volume, however, rather sustained than added to his reputation. Some of the finer poems are additions to his memorials of a tour of Scotland, which have always ranked among the most delightful of his works.
In the same year Mr. Wordsworth received a pension of 300l. a-year from Sir Robert Peel's government, and permission to resign his office of Stamp distributor in favour of his son. He seems henceforth to have surrendered himself wholly to the muse, and to contemplations suitable to his own habits of mind and to the lovely country in which he lived. This course of life, however, was varied by a tour to Italy in company with his friend Mr. Crabb Robinson.
In July 1838 he received the honorary degree of doctor in civil law from the university of Durham. At the commemoration in 1839 he received the same degree from the university of Oxford, together with the Chev. Bunsen. An occasion which had such double claims upon Dr. Arnold drew him back to Oxford after an absence of one-and-twenty years: "remembering," he remarks, "how old Coleridge inoculated a little knot of us with the love of Wordsworth, when his name was in general a by-word, it was striking to witness the thunders of applause, repeated over and over again, with which he was greeted in the theatre by undergraduates and masters of arts alike." (Arnold's Life, ii. 160.)
On Southey's death in 1843, Wordsworth was appointed Poet Laureate. Once and only once did he sing in discharge of his office - on the occasion of her Majesty's Visit to the University of Cambridge.
In 1845 he collected his poems into one large volume published by Moxon. They are arranged in the following divisions: those written in youth, inclcuding The Borderers, a tragedy, composed in 1795-6; pieces referring to the period of childhood; poems founded upon the affections; poems on the naming of places; poems of the fancy; The Waggoner; poems of the imagination; Peter Bell; miscellaneous sonnets; memorials of a tour in Scotland, 1803; of another Scottish tour, 1814; poems dedicated to national independence and liberty; memorials of a tour on the continent, 1820; of a tour in Italy, 1837; the river Duddon; the White Doe of Rylstone; Ecclesiastical Sonnets; Yarrow
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