As the ample Moon, In the deep stillness of a summer even Rising behind a thick and lofty Grove, Burns like an unconsuming fire of light In the green trees; and kindling on all sides Their leafy umbrage, turns the dusky veil Into a substance glorious as her own, Yea, with her own incorporated, by power Capacious and serene: Like power abides In Man’s celestial Spirit; Virtue thus Sets forth and magnifies herself: thus feeds A calm, a beautiful and silent fire, From the incumbrances of mortal life, From error, disappointment, ... nay from guilt; And sometimes, so relenting Justice wills, From palpable oppressions of Despair. WORDSWORTH. PREFACE. This poem was commenced at Keswick, Dec. 2. 1809, and finished there July 14. 1814. A French translation, by M. B. de S., in three volumes 12mo., was published in 1820, and another by M. le Chevalier ⸺ in one volume 8vo., 1821. Both are in prose. When the latest of these versions was nearly ready for publication, the publisher, who was also the printer, insisted upon having a life of the author prefixed. The French public, he said, knew nothing of M. Southey, and in order to make the book sell, it must be managed to interest them for the writer. The Chevalier represented as a conclusive reason for not attempting any thing of the kind, that he was not acquainted with M. Southey’s private history. “Would you believe it?” says a friend of the translator’s, from whose letter I transscribe what follows; “this was his answer _verbatim_: ‘_N’importe, écrivez toujours; brodez, brodez-la un peu; que ce soit vrai ou non ce ne fait rien; qui prendra la peine de s’informer?_’” Accordingly a _Notice sur M. Southey_ was composed, not exactly in conformity with the publisher’s notions of biography, but from such materials as could be collected from magazines and other equally unauthentic sources. In one of these versions a notable mistake occurs, occasioned by the French pronunciation of an English word. The whole passage indeed, in both versions, may be regarded as curiously exemplifying the difference between French and English poetry.