The London Mercury, Vol. I, Nos. 1-6, November 1919 to April 1920Various
General
The London Mercury, Vol. I, Nos. 1-6, November 1919 to April 1920
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; London (England) -- Periodicals
And then we come to 1802, the great last year of a twin life; the last
year of the five in which those two had lived as one soul and one
heart. They were at Dove Cottage, on something under £150 a year. Poems
were thronging thick about them; they were living intensely. John was
alive. Mary Hutchinson was at Sockburn. Coleridge was still Coleridge,
not the bemused and futile mystic he was to become. As for Dorothy,
she lives a thing enskied, floating from ecstasy to ecstasy. It is the
third of March, and William is to go to London. "Before we had quite
finished breakfast Calvert's man brought the horses for Wm. We had a
deal to do, pens to make, poems to put in order for writing, to settle
for the press, pack up.... Since he left me at half-past eleven (it
is now two) I have been putting the drawers into order, laid by his
clothes, which he had thrown here and there and everywhere, filed two
months' newspapers, and got my dinner, two boiled eggs and two apple
tarts.... The robins are singing sweetly. Now for my walk. I _will_
be busy. I _will_ look well, and be well when he comes back to me. O
the Darling! Here is one of his bitter apples. I can hardly find it in
my heart to throw it into the fire.... I walked round the two lakes,
crossed the stepping-stones at Rydalefoot. Sate down where we always
sit. I was full of thought of my darling. Blessings on him." Where
else in our literature will you find mood so tender, so intimately, so
delicately related?
A week later, and William returned. With him, it seems, her descriptive
powers. "Monday morning--a soft rain and mist. We walked to Rydale for
letters. The Vale looked very beautiful in excessive simplicity, yet,
at the same time, uncommon obscurity. The church stood alone, mountains
behind. The meadows looked calm and rich, bordering on the still lake.
Nothing else to be seen but lake and island." Exquisite landscape. For
its like we must go to Japan. Here is another. An interior. It is the
23rd of March, "about ten o'clock, a quiet night. The fire flickers,
and the watch ticks. I hear nothing save the breathing of my beloved as
he now and then pushes his book forward, and turns over a leaf...." No
more, but the peace of it is profound, the art incomparable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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