[Footnote 297: 1820. Unblest distinctions--that were mine Early to lock in hapless chains A lingering life that may consign My memory to opprobrious stains {Yet doth it make me proud--even here} {Chained as I am that jealous fear } {Yet faded, fallen, and crushed--even here} {I can be proud that jealous fear } With lurking pride that jealous fear Of what I was, remains-- MS. ] [Footnote 298: 1820. A sister Sovereign ... MS. ] [Footnote 299: 1820. ... pities my distress, MS. ] [Footnote 300: 1827. Farewell for ever ... MS. and 1820. ] [Footnote 301: 1820. ... blindly ... MS. ] 1818 Still fewer than those of 1817 are the poems composed in 1818. They comprise _The Pilgrim's Dream_, The five _Inscriptions, supposed to be found in and near a Hermit's Cell_, and the stanzas _Composed upon an Evening of extraordinary Splendour and Beauty, etc._ They were all written at or near Rydal Mount; and their local allusions are all Rydalian. THE PILGRIM'S DREAM; OR, THE STAR AND THE GLOW-WORM Composed 1818.--Published 1820 [I distinctly recollect the evening when these verses were suggested in 1818. It was on the road between Rydal and Grasmere, where Glow-worms abound.[DB] A Star was shining above the ridge of Loughrigg Fell, just opposite. I remember a critic, in some review or other, crying out against this piece. "What so monstrous," said he, "as to make a star talk to a glow-worm!" Poor fellow! we know from this sage observation what the "primrose on the river's brim" was to him.--I. F.] One of the "Poems of the Fancy."--ED. A pilgrim, when the summer day Had closed upon his weary way, A lodging begged beneath a castle's roof; But him the haughty Warder spurned; And from the gate the Pilgrim turned,[302] 5 To seek such covert as the field Or heath-besprinkled copse might yield, Or lofty[303] wood, shower-proof. He paced along; and, pensively, Halting beneath a shady tree, 10 Whose moss-grown root might serve for couch or seat, Fixed on a Star his upward eye; Then, from the tenant of the sky He turned, and watched with kindred look, A Glow-worm, in a dusky nook, 15 Apparent at his feet. The murmur of a neighbouring stream Induced a soft and slumbrous dream, A pregnant dream, within whose shadowy bounds He recognised the earth-born Star, 20 And _That_ which glittered from afar;[304] And (strange to witness!) from the frame Of the ethereal Orb, there came Intelligible sounds.