In the Fenwick note, Wordsworth mentions that, what gave rise to this poem was, his observing in the newspapers that "the Pillar of Trajan" was prescribed as a subject for a prize poem at Oxford. This determines the date of composition. _The Pillar of Trajan_ was the Newdigate prize poem, won by W. W. Tireman, Wadham Coll., in 1826. We may therefore assume that the subject was proposed about the summer of 1825.--ED. FOOTNOTES: [411] As Wordsworth says, in his note of 1827, "See Forsyth," it may be interesting to add Forsyth's account of the Pillar, in footnotes. "Trajan's Column, considered as a long historical record to be read round and round a long convex surface, made perspective impossible. Every perspective has one fixed point of view, but here are ten thousand. The eye, like the relievos of the column, must describe a spiral round them, widening over the whole piazza. Hence, to be legible the figures must be lengthened as they rise. This licence is necessary here; but in architecture it may be contested against Vitruvius himself." (Forsyth's _Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters, during an Excursion in Italy in 1802-3_, pp. 250, 251.)--ED. [412] "In detailing the two wars, this column sets each nation in contrast: here the Moorish horse, all naked and unharnessed" (Forsyth's _Remarks_, _etc._, p. 251.)--ED. [413] See Forsyth.--W. W. 1827. "There the Taranatians, in complete mail down to the fingers and the hoofs. It exhibits without embellishment all the tactics of that age, and forms grand commentary on Vegetius and Frontinus." (_Remarks_, _etc._, p. 252.)--ED. [414] "How unlike the modern relievos, where dress appears in all its distinctions, and prostration in all its angles! none kneel here but priests and captives; no Roman appears in a fallen state: none are wounded or slain but the foe. "No monument gives the complete and real costume of its kind so correctly as this column.... On this column we can see parts of the _subarmalia_; we can see real drawers falling down to the officers' legs; and some figures have _focalia_, like invalids, round the neck." (_Remarks_, _etc._, p. 251-2.)--ED. [415] "This column is an immense field of antiquities, where the emperor appears in a hundred different points, as sovereign, as general, as priest." (_Remarks_, _etc._, p. 251.)--ED. [416] "His dignity he derives from himself or his duties; not from the trappings of power, for he is dressed like any of his officers, not from the debasement of others, for the Romans stand bold and erect before him." (_Remarks_, _etc._, p. 251.)--ED. THE CONTRAST THE PARROT AND THE WREN[417] Composed 1825.--Published 1827 [The Parrot belonged to Mrs. Luff while living at Fox-Ghyll. The Wren was one that haunted for many years the summerhouse between the two terraces at Rydal Mount.--I. F.] One of the "Poems of the Fancy."--ED. I