Written with a Slate Pencil upon a Stone, the largest of a Heap lying near a Deserted Quarry, upon one of the IslandsA at Rydal

Composed 1798.—Published 1800

The Poem

Included among the "Inscriptions."—Ed.

The Poem

text variant footnote line number

Stranger! this hillock of mis-shapen stones
Is not a Ruin spared or made by time,
Nor, as perchance thou rashly deem'st, the Cairn
Of some old British Chief: 'tis nothing more
Than the rude embryo of a little Dome
Or Pleasure-house, once destined to be built
Among the birch-trees of this rocky isle.
But, as it chanced, Sir William having learned
That from the shore a full-grown man might wade,
And make himself a freeman of this spot
At any hour he chose, the prudent Knight
Desisted, and the quarry and the mound
Are monuments of his unfinished task.
The block on which these lines are traced, perhaps,
Was once selected as the corner-stone
Of that intended Pile, which would have been
Some quaint odd plaything of elaborate skill,
So that, I guess, the linnet and the thrush,
And other little builders who dwell here,
Had wondered at the work. But blame him not,
For old Sir William was a gentle Knight,
Bred in this vale, to which he appertained
With all his ancestry. Then peace to him,
And for the outrage which he had devised
Entire forgiveness!—But if thou art one
On fire with thy impatience to become
An inmate of these mountains,—if, disturbed
By beautiful conceptions, thou hast hewn
Out of the quiet rock the elements
Of thy trim Mansion destined soon to blaze
In snow-white splendour,—think again; and, taught
By old Sir William and his quarry, leave
Thy fragments to the bramble and the rose;
There let the vernal slow-worm sun himself,
And let the redbreast hop from stone to stone.

Contents

Variant 1:

1837

Is not a ruin of the ancient time,

1800

... antique ...

MS.

Variant 2:

1802

... which was to have been built

1800

Variant 3:

1800

Of some old British warrior: so, to speak
The honest truth, 'tis neither more nor less
Than the rude germ of what was to have been
A pleasure-house, and built upon this isle.

MS.

Variant 4:

1837

... the Knight forthwith

1800

Variant 5:

1837

Of the ...

1800

Variant 6:

1800

Bred here, and to this valley appertained

MS. 1798.

Variant 7:

1800

... glory, ...

1802

The text of 1815 returns to that of 1800.

Footnote A:

In a MS. copy this is given as "the lesser Island."—Ed

return to footnote mark

Footnote B:

Compare Wordsworth'

"objections to white, as a colour, in large spots or masses in landscape,"

in his Guide through the district of the Lakes (section third).—Ed.

1798 Contents
Main Contents

end of Volume II: 1798 → 1799

Main Contents