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Auction archive: Lot number 649

WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850). Autograph letter signed ("W.W.") to Sir George Beaumont, Rydal Mount, 17 June 1817, INCORPORATING AN EARLY DRAFT OF HIS POEM "THE PASS AT KIRKSTONE". 4 pages, 4to, mended at creases, chipped along edges catching a few...

Auction 16.12.2004
16 Dec 2004
Estimate
US$4,000 - US$6,000
Price realised:
US$5,019
Auction archive: Lot number 649

WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850). Autograph letter signed ("W.W.") to Sir George Beaumont, Rydal Mount, 17 June 1817, INCORPORATING AN EARLY DRAFT OF HIS POEM "THE PASS AT KIRKSTONE". 4 pages, 4to, mended at creases, chipped along edges catching a few...

Auction 16.12.2004
16 Dec 2004
Estimate
US$4,000 - US$6,000
Price realised:
US$5,019
Beschreibung:

WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850). Autograph letter signed ("W.W.") to Sir George Beaumont, Rydal Mount, 17 June 1817, INCORPORATING AN EARLY DRAFT OF HIS POEM "THE PASS AT KIRKSTONE". 4 pages, 4to, mended at creases, chipped along edges catching a few words of text . "IT DOES ME GOOD OCCASIONALLY TO ASCEND THESE HEIGHTS. THE MORAL INTERESTS OF THE PLANET ARRANGE THEMSELVES BEFORE THE EYE OF MANKIND MORE NEARLY AS THEY OUGHT TO DO." A LAKE DISTRICT TREK INSPIRES AN EARLY DRAFT OF WORDSWORTH'S "THE PASS OF KIRKSTONE" In this lyrical letter to his close friend Sir George Beaumont, Wordsworth's imagination is ablaze: "My sister and I passed two or three days at Patterdale--lately we had charming weather--and the woods of Styebarrow though the axe is making sad havoc among them, were most brilliant. We returned over the top of Helvellyn, and refreshed ourselves with the snow upon its summit. This was the tenth of June. There was a large quantity hanging near the summit, towards Patterdale, & the open country in that direction; I do not think it will all be gone before the end of July. The air was not quite clear but we could see a vast distance in all directions. Mountains, sea & plains. A German kingdom, & more, expanded before us, provided what we saw of salt water had been land. It does me good occasionally to ascend these heights. The moral interests of the planet arrange themselves before the eye of mankind more nearly as they ought to do. We are enabled to think more forcibly of eternity--to ponder it--and time appears light when placed in the balance with it. How different is their relation to each other, in the ordinary course of our occupations and engagements. You have often crossed Kirkstone--and whenever you go your eye is busy & your mind full. Will the following be acceptable to you which I composed chiefly in my walk from the top of Kirkstone to Patterdale the other day." The romantic imagery of the letter is now transfigured into verse: the stimulating beauty of snowy summits, the transcendent power of Nature, and the greedy havoc inflicted by man upon the earth: "Ye plough-shares sparkling on the Slopes! Ye snow-white Lambs that trip, Imprisoned mid the formal props Of restless ownership! Ye Trees that shall tomorrow fall, So bids the caveless Prodigal Most potent when mists veil the sky Mists that distort and magnify" This draft consists of the first three stanzas of the poem. Wordsworth evidently sent Beaumont another draft with a new fourth stanza on 27 June 1817. Biographers have assumed that was the date of composition (see Mary Moorman, Wordsworth, The Later Years , 305). Our letter predates it by ten days, and contains variations from the published version. In the second stanza here, Wordsworth has: "Ye Trees that shall tomorrow fall, So bids the caveless Prodigal," which was later changed to "To feed the insatiate Prodigal." In the third stanza, "When thou shalt be my guide: And I (as often as we find cause..." was later altered to "And I (as all men may find cause..." The letter also contains a reference to Robert Southey's purchase of a house in Keswick. An important find from a rich, productive portion of Wordsworth's career.

Auction archive: Lot number 649
Auction:
Datum:
16 Dec 2004
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Rockefeller Center
Beschreibung:

WORDSWORTH, William (1770-1850). Autograph letter signed ("W.W.") to Sir George Beaumont, Rydal Mount, 17 June 1817, INCORPORATING AN EARLY DRAFT OF HIS POEM "THE PASS AT KIRKSTONE". 4 pages, 4to, mended at creases, chipped along edges catching a few words of text . "IT DOES ME GOOD OCCASIONALLY TO ASCEND THESE HEIGHTS. THE MORAL INTERESTS OF THE PLANET ARRANGE THEMSELVES BEFORE THE EYE OF MANKIND MORE NEARLY AS THEY OUGHT TO DO." A LAKE DISTRICT TREK INSPIRES AN EARLY DRAFT OF WORDSWORTH'S "THE PASS OF KIRKSTONE" In this lyrical letter to his close friend Sir George Beaumont, Wordsworth's imagination is ablaze: "My sister and I passed two or three days at Patterdale--lately we had charming weather--and the woods of Styebarrow though the axe is making sad havoc among them, were most brilliant. We returned over the top of Helvellyn, and refreshed ourselves with the snow upon its summit. This was the tenth of June. There was a large quantity hanging near the summit, towards Patterdale, & the open country in that direction; I do not think it will all be gone before the end of July. The air was not quite clear but we could see a vast distance in all directions. Mountains, sea & plains. A German kingdom, & more, expanded before us, provided what we saw of salt water had been land. It does me good occasionally to ascend these heights. The moral interests of the planet arrange themselves before the eye of mankind more nearly as they ought to do. We are enabled to think more forcibly of eternity--to ponder it--and time appears light when placed in the balance with it. How different is their relation to each other, in the ordinary course of our occupations and engagements. You have often crossed Kirkstone--and whenever you go your eye is busy & your mind full. Will the following be acceptable to you which I composed chiefly in my walk from the top of Kirkstone to Patterdale the other day." The romantic imagery of the letter is now transfigured into verse: the stimulating beauty of snowy summits, the transcendent power of Nature, and the greedy havoc inflicted by man upon the earth: "Ye plough-shares sparkling on the Slopes! Ye snow-white Lambs that trip, Imprisoned mid the formal props Of restless ownership! Ye Trees that shall tomorrow fall, So bids the caveless Prodigal Most potent when mists veil the sky Mists that distort and magnify" This draft consists of the first three stanzas of the poem. Wordsworth evidently sent Beaumont another draft with a new fourth stanza on 27 June 1817. Biographers have assumed that was the date of composition (see Mary Moorman, Wordsworth, The Later Years , 305). Our letter predates it by ten days, and contains variations from the published version. In the second stanza here, Wordsworth has: "Ye Trees that shall tomorrow fall, So bids the caveless Prodigal," which was later changed to "To feed the insatiate Prodigal." In the third stanza, "When thou shalt be my guide: And I (as often as we find cause..." was later altered to "And I (as all men may find cause..." The letter also contains a reference to Robert Southey's purchase of a house in Keswick. An important find from a rich, productive portion of Wordsworth's career.

Auction archive: Lot number 649
Auction:
Datum:
16 Dec 2004
Auction house:
Christie's
New York, Rockefeller Center
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