Inland, within a hollow vale, I stood;
  And saw, while sea was calm and air was clear,
  The coast of France—­the coast of France how near! 
  Drawn almost into frightful neighbourhood. 
  I shrunk; for verily the barrier flood 5
  Was like a lake, or river bright and fair,
  A span of waters; yet what power is there! 
  What mightiness for evil and for good! [B]
  Even so doth God protect us if we be
  Virtuous and wise.  Winds blow, and waters roll, 10
  Strength to the brave, and Power, and Deity;
  Yet in themselves are nothing!  One decree
  Spake laws to them, and said that by the soul
  Only, the Nations shall be great and free.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  From 1807 to 1843 the title was ‘September, 1802’; “near Dover” appeared in the “Sonnets” of 1838, but did not become a permanent part of the title until 1845.—­Ed.]

[Footnote B:  Compare in S. T.  ‘Coleridge’s Ode to the Departing Year’, stanza vii.: 

  ’And Ocean ’mid his uproar wild
  Speaks safety to his island-child.’

Ed.]

In ‘The Friend’ (ed. 1818, vol. i. p. 107), Coleridge writes: 

“The narrow seas that form our boundaries, what were they in times of old?  The convenient highway for Danish and Norman pirates.  What are they now?  Still, but a ‘Span of Waters.’  Yet they roll at the base of the Ararat, on which the Ark of the Hope of Europe and of Civilization rested!”

He then quotes this sonnet from the line “Even so doth God protect us if we be.”

The note appended to the sonnet, ’Composed in the Valley near Dover, on the day of Landing’ (p. 341), shows that this one refers to the same occasion; and that while “Inland, within a hollow vale,” Wordsworth was, at the same time, on the Dover Cliffs; the “vale” being one of the hollow clefts in the headland, which front the Dover coast-line.  The sonnet may, however, have been finished afterwards in London.—­Ed.

* * * * *

WRITTEN IN LONDON, SEPTEMBER, 1802

Composed September, 1802.—­Published 1807

[This was written immediately after my return from France to London, when I could not but be struck, as here described, with the vanity and parade of our own country, especially in great towns and cities, as contrasted with the quiet, and I may say the desolation, that the Revolution had produced in France.  This must be borne in mind, or else the reader may think that in this and the succeeding Sonnets I have exaggerated the mischief engendered and fostered among us by undisturbed wealth.  It would not be easy to conceive with what a depth of feeling I entered into the struggle carried on by the Spaniards for their deliverance