from the usurped power of the French.  Many times have I gone from Allan Bank in Grasmere Vale, where we were then residing, to the top of Raise-gap, as it is called, so late as two o’clock in the morning, to meet the carrier bringing the newspapers from Keswick.  Imperfect traces of the state of mind in which I then was may be found in my tract on the Convention of Cintra, as well as in these Sonnets.—­I.  F.]

  O FRIEND! [A] I know not which way I must look [1]
  For comfort, being, as I am, opprest,
  To think that now our life is only drest
  For show; mean handy-work of craftsman, cook,
  Or groom!—­We must run glittering like a brook 5
  In the open sunshine, or we are unblest: 
  The wealthiest man among us is the best: 
  No grandeur now in nature or in book
  Delights us.  Rapine, avarice, expense,
  This is idolatry; and these we adore:  10
  Plain living and high thinking are no more: 
  The homely beauty of the good old cause
  Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence,
  And pure religion breathing household laws. [B]

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VARIANT ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1807.

  O thou proud City! which way shall I look 1838.

The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807.]

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FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  The “Friend” was Coleridge.  In the original MS. it stands “Coleridge!  I know not,” etc.  Wordsworth changed it in the proof stage.—­Ed.]

[Footnote B:  Compare—­in Hartley Coleridge’s ’Lives of Distinguished Northerners’—­what is said of this sonnet, in his life of Anne Clifford, where the passing cynicism of Wordsworth’s poem is pointed out.—­Ed.]

Wordsworth stayed in London from August 30th to September 22nd 1802.—­Ed.

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LONDON, 1802

Composed September, 1802.—­Published 1807

  Milton! thou should’st be living at this hour: 
  England hath need of thee:  she is a fen
  Of stagnant waters:  altar, sword, and pen,
  Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
  Have forfeited their ancient English dower 5
  Of inward happiness.  We are selfish men;
  Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
  And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. 
  Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart: 
  Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:  10
  Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
  So didst thou travel on life’s common way,
  In cheerful godliness; and yet [A] thy heart
  The lowliest duties on herself [1] did lay.

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