Nations can be Preserved or
Recovered."--ED.

VARIANTS:

[1] 1820.

... which ... 1815.

[2] 1827.

... where ... 1815.

COMPOSED AT THE SAME TIME AND ON THE SAME OCCASION

Composed 1808.--Published 1815

One of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."--ED.

I dropped my pen; and listened to the Wind
That sang of trees up-torn and vessels tost--
A midnight harmony; and wholly lost
To the general sense of men by chains confined
Of business, care, or pleasure; or resigned 5
To timely sleep. Thought I, the impassioned strain,
Which, without aid of numbers, I sustain,
Like acceptation from the World will find.
Yet some with apprehensive ear shall drink
A dirge devoutly breathed o'er sorrows past; 10
And to the attendant promise will give heed--
The prophecy,--like that of this wild blast,
Which, while it makes the heart with sadness shrink,
Tells also of bright calms that shall succeed.

1809

The poems belonging to the years 1809 and 1810 were mainly
sonnets--although _The Excursion_ was being added to at intervals. Of
twenty-four which were included by Wordsworth, in the final arrangement
of his poems, among those "dedicated to National Independence and
Liberty," fourteen belong to the year 1809, and ten to 1810. It is
difficult to ascertain the principle which guided him in determining the
succession of these sonnets. They were not placed in chronological
order; nor is there any historical or topographical reason for their
being arranged as they were. I have therefore felt at liberty to depart
from his order, to the following extent.

The six sonnets referring to the Tyrolese have been brought together in
one group. Those containing allusions to Spain might have been similarly
treated; but the sonnets on Schill, the King of Sweden, and Napoleon--as
arranged by Wordsworth himself--do not break the continuity of the
series on Spain, in the same way that the insertion of those on Palafox
and Zaragoza interferes with the unity of the Tyrolean group; and the
re-arrangement of the latter series enables me more conveniently to
append to it a German translation of the sonnets, and a paper upon them,
by Alois Brandl.--ED.

TYROLESE SONNETS

I

HOFFER

Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]

The six sonnets o