BIB_ID
410486
Accession number
MA 9407.1
Creator
Coleridge, Edith, 1832-1911.
Display Date
1880 March 10.
Credit line
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1908.
Description
1 item (4 pages) ; 17.7 x 11.3 cm
Notes
Acquired as part of a large collection of letters addressed to William Angus Knight, Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews and Wordsworth scholar. Items in the collection have been individually accessioned and cataloged.
Written from "Hanwell Rectory / Middlesex."
Wordsworth wrote three poems in celebration of the Celandine.
Miss Coleridge references Wordsworth's poem "Resolution and Independence" with her quote of "fear that kills, and hope that is unwilling to be fed" of the "Leech-Gatherer."
Miss Coleridge references Wordsworth's poem "Yew-Trees" when she quotes "fear and trembling Hope" among the "Ghostly Shapes" that haunted the noonday shade of the Boradale [sic] Yew-Trees."
Written from "Hanwell Rectory / Middlesex."
Wordsworth wrote three poems in celebration of the Celandine.
Miss Coleridge references Wordsworth's poem "Resolution and Independence" with her quote of "fear that kills, and hope that is unwilling to be fed" of the "Leech-Gatherer."
Miss Coleridge references Wordsworth's poem "Yew-Trees" when she quotes "fear and trembling Hope" among the "Ghostly Shapes" that haunted the noonday shade of the Boradale [sic] Yew-Trees."
Provenance
Purchased by Pierpont Morgan from William Angus Knight, 1908.
Summary
Concerning her wish to join the Wordsworth Society and suggesting a Wordsworth project; saying "I cannot indeed hope that any contribution of mine will really be of much service to the cause; but should there be any work of which I am capable, such as comparing the text of different editions &c, I should be delighted to undertake it, when summer has brought me a little more leisure. So I enclose 2/6 as my annual Subscription, and am proud to reckon myself a member of the 'Wordsworth Club'. Yesterday morning I was reminded of our poet by seeing the first Celandine, in a lane near our house,where I usually look for it in early spring, and celebrate the event of its arrival by a recitation of the two poems on that Flower. This annual ceremonial I observe as a devotion & the shrine of nature and Poetry! Two years ago I saw a Celandine out on February 16th, thus confirming the accuracy of the Poet's statement, but it is later this season, & not fully out yet, still 'muffled up from harm, in close self-shelter.' The Celandine's closing its petals in bad weather is twice noticed by Wordsworth; & this repetition has suggested the notion to me that it might be interesting to collect parallel passages from his works, where the same thought re-appears in a different connection, - should it prove that the instances of this are sufficient in number to make it worth while. Another example is the mention together of 'Fear and trembling Hope' among the 'Ghostly Shapes' that haunted the noonday shade of the Boradale [sic] Yew Trees. This is expanded into 'the fear that kills, and hope that is unwilling to be fed' of the 'Leech Gatherer.' With respect to local description, this method of illustration is, of course, most fully carried out in your delightful book 'The Lake District': it would only be an application of the same principle & thoughts, sentiments and notices of natural objects. I must not however detain you longer with my fancies..."
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