In the sestet we naturally expect and find much variety in the disposition of the rimes.  The conclusion of the last sonnet by a couplet is most unusual in Wordsworth.

“IT IS NOT TO BE THOUGHT OF”

This sonnet was composed in September, 1802, first published in the Morning Post in 1803, and subsequently in 1807.

WRITTEN IN LONDON, 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, 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.”

LONDON, 1802

This sonnet was written in 1803 and published in 1807.

“DARK AND MORE DARK THE SHADES OF EVENING FELL”

This sonnet was written after a journey across the Hambleton Hills, Yorkshire.  Wordsworth says:  “It was composed October 4th, 1802, after a journey on a day memorable to me—­the day of my marriage.  The horizon commanded by those hills is most magnificent.”  Dorothy Wordsworth, describing the sky-prospect, says:  “Far off from us in the western sky we saw the shapes of castles, ruins among groves, a great spreading wood, rocks and single trees, a minster with its tower unusually distinct, minarets in another quarter, and a round Grecian temple also; the colours of the shy of a bright gray, and the forms of a sober gray, with dome.”

“SURPRISED BY JOY—­IMPATIENT AS THE WIND”

This sonnet was suggested by the poet’s daughter Catherine long after her death.  She died in her fourth year, on June 4, 1812.  Wordsworth was absent from home at the time of her death.  The sonnet was published in 1815.

“HAIL, TWILIGHT SOVEREIGN OF A PEACEFUL HOUR”

This sonnet was published in 1815.

“I THOUGHT OF THEE, MY PARTNER AND MY GUIDE”

This sonnet, which concludes “The River Duddon” series, is usually entitled “After-Thought”.  The series was written at intervals, and was finally published in 1820.  “The Duddon rises on Wrynose Fell, near to ‘Three Shire Stone,’ where Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire meet.”

“SUCH AGE, HOW BEAUTIFUL!”

This sonnet, published in 1827, was inscribed to Lady Fitzgerald at the time in her seventieth year.

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH