CRAFTSMANSHIP

Saturday, 27th March 1802: At Breakfast Wm. wrote part of an ode. Mr. Olliff sent the dung and Wm. went to work in the garden.
                                                                                                                                          Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth

                                                  A good day for William; the ode
                                                  Has begun to sprout, and now
                                                  He lays aside his pen for spade,

                                                  And feeds the all-absorbing ground
                                                  As carefully as he imbibes
                                                  The sustenance of sight and sound.

                                                  The gardener knows just how much oil
                                                  The hidden wicks will need before
                                                  They are rekindled in the soil.

                                                  Much dung, few roses, every age.
                                                  He goes indoors to find his poem
                                                  In full flower on the page.

                                                                                                Timothy Brownlow

[Published in The Oxford Literary Journal, 1976; and Climbing Croagh Patrick: B.C. Oolichan Books, 1998.]