The following Poem was commenced in the beginning of the year 1799, and
completed in the summer of 1805.
The design and occasion of the work are described by the Author in his
Preface to the EXCURSION, first published in 1814, where he thus speaks:
“Several years ago, when the Author retired to his native mountains
with the hope of being enabled to construct a literary work that might
live, it was a reasonable thing that he should take a review of his
own mind, and examine how far Nature and Education had qualified him
for such an employment.
“As subsidiary to this preparation, he undertook to record, in verse,
the origin and progress of his own powers, as far as he was acquainted
with them.
“That work, addressed to a dear friend, most distinguished for his
knowledge and genius, and to whom the author’s intellect is deeply
indebted, has been long finished; and the result of the investigation
which gave rise to it, was a determination to compose a philosophical
Poem, containing views of Man, Nature, and Society, and to be entitled
‘The Recluse;’ as having for its principal subject the sensations and
opinions of a poet living in retirement.
“The preparatory poem is biographical, and conducts the history of the
Author’s mind to the point when he was emboldened to hope that his
faculties were sufficiently matured for entering upon the arduous
labour which he had proposed to himself; and the two works have the
same kind of relation to each other, if he may so express himself, as
the Ante-chapel has to the body of a Gothic Church. Continuing this
allusion, he may be permitted to add, that his minor pieces, which
have been long before the public, when they shall be properly
arranged, will be found by the attentive reader to have such
connection with the main work as may give them claim to be likened to
the little cells, oratories, and sepulchral recesses, ordinarily
included in those edifices.”
Such was the Author’s language in the year 1814.
It will thence be seen, that the present Poem was intended to be
introductory to the RECLUSE, and that the RECLUSE, if completed, would
have consisted of Three Parts. Of these, the Second Part alone, viz. the
EXCURSION, was finished, and given to the world by the Author.
The First Book of the First Part of the RECLUSE still remains in
manuscript; but the Third Part was only planned. The materials of which
it would have been formed have, however, been incorporated, for the most
part, in the Author’s other Publications, written subsequently to the
EXCURSION.
The Friend, to whom the present Poem is addressed, was the late SAMUEL
TAYLOR COLERIDGE, who was resident in Malta, for the restoration of his
health, when the greater part of it was composed.
Mr. Coleridge read a considerable portion of the Poem while he was
abroad; and his feelings, on hearing it recited by the Author (after his
return to his own country) are recorded in his Verses, addressed to Mr.
Wordsworth, which will be found in the ‘Sibylline Leaves,’ p. 197,
edition 1817, or ‘Poetical Works, by S. T. Coleridge,’ vol. i. p. 206.
RYDAL MOUNT, _July 13th_, 1850.
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