A Vision of Your Own: William Wordsworth

free image of Tweed River
courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

     The Solitary Reaper" is one of my favorite poems. Today I found out it's part of a collection of 16 of Wordsworth's poems inspired by his trip to Scotland in 1803. In that collection I discovered "Yarrow Unvisited," an interesting reflection on the difference between imagination and reality. In it, the speaker and his friends are traveling all over Scotland, and one of them wants to see the famous River Yarrow. But the speaker says toward the end of the poem:

"Let beeves and home-bred kine* partake

The sweets of Burn-mill meadow;

The swan on still St. Mary's Lake

Float double, swan and shadow!

We will not see them; will not go,

To-day, nor yet to-morrow,

Enough if in our hearts we know

There's such a place as Yarrow.

"Be Yarrow stream unseen, unknown!

It must, or we shall rue it:

We have a vision of our own;

Ah! why should we undo it?

The treasured dreams of times long past,

We'll keep them, winsome Marrow!

For when we're there, although 'tis fair,

'Twill be another Yarrow!"

What's  your Yarrow?

*beeves and kine/beef (pl) and cows