In ll. 42-46, of _The Influence of Natural Objects_, we have an inimitable Wordsworthian effect. Into the midst of his wild sport the voice of Nature steals, and subdues his mind to receive the impulses of peace and beauty from without. We involuntarily think of the boy he has celebrated, his playmate upon Windermere, who loved to rouse the owls with mimic hootings, but
"When a lengthened pause Of silence came and baffled his best skill, Then sometimes, in that silence while he hung Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise Has carried far into his heart the voice Of mountain torrents; or the visible scene Would enter unawares into his mind, With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, Its woods, and that uncertain heaven, received Into the bosom of the steady lake." _The Prelude_, v. 379 f.
Further references to John Wordsworth will be found in the following poems:--_To the Daisy_ ("Sweet Flower"), _Elegiac Verses in Memory of My Brother_, _When to the Attractions of the Busy World_, _The Brothers_, and _The Happy Warrior_.
With lines 33-40, and 57-60, compare the _Intimations of Immortality_, ll. 176-187:--
"What though the radiance which was once so bright Be now for ever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind; In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be; In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of human suffering; In the faith that looks through death, In years that bring the philosophic mind."
A BRIEF HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION OF THE SONNET
The sonnet form was introduced into English poetry by Sir Thomas Wyatt and the Earl of Surrey. Their experiments in the sonnet were published in _Tottel's Miscellany_ in 1557, and were prompted by an admiration of Petrarch and other Italian models. Italy was almost certainly the original home of the sonnet (sonnet=Ital. _sonetto_, _a little sound_, or _short strain_, from _suono_, _sound_), and there it has been assiduously cultivated since the thirteenth century. In the fourteenth century Dante and Petrarch gave the form a European celebrity.
Before saying anything of its development in English poetry, it is advisable to examine an admittedly perfect sonnet, so that we may gain an idea of the nature of this type of poem, both as to form and substance. Wordsworth's sonnet upon Milton (_London_, 1802) will serve our purpose (see page 187). By reference to it you will observe:--