Notes
1] This poem, from a series of 132 sonnets mostly written in 1821, may have been written in 1820, when Wordsworth visited his brother Christopher (Master of Trinity) at Cambridge. It is for that reason that it precedes the other two, in spite of the fact that in the series it comes after both. "It struck me that certain points in the Ecclesiastical History of our Country might advantageously be presented to view in verse. Accordingly, I took up the subject, and what I now offer to the reader was the result" (Wordsworth, with reference to the whole series). In later editions these poems were known as Ecclesiastical Sonnets.
royal Saint: Henry VI.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: William Wordsworth, Ecclesiastical Sketches (1822).
First publication date:
1822
RPO poem editor: J. R. MacGillivray
RP edition: 3RP 2.398.
Recent editing: 2:2002/3/15
Composition date:
1820
Rhyme: abbaaccadeefdf