Bothwell Castle
Bothwell Castle - fact Summary
Recollecting Bothwell Castle Visits
Wordsworth revisits his personal memory of visiting Bothwell Castle and the Clyde. He contrasts the fallen bravery once housed there with his own remembered freedom roaming the steeps. The poem values recollection over present complaint, suggesting memory restores past delight and yields vivid, dream-like images. The closing lines assert that what memory cherishes is not truly lost, making remembrance a sustaining, restorative faculty grounded in the poet’s experience of the place.
Read Complete AnalysesImmured in Bothwell's Towers, at times the Brave (So beautiful is the Clyde) forgot to mourn The liberty they lost at Bannockburn. Once on those steeps I roamed at large, and have In mind the landscape, as if still in sight; The river glides, the woods before me wave; But, by occasion tempted, now I crave Needless renewal of an old delight. Better to thank a dear and long-past day For joy its sunny hours were free to give Than blame the present, that our wish hath crost. Memory, like Sleep, hath powers which dreams obey, Dreams, vivid dreams, that are not fugitive; How little that she cherishes is lost!
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