On the Road Leading to Ardres
Composed Near Calais
On the Road Leading to Ardres - context Summary
Witness to Revolutionary Aftermath
Wordsworth records a scene on the road from Calais when exuberant public celebrations for liberty filled the air. Written from the vantage of later disillusionment, the poem contrasts earlier pomp—songs, garlands, banners—with the present emptiness, signaled by the hollow greeting "Good-morrow, Citizen!" The tone is pensive rather than despairing, reflecting the poet's experience of the French Revolution and its aftermath during his travels in France.
Read Complete AnalysesJONES! as from Calais southward you and I Went pacing side by side, this public Way Streamed with the pomp of a too-credulous day, When faith was pledged to new-born Liberty: A homeless sound of joy was in the sky: From hour to hour the antiquated Earth Beat like the heart of Man: songs, garlands, mirth, Banners, and happy faces, far and nigh! And now, sole register that these things were, Two solitary greetings have I heard, "Good-morrow, Citizen!" a hollow word, As if a dead man spake it! Yet despair Touches me not, though pensive as a bird Whose vernal coverts winter hath laid bare.
August 7, 1802
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