To a Distant Friend

William Wordsworth

華茲華斯與柯爾律治(Samuel Taylor Coleridge)、騷塞(Robert Southey)同被稱為“湖畔派”詩人(Lake Poets)。他們也是英國文學中最早出現的浪漫主義作家。他們喜愛大自然，描寫宗法制農村生活，厭惡資本主義的城市文明和冷酷的金錢關系，他們遠離城市，隱居在昆布蘭湖區和格拉斯米爾湖區，由此得名“湖畔派”。

湖畔派”三詩人中成就最高者為華茲華斯。他于1789年和柯勒律治合作發表了《抒情歌謠集》，華茲華斯和柯爾律治從擁護法國革命變成反對,于是前者寄情山水,在大自然里找慰藉;后者神游異域和古代，以夢境為歸宿。兩人的詩歌合集,題名《抒情歌謠集》,于1798年出版，《抒情歌謠集》宣告了浪漫主義新詩的誕生。兩年后再版，華茲華斯加了一個長序，在這篇序中，華茲華斯詳細闡述了他的浪漫主義文學主張，主張以平民的語言抒寫平民的事物、思想與感情，被譽為浪漫主義詩歌的宣言。

Why art thou silent? Is thy love a plant

Of such weak fiber that the treacherous air

Of absence withers what was once so fair?

Is there no debt to pay, no boon to grant?

Yet have my thoughts for thee been vigilant,

Bound to thy service with unceasing care—

The mind’s lest generous wish a mendicant

For nought but what thy happiness could spare.

Speak!—though soft warm heart, once free to hold

A thousand tender pleasures, thine and mine,

Be left more desolate, more dreary cold

Than a foreasaken bird’s-nest fill’d with snow

‘Mid its own bush of leafless eglantine—

Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know!