NOTES. "If thou indeed derive thy light" (Inscription following title-page). The date at which these lines were written is uncertain ; Wordsworth himself tells us that they CC were written some time after we became residents at Rydal Mount " (1813). They were first printed in 1827. In 1845 Wordsworth decided to place this piece before the Poems: "I mean it to serve as a sort of Preface." (Knight's "Life of Wordsworth," iii. 414). This may be viewed as a companion poem to "It is no Spirit who from heaven hath flown."-ED. Extract (page 1). Written at Hawkshead. The beautiful image with which this poem concludes, suggested itself to me while I was resting in a boat along with my companions under the shade of a magnificent row of sycamores, which then extended their branches from the shore of the promontory upon which stands the ancient, and at that time the more picturesque, Hall of Coniston, the seat of the Le Flemings from very early times. The poem of which it was the conclusion was of many hundred lines, and contained thoughts and images most of which have been dispersed through my other writings -I. F. Dated by Wordsworth 1786; first published in 1815, with the title "Extract from the conclusion of a Poem, composed upon leaving school." In the" Autobiographical Memoranda," dictated Nov. 1847, Wordsworth describes this schoolboy composition as "a long poem running upon my own adventures, and the scenery of the country in which I was brought up." In "The Prelude " B. viii., Wordsworth tells of the occasion when this fragment was composed, and turns it into blank-verse: "A A grove there is whose boughs Stretch from the western marge of Thurston-mere," &c. ("Thurston-mere," an old name for Coniston.) Ll. 9-12 in 1815 stood as follows: "Thus, when the sun, prepared for rest, On the dear Hills where first he rose." After attempted improvements in 1820, 1832, and 1836, the present text was given in 1845. In Knight's "Wordsworth," vi. 365, a MS. version is given from a notebook containing "Laodamia" and other poems of about the same date.-Ed. Written in very early youth (page 4). Dated conjecturally 1786; first published 1807. L. 4 (1827); previously: "Is up, and cropping yet his later meal.” Cropping audibly" may be a reminiscence from the "Nocturnal Reverie of the Countess of Winchilsea, whose poems Wordsworth knew and admired: "Whose [the horse's] stealing pace and lengthened shade we fear, Till torn-up forage in his teeth we hear."-Ed. An Evening Walk (page 4). The young Lady to whom this was addressed was my Sister. It was composed at school, and during my two first College vacations. There is not an image in it which I have not observed; and now, in my seventy-third year, I recollect the time and place where most of them were noticed. I will confine myself to one instance : Waving his hat, the shepherd, from the vale, Directs his winding dog the cliffs to scale,The dog, loud barking, 'mid the glittering rocks, Hunts, where his master points, the intercepted flocks." I was an eye-witness of this for the first time while crossing the Pass of Dunmail Raise. Upon second thought, I will mention another image: "And, fronting the bright west, yon oak entwines Its darkening boughs and leaves, in stronger lines." This is feebly and imperfectly expressed, but I recollect distinctly the very spot where this first struck me. It was in the way between Hawkshead and Ambleside, and gave me extreme pleasure. The moment was important in my poetical history; for I date from it my consciousness of the infinite variety of natural appearances which had been unnoticed by the poets of any age or country, so far as I was acquainted with them; and I made a resolution to supply, in some degree, the deficiency. I could not have been at that time above fourteen years of age. The description of the swans, that follows, was taken from the daily opportunities I had of observing their habits, not as confined to the gentleman's park, but in a state of nature. There were two pairs of them that divided the lake of Esthwaite and its in-and-out-flowing streams between them, never trespassing a single yard upon each other's separate domain. They were of the old magnificent species, bearing in beauty and majesty about the same relation to the Thames swan which that does to the goose. It was from the remembrance of those noble creatures I took, thirty years after, the picture of the swan which I have discarded from the poem of Dion. While I was a schoolboy, the late Mr. Curwen introduced a little fleet of those birds, but of the inferior species, to the lake of Windermere. Their principal home was about his own island; but they sailed about into remote parts of the lake, and, either from real or imagined injury done to the adjoining fields, they were got rid of at the request of the farmers and proprietors, but to the great regret of all who had become attached to them, from noticing their beauty and quiet habits. I will conclude my notice of this poem by observing that the plan of it has not been confined to a particular walk or an individual place,—a proof (of which I was unconscious at the time) of my unwillingness to submit the poetic spirit to the chains of fact and real circumstance. The country is idealised rather than described in any one of its local aspects.-I. F. Dated by Wordsworth 1787-89; first published in 1793. It preceded "Descriptive Sketches" in publication. Wordsworth wrote on a copy of the 4to, "This is the first of my published poems, with the exception of a Sonnet." Knight's "Wordsworth," iv. 22. Extracts, retouched in places, were given in 1815; the passages selected were the quarry; swans; western lights, spirits, night, moonlight. In 1820 the poem was given at length, and in the note prefixed to the "Juvenile Pieces the following words appeared : "It would have been easy to amend them ['Evening Walk' and Descriptive Sketches'] in many passages, both as to sentiment and expression, and I have not been altogether able to resist the temptation; but attempts of this kind are made at the risk of injuring those characteristic features, which, after all, will be regarded as the principal recommendation of juvenile poems." "An Evening Walk" as well as Descriptive Sketches" from 1836 onwards is altered in so many places from the original text that it is impossible to present the changes in notes, and it has been thought well to reprint the poems as issued in 1793 in an Appendix in the last volume of the present edition.-ED. tr Lines written while sailing in a Boat at Evening (page 18). This title is scarcely correct. It was during a solitary walk on the banks of the Cam that I was first struck with this appearance, and applied it to my own feelings in the manner here expressed, changing the scene to the Thames, near Windsor. This, and the three stanzas of the following poem, "Remembrance of Collins," formed one piece; but, upon the recommendation of Coleridge, the three last stanzas were separated from the other.-I. F. Dated by Wordsworth 1789; first published 1798, forming part of the poem in five stanzas divided in 1800 into two poems, " Lines, &c." and "Remembrance of Collins." In 1815 and some later editions this and the following piece were placed among "Poems proceeding from Sentiment and Reflection." Ll. 1, 2 (1815); previously: 1,2 "How rich the wave, in front, imprest With evening-twilight's summer hues."-ED. Remembrance, &c. (page 19). See note on preceding poem. The text was retouched in 1800 and 1802; 1. 17 (1802); in 1798: "Remembrance! as we glide along," in recollection of the following stanza from Collins' “Ode on the death of Thomson. The scene on the Thames near Richmond": "Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore Where Thames in summer wreaths is drest, To bid his gentle spirit rest." "Him" is in italics, because now the oar is suspended not for Thomson but for Collins.-ED. Descriptive Sketches (page 20). Much the greatest part of this poem was composed during my walks upon the banks of the Loire in the years 1791, 1792. I will only notice that the description of the valley filled with mist, beginning "In solemn shapes," was taken from that beautiful region of which the principal features are Lungarn and Sarnen. Nothing that I ever saw in nature left a more delightful impression on my mind than that which I have attempted, alas! how feebly, to convey to others in these lines. Those two lakes have always interested me especially, from bearing, in their size and other features, a resemblance to those of the North of England. It is much to be deplored that a district so beautiful should be so unhealthy as it is.I. F. First published in 1793 Extracts were given in "Poems" of 1815. In 1820 the poem was given in full with many alterations; it was retouched in 1827 and 1832. In 1836 the present text was substantially attained. It is impossible to present in notes all the changes of text, and, as in the case of "An Evening Walk," the text of 1793 is given in the present edition in an Appendix to the last volume.-ED. Lines (page 46). The tree Composed in part at school at Hawkshead. has disappeared, and the slip of Common on which it. stood, that ran parallel to the lake, and lay open to it, has long been enclosed; so that the road has lost much of its attraction. This spot was my favourite walk in the evenings during the latter part of my school-time. The individual whose habits and character are here given, was a gentleman of the neighbourhood, a man of talent and |