43. 'HARRY PLOUGHMAN. Dromore, Sept. 1887.' Autograph in A.--Autograph in B has several emendations written over without deletion of original. Text is B with these corrections, which are all good.--line 10, _features_ is the verb.--13, _'s_ is _his_. I have put a colon at _plough_, in place of author's full stop, for the convenience of reader.-- 15 = _his lilylocks windlaced_. 'Saxo cere- comminuit -brum.'--17, _Them. These_, A.--In the last three lines the grammar intends, 'How his churl's grace governs the movement of his booted (in bluff hide) feet, as they are matched in a race with the wet shining furrow overturned by the share'. G. M. H. thought well of this sonnet and wrote on Sept. 28, 1887: 'I have been touching up some old sonnets you have never seen and have within a few days done the whole of one, I hope, very good one and most of another; the one finished is a direct picture of a ploughman, without afterthought. But when you read it let me know if there is anything like it in Walt Whit- man; as perhaps there may be, and I should be sorry for that.' And again on Oct. 11, '87: 'I will enclose the sonnet on Harry Ploughman, in which burden-lines (they might be recited by a chorus) are freely used: there is in this very heavily loaded sprung rhythm a call for their employment. The rhythm of this sonnet, which is alto- gether for recital, and not for perusal (as by nature verse should be), is very highly studied. From much consider- ing it I can no longer gather any impression of it: perhaps it will strike you as intolerably violent and artificial.' And again on Nov. 6, '87: 'I want Harry Ploughman to be a vivid figure before the mind's eye; if he is not that the sonnet fails. The difficulties are of syntax no doubt. Dividing a compound word by a clause sandwiched into it was a desperate deed, I feel, and I do not feel that it was an unquestionable success.' 44, 45, 46, 47. These four sonnets (together with No. 56) are all written undated in a small hand on the two sides of a half-sheet of common sermon-paper, in the order in which they are here printed. They probably date back as early as 1885, and may be all, or some of them, those referred to in a letter of Sept. 1, 1885: 'I shall shortly have some sonnets to send you, five or more. Four of these came like inspirations unbidden and against my will. And in the life I lead now, which is one of a continually jaded and harassed mind, if in any leisure I try to do anything I make no way--nor with my work, alas! but so it must be.' I have no certain nor single identification of date. 44. _To seem the stranger_. H, with corrections which my text embodies.--l. 14, _began_. I have no other explanation than to suppose an omitted relative pronoun, like _Hero savest_ in No. 17. The sentence would then stand for 'leaves me a lonely (one who only) began'. No title. 45. _I wake and feel_. H, with corrections which text embodies: no title.