No Nightingale did ever chaunt More welcome notes to weary bands [2] 10 Of travellers in some shady haunt, Among Arabian sands: A voice so thrilling ne'er was heard [3] In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird, Breaking the silence of the seas [A] 15 Among the farthest Hebrides. Will no one tell me what she sings?-- Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow For old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago: 20 Or is it some more humble lay, Familiar matter of to-day? Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, That has been, and may be again? Whate'er the theme, the Maiden sang [4] 25 As if her song could have no ending; I saw her singing at her work, And o'er the sickle bending;-- I listened, motionless and still; [5] And, as [6] I mounted up the hill, 30 The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more. * * * * * VARIANTS ON THE TEXT [Variant 1: 1807. ... singing ... MS.] [Variant 2: 1827. So sweetly to reposing bands 1807.] [Variant 3: 1837. No sweeter voice was ever heard 1807. ... sound ... MS. Such thrilling voice was never heard 1827.] [Variant 4: 1815. ... sung 1807.] [Variant 5: 1820. I listen'd till I had my fill: 1807.] [Variant 6: 1807. And when ... 1827. The text of 1837 returns to that of 1807.] * * * * * VARIANTS ON THE TEXT [Footnote A: Compare 'The Ancient Mariner'(part ii. stanza 6): 'And we did speak only to break The silence of the sea.' Ed.] The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth's 'Recollections' of the Tour: 13th Sept. 1803. "As we descended, the scene became more fertile, our way being pleasantly varied--through coppices or open fields, and passing farm-houses, though always with an intermixture of cultivated ground. It was harvest-time, and the fields were quietly--might I be allowed to say pensively?--enlivened by small companies of reapers. It is not uncommon in the more lonely parts of the Highlands to see a single person so employed. The following poem was suggested to William by a beautiful sentence in Thomas Wilkinson's 'Tour in Scotland.'" In a note appended to the editions 1807 to 1820, Wordsworth wrote: "This Poem was suggested by a beautiful sentence in a MS. 'Tour in Scotland,' written by a Friend, the last line being taken from it _verbatim_." The first part of Wilkinson's 'Tours to the British Mountains', which was published in 1824, narrates his journey in Scotland (it took place in 1787); and the following sentence occurs in the record of his travels near Loch Lomond (p. 12),