... ne'er before Did human Creature ... 1807.] [Variant 10: The following stanza was only in the edition of 1807: Strong is the current; but be mild, Ye waves, and spare the helpless Child! If ye in anger fret or chafe, A Bee-hive would be ship as safe As that in which he sails.] [Variant 11: 1815. But say, what was it? Thought of fear! Well may ye tremble when ye hear! --A Household Tub, like one of those, Which women use to wash their clothes, This carried the blind Boy. 1807.] [Variant 12: 1820. And one, the rarest, was a Shell Which he, poor Child, had studied well; The Shell of a green Turtle, thin And hollow;--you might sit therein. It was so wide and deep. 1815.] [Variant 13: 1820. 'Twas even the largest of its kind, Large, thin, and light as birch-tree rind; So light a Shell that it would swim, And gaily lift its fearless brim Above the tossing waves. 1815.] [Variant 14: 1837. ... which ... 1815.] [Variant 15: 1827. ... in his arms. 1815.] [Variant 16: 1827. Close to the water he had found This Vessel, push'd it from dry ground, Went into it; and, without dread, Following the fancies in his head, He paddled up and down. 1807. And with the happy burthen hied, And pushed it from Loch Levin's side,-- Stepped into it; and, without dread, 1815.] [Variant 17: 1827. And dallied thus, till from the shore The tide retreating more and more Had suck'd, and suck'd him in. 1807.] [Variant 18: The two previous stanzas were added in the edition of 1815.] [Variant 19: 1837. ... then did he cry ... most eagerly; 1807.] [Variant 20: 1807. ... read ... MS.] [Variant 21: 1837. Had ... 1807.] [Variant 22: 1832. She could not blame him, or chastise; 1807.] [Variant 23: This stanza was added in the edition of 1815.] * * * * * FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT [Footnote A: The title in the editions of 1807 to 1820 was 'The Blind Highland Boy. (A Tale told by the Fireside.)' This poem gave its title to a separate division in the second volume of the edition of 1807, viz. "The Blind Highland Boy; with other Poems."--Ed.] [Footnote B: This reading occurs in all the editions. But Wordsworth, whose MS. was not specially clear, may have written, or meant to write "petty," (a much better word), and not perceived the mistake when revising the sheets. If he really wrote "petty," he may have meant either small rills (rillets), or used the word as Shakespeare used it, for "pelting" rills.--Ed.] [Footnote C: Compare Tennyson's 'In Memoriam', stanza xix.: 'There twice a day the Severn fills; The salt sea-water passes by, And hushes half the babbling Wye, And makes a silence in the hills, etc.' Ed.] [Footnote D: This and the following six stanzas were added in 1815.--Ed.]