The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 2 (of 8)

Name: The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 2 (of 8)
Author: Wordsworth, William

Wordsworth, William

English poetry -- 18th century; English poetry -- 19th century

(Charles Lamb to William Wordsworth, January 1801.)--Ed.

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VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1837.

  ... Statesman, ...       1800.]

[Variant 2:

1837.

  Of public business ...       1800.]

[Variant 3:

1820.

  ... to some other place
  The hardness of thy coward eye,
  The falsehood of thy sallow face.       1800.]

[Variant 4:

1820.

  Art thou a man of gallant pride,      1800.]

[Variant 5:

1837.

  Thy pin-point of a soul away!           1800.

  That abject thing, thy soul, away!      1815.]

[Variant 6:

1837.

  ... nor ...      1800.]

[Variant 7:

1800.

  ... self-sufficient ...      1802.

The edition of 1815 returns to the text of 1800.]

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FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: D. D., not M. D. The physician is referred to in the fifth
stanza.--Ed.]

[Footnote B: Compare Thomson's description of the Bard, in his 'Castle
of Indolence' (canto ii., stanza xxxiii.):

  He came, the bard, a little Druid wight,
  Of withered aspect; but his eye was keen,
  With sweetness mixed. In russet brown bedight,
  He crept along, etc.

Ed.]

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"STRANGE FITS OF PASSION HAVE I KNOWN"

Composed 1799.--Published 1800

[Written in Germany, 1799.--I.F.]

One of the "Poems founded on the Affections." In MS. Wordsworth gave, as
the title, "A Reverie," but erased it.--Ed.

  Strange fits of passion have I known: [1]
  And I will dare to tell,
  But in the Lover's ear alone,
  What once to me befel.

  When she I loved looked every day                         5
  Fresh as a rose in June, [2]
  I to her cottage bent my way,
  Beneath an [3] evening moon.

  Upon the moon I fixed my eye,
  All over the wide lea;                                   10
  With quickening pace my horse drew nigh [4]
  Those paths so dear to me.

  And now we reached the orchard-plot;
  And, as we climbed the hill,
  The sinking moon to Lucy's cot                           15
  Came near, and nearer still. [5]

  In one of those sweet dreams I slept,
  Kind Nature's gentlest boon!
  And all the while my eyes I kept
  On the descending moon.                                  20

  My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
  He raised, and never stopped:
  When down behind the cottage roof,
  At once, the bright moon dropped. [6]

  What fond and wayward thoughts will slide                25
  Into a Lover's head!
  "O mercy!" to myself I cried,
  "If Lucy should be dead!"

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VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1832.

  ... I have known,      1800.]

[Variant 2:

1836.

  When she I lov'd, was strong and gay
  And like a rose in June,      1800.]

[Variant 3:

1836.

  ... the ...      1800.]

[Variant 4:

1836.

  My horse trudg'd on, and we drew nigh      1800.]

[Variant 5:

1836.

  Towards the roof of Lucy's cot
  The moon descended still. [a]       1800.]

[Variant 6:

1815.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 2 (of 8)

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