I saw her upon nearer view, A Spirit, yet a Woman too! Her household motions light and free, And steps of virgin-liberty; A countenance in which did meet 15 Sweet records, promises as sweet; A Creature not too bright or good For human nature's daily food; For transient sorrows, simple wiles, Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles. 20 And now I see with eye serene The very pulse of the machine; A Being breathing thoughtful breath, A Traveller between [2] life and death; The reason firm, the temperate will, 25 Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill; A perfect Woman, [3] nobly planned, To warn, to comfort, and command; And yet a Spirit still, and bright With something of angelic light. [4] 30 * * * * * VARIANTS ON THE TEXT [Variant 1: 1807. From May-time's brightest, liveliest dawn; 1836 The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807.] [Variant 2: 1832. ... betwixt ... 1807.] [Variant 3: 1815. A perfect Woman; ... 1807.] [Variant 4: 1845. ... of an angel light. 1807. ... angel-light. 1836.] * * * * * FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT [Footnote A: Compare two references to Mary Wordsworth in 'The Prelude': 'Another maid there was, who also shed A gladness o'er that season, then to me, By her exulting outside look of youth And placid under-countenance, first endeared;' (Book vi. l. 224). 'She came, no more a phantom to adorn A moment, but an inmate of the heart, And yet a spirit, there for me enshrined To penetrate the lofty and the low;' (Book xiv, l. 268).--Ed.] It is not easy to say what were the "four lines composed as a part of the verses on the 'Highland Girl'" which the Fenwick note tells us was "the germ of this poem." They may be lines now incorporated in those 'To a Highland Girl', vol. ii. p. 389, or they may be lines in the present poem, which Wordsworth wrote at first for the 'Highland Girl', but afterwards transferred to this one. They _may_ have been the first four lines of the later poem. The two should be read consecutively, and compared. After Wordsworth's death, a writer in the 'Daily News', January 1859--then understood to be Miss Harriet Martineau--wrote thus: "In the 'Memoirs', by the nephew of the poet, it is said that these verses refer to Mrs. Wordsworth; but for half of Wordsworth's life it was always understood that they referred to some other phantom which 'gleamed upon his sight' before Mary Hutchinson."