The place where this echo was heard can easily be identified by any one walking along the southern or Loughrigg shore of Rydal. The Fenwick note refers to a wish of Dorothy Wordsworth to have her name inscribed on a stone among the rocks of Loughrigg Fell. It is impossible to know whether it was ever carried out or not. If it was, the place is undiscoverable, like the spot on the banks of the Rotha, where Joanna's name was graven "deep in the living rock," or the place where Wordsworth carved his wife's initials (as recorded in Mrs. Hemans' _Memoirs_), or where the daisy was found, which suggested the lines beginning Small service is true service while it lasts; and it is well that they are undiscoverable. It is so easy for posterity to vulgarise, by idle and unappreciative curiosity, spots that are sacred only to the few who feel them to be shrines. The very grave where Wordsworth rests runs the risk of being thus abused by the unthinking crowd. But, in the hope that no one will desecrate it, as the Rock of Names has been injured, I may mention that there is a stone near Rydal Mere, on the north-eastern slope of Loughrigg, with the initial "M." deeply cut. The exact locality I need not more minutely indicate.--ED. VARIANTS: [1] 1827. Yes! full surely 'twas the Echo, Solitary, clear, profound, Answering to Thee, shouting Cuckoo! Giving to thee Sound for Sound. 1807. [2] Whence the Voice? from air or earth? This the Cuckoo cannot tell; But a startling sound had birth, As the Bird must know full well; Only in the edition of 1807. [3] 1815. Like the voice through earth and sky By the restless Cuckoo sent; 1807. [4] _Italics_ were first used in the edition of 1836. [5] 1836. Such within ourselves we hear Oft-times, ours though sent from far; 1807. Such rebounds our inward ear Often catches from afar;-- 1827. Often as thy inward ear Catches such rebounds, beware,-- 1832. [6] 1807. Giddy Mortals! hold them dear; 1827. The edition of 1832 returns to the text of 1807. FOOTNOTES: [A] Writing to Barron Field about this stanza of the poem in 1827, Wordsworth said, "The word 'rebounds' I wish much to introduce here; for the imaginative warning turns upon the echo, which ought to be revived as near the conclusion as possible."--ED. "NUNS FRET NOT AT THEIR CONVENT'S NARROW ROOM" Composed 1806.--Published 1807