"The last you will find was occasioned, I might say inspired, by your last letter, if there be any inspiration in it; the second records a feeling excited in me by the object it describes in the month of October last; and the first by a still earlier sensation, which the revolution of the year impressed me with last autumn." (Then follow the three sonnets transcribed in the following order-- "While not a leaf seems faded; while the fields." "How clear, how keen, how marvellously bright." "High is our calling, Friend!--Creative Art.") * * * * * "With high respect, I am, my dear sir, most faithfully yours. "WILLIAM WORDSWORTH." (See the _Autobiography of B. R. Haydon_, vol. i. chap. xvi. p. 325.) Haydon replied to Wordsworth, December 29 (see his _Correspondence_, vol. ii. pp. 20-23): "I must say that I have felt melancholy ever since receiving your sonnets, as if I was elevated so exceedingly, with such a drunken humming in my brain, that my nature took refuge in quiet humbleness and gratitude to God." It will be observed that in his letter of December 21, Wordsworth mentions the order in which these three sonnets were composed in three consecutive days. In his subsequent arrangement of the sonnets he altered this order, assigning "While not a leaf seems faded" to "September," and "How clear, how keen," to "November 1" (another instance of the inaccuracy of his dates). The detailed statement in this letter to Haydon must be trusted, however, in preference to the "afterthought" of the editions of 1820 and 1827. It may not be superfluous to note the dates of the first publication of this trilogy of sonnets, all of which Wordsworth sent to _The Examiner_. "How clear, how keen," etc. Jan. 28th. } "While not a leaf," etc. Feb. 11th. } 1816. "High is our calling," etc. March 31st. } ED. NOVEMBER 1 Composed October 1815.--Published January 28, 1816 [Suggested on the banks of the Brathay by the sight of Langdale Pikes. It is delightful to remember these moments of far-distant days, which probably would have been forgotten if the impression had not been transferred to verse. The same observation applies to the next.[AK]--I. F.] One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets." In the editions of 1816 and 1820 the title was _November 1, 1815_.--ED.