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VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1802.
Auld 1798.]
[Variant 2:
1836
—This woman dwelt in
Dorsetshire,
Her hut was on a cold hill-side,
And in that country coals
are dear,
For they come far by wind
and tide. 1798.
Remote from sheltering village
green,
Upon a bleak hill-side, she
dwelt,
Where from sea-blasts the
hawthorns lean,
And hoary dews are slow to
melt. 1820.
On a hill’s northern side she dwelt. 1827.]
[Variant 3.
1820.
... dwelt ... 1798.]
[Variant 4.
1827.
... wood ... 1798]
[Variant 5.
1836.
And ... 1798.]
[Variant 6.
1827.
The bye-road ... 1798.]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: Compare the many entries about “gathering sticks” in the Alfoxden woods, in Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal.—Ed.]
* * * * *
HER EYES ARE WILD
Composed 1798.—Published 1798.
[Written at Alfoxden. The subject
was reported to me by a lady of
Bristol, who had seen the poor creature.—I.
F.]
From 1798 to 1805 this poem was published under the title of ’The Mad Mother’.
In the editions of 1815 and 1820 it was ranked as one of the “Poems founded on the Affections.” In the editions of 1827 and 1832, it was classed as one of the “Poems of the Imagination.” In 1836 and afterwards, it was replaced among the “Poems founded on the Affections.”—Ed.
I Her eyes are wild, her head is bare,
The
sun has burnt her coal-black hair;
Her
eyebrows have a rusty stain,
And
she came far from over the main.
She
has a baby on her arm,
5
Or
else she were alone:
And
underneath the hay-stack warm,
And
on the greenwood stone,
She
talked and sung the woods among,
And
it was in the English tongue. 10
II “Sweet babe! they say that I am
mad
But
nay, my heart is far too glad;
And
I am happy when I sing
Full
many a sad and doleful thing:
Then,
lovely baby, do not fear! 15
I
pray thee have no fear of me;
But
safe as in a cradle, here
My
lovely baby! thou shalt be:
To
thee I know too much I owe;
I
cannot work thee any woe.
20
