VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1800.

    Such heart did once the poet bless, 1798.]

[Variant 2: 

1815.

    Who, pouring here a later [i] ditty, 1798.]

[Variant 3: 

1802.

    Remembrance, as we glide along, 1798.

    ... float ... 1800.]

[Variant 4: 

1802.

    For him ... 1798.]

[Variant 5: 

1802.

    May know his freezing sorrows more. 1798.]

[Sub-Footnote i:  The italics only occur in the editions of 1798 and 1800.—­Ed.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES TO THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  The title in the editions 1802-1815 was ’Remembrance of Collins, written upon the Thames near Richmond’.—­Ed.]

[Footnote B:  Compare the ‘After-thought’ to “The River Duddon.  A Series of Sonnets”: 

  Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide.

Ed.]

[Footnote C:  Collins’s ‘Ode on the Death of Thomson’, the last written, I believe, of the poems which were published during his life-time.  This Ode is also alluded to in the next stanza.—­W.  W. 1798.]

[Footnote D:  Compare Collins’s ‘Ode on the Death of Thomson’, ’The Scene on the Thames near Richmond’: 

  Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore
   When Thames in summer wreaths is drest. 
  And oft suspend the dashing oar
   To bid his gentle spirit rest.

As Mr. Dowden suggests, the him was probably italicised by Wordsworth, “because the oar is suspended not for Thomson but for Collins.”  The italics were first used in the edition of 1802.—­Ed.]

* * * * *

DESCRIPTIVE SKETCHES TAKEN DURING A PEDESTRIAN TOUR AMONG THE ALPS

Composed 1791-2. [A]—­Published 1793

  To the Rev.  Robert Jones, fellow of st. John’s College, Cambridge

Dear sir, [B]—­However desirous I might have been of giving you proofs of the high place you hold in my esteem, I should have been cautious of wounding your delicacy by thus publicly addressing you, had not the circumstance of our having been companions among the Alps, seemed to give this dedication a propriety sufficient to do away any scruples which your modesty might otherwise have suggested. [C]

In inscribing this little work to you, I consult my heart.  You know well how great is the difference between two companions lolling in a post-chaise, and two travellers plodding slowly along the road, side by side, each with his little knapsack of necessaries upon his shoulders.  How much more of heart between the two latter!