1820.

  Its very playmate, and its moving soul. 1800.]

[Variant 3: 

1802.

  ... tall plant ... 1800.]

[Variant 4: 

1827.

  ... sweet ... 1800.]

[Variant 5: 

1800.

  ... with listening ...  C.]

[Variant 6: 

1820.

  And in the fashion which I have describ’d,
  Feeding unthinking fancies, we advanc’d 1800.]

[Variant 7: 

1827.

  ... we saw 1800.]

[Variant 8: 

1800.

  ... a lake. 1802.

The text of 1815 returns to that of 1800.]

[Variant 9: 

1827.

... the margin of the lake.  That way we turn’d our steps; nor was it long, Ere making ready comments on the sight Which then we saw, with one and the same voice We all cried out, that he must be indeed An idle man, who thus could lose a day 1800.

  Did all cry out, that he must be indeed
  An Idler, he who thus ... 1815.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  A new road has destroyed this retirement. (MS. footnote in Lord Coleridge’s copy of the edition of 1836.)—­Ed.]

The text of this poem reached its final state in the edition of 1827.  The same is true of the poem which follows, ‘To M. H.’, with the exception of a single change.

In Wordsworth’s early days at Grasmere, a wild woodland path of quiet beauty led from Dove Cottage along the margin of the lake to the “Point” referred to in this poem, leaving the eastern shore truly “safe in its own privacy”—­a “retired and difficult way”; the high-way road for carriages being at that time over White Moss Common.  The late Dr. Arnold, of Rugby and Foxhowe, used to name the three roads from Rydal to Grasmere thus:  the highest, “Old Corruption”; the intermediate, “Bit by bit Reform”; the lowest and most level, “Radical Reform.”  Wordsworth was never quite reconciled to the radical reform effected on a road that used to be so delightfully wild and picturesque.  The spot which the three friends rather infelicitously named “Point Rash-Judgment” is easily identified; although, as Wordsworth remarks, the character of the shore is changed by the public road being carried along its side.  The friends were quite aware that the “memorial name” they gave it was “uncouth.”  In spite of its awkwardness, however, it will probably survive; if not for Browning’s reason

  ’The better the uncouther;
  Do roses stick like burrs?’

at least because of the incident which gave rise to the poem.  The date of composition is fixed by Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal,

  “10th Oct. 1800, Wm. sat up after me, writing ’Point
  Rash-Judgment.’”

Ed.

* * * * *