1827.

  “Nay but I gave her pence, and she will buy you bread.” 1807.]

[Variant 12: 

1845.

  “Sweet Boys, you’re telling me a lie; 1807.

  ...  Heaven hears that rash reply; 1827.

The text of 1807 was resumed in 1836.]

[Variant 13: 

1827.

  ... they both together flew. 1807.

  ... the thoughtless vagrants flew.  C.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  The spot is easily identified, as the quarry still exists.—­Ed.]

[Footnote B:  In the MS. of this poem (1807) the words, “a weed of glorious feature,” are placed within inverted commas.  The quotation is from Spenser’s ‘Muiopotmos’ (’The Fate of the Butterflie’), stanza 27; and is important, as it affects the meaning of the phrase.  It is curious that Wordsworth dropped the commas in his subsequent editions.—­Ed.]

[Footnote C:  In Wordsworth’s letter to Barron Field, of 24th October 1828 (see the volumes containing his correspondence), a detailed account is given of the reasons which had led him to alter the text of this poem.—­Ed.]

* * * * *

SEQUEL TO THE FOREGOING,

COMPOSED MANY YEARS AFTER

Composed 1817.—­Published 1827

In the edition of 1840 the year assigned to this Sequel is 1817.  It does not occur in the edition of 1820, but was first published in 1827.  It was one of the “Poems of the Imagination.”—­Ed.

  Where are they now, those wanton Boys? 
  For whose free range the daedal earth
  Was filled with animated toys,
  And implements of frolic mirth;
  With tools for ready wit to guide; 5
  And ornaments of seemlier pride,
  More fresh, more bright, than princes wear;
  For what one moment flung aside,
  Another could repair;
  What good or evil have they seen 10
  Since I their pastime witnessed here,
  Their daring wiles, their sportive cheer? 
  I ask—­but all is dark between!
  [1]

  They met me in a genial hour,
  When universal nature breathed 15
  As with the breath of one sweet flower,—­
  A time to overrule the power
  Of discontent, and check the birth
  Of thoughts with better thoughts at strife,
  The most familiar bane of life 20
  Since parting Innocence bequeathed
  Mortality to Earth! 
  Soft clouds, the whitest of the year,
  Sailed through the sky—­the brooks ran clear;
  The lambs from rock to rock were bounding; 25
  With songs the budded groves resounding;