See the editorial note to the preceding poem.—­Ed.

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1803

The poems associated with the year 1803 consist mainly of the “Memorials of a Tour in Scotland,” which Wordsworth and his sister took—­along with Coleridge—­in the autumn of that year, although many of these were not written till some time after the Tour was finished.  ‘The Green Linnet’ and ‘Yew-trees’ were written in 1803, and some sonnets were composed in the month of October; but, on the whole, 1803 was not a fruitful year in Wordsworth’s life, as regards his lyrics and smaller poems.  Doubtless both ‘The Prelude’ and ‘The Excursion’ were revised in 1803.—­Ed.

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THE GREEN LINNET

Composed 1803.—­Published 1807

[Composed in the orchard, Town-end, Grasmere, where the bird was often seen as here described.—­I.F.]

One of the “Poems of the Fancy.”—­Ed.

  Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shed
  Their snow white blossoms on my head,
  With brightest sunshine round me spread
    Of spring’s unclouded weather,
  In this sequestered nook how sweet 5
  To sit upon my orchard-seat! 
  And birds and flowers once more to greet,
    My last year’s friends together. [1]

  One have I marked, the happiest guest
  In all this covert of the blest:  10
  Hail to Thee, far above the rest
    In joy of voice and pinion! 
  Thou, Linnet! in thy green array,
  Presiding Spirit here to-day,
  Dost lead the revels of the May; 15
    And this is thy dominion.

  While birds, and butterflies, and flowers,
  Make all one band of paramours,
  Thou, ranging up and down the bowers,
    Art sole in thy employment:  20
  A Life, a Presence like the Air,
  Scattering thy gladness without care,
  Too blest with any one to pair;
    Thyself thy own enjoyment.

  Amid [2] yon tuft of hazel trees, 25
  That twinkle to the gusty breeze,
  Behold him perched in ecstacies,
    Yet seeming still to hover;
  There! where the flutter of his wings
  Upon his back and body flings 30
  Shadows and sunny glimmerings,
    That cover him all over.

  My dazzled sight he oft deceives,
  A Brother of the dancing leaves;
  Then flits, and from the cottage-eaves 35
    Pours forth his song in gushes; [3]
  As if by that exulting strain
  He mocked and treated with disdain
  The voiceless Form he chose to feign,
    While fluttering in the bushes. [4] 40

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VARIANTS ON THE TEXT