And houses stand on either hand
  And thou descendest still.

Ed.]

* * * * *

“SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS”

Composed 1799.—­Published 1800

One of the “Poems founded on the Affections.”  In the edition of 1800 it is entitled ’Song’.—­Ed.

  She dwelt among the untrodden ways
  Beside the springs of Dove,
  A Maid whom there were none to praise
    And very few to love:  [1]

  A violet by a mossy stone 5
    Half hidden from the eye! 
—­Fair as a star, when only one
    Is shining in the sky.

  She lived [2] unknown, and few could know
    When Lucy ceased to be; 10
  But she is in her grave, and, oh,
    The difference to me!

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1800.

  A very few ... 1802.

The text of the edition of 1805 returns to that of 1800.]

[Variant 2:  The word “lived” was italicised in the edition of 1800 only.]

* * * * *

“I TRAVELLED AMONG UNKNOWN MEN”

Composed 1799.-Published 1807

One of the “Poems founded on the Affections.”—­Ed.

  I travelled among unknown men,
    In lands beyond the sea;
  Nor, England! did I know till then
    What love I bore to thee.

  ’Tis past, that melancholy dream! 5
    Nor will I quit thy shore
  A second time; for still I seem
    To love thee more and more.

  Among thy mountains did I feel
    The joy of my desire; [1] 10
  And she I cherished turned her wheel
    Beside an English fire.

  Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed
    The bowers where Lucy played;
  And thine too is the last green field 15
    That Lucy’s eyes surveyed. [2] [A]

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

  The gladness of desire; MS.]

[Variant 2: 

1836.

  And thine is, too, the last green field
  Which ... 1807.

  That ... 1815.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  Compare Sara Coleridge’s comment on this poem in the ‘Biographia Literaria’ (1847), vol. ii. chap. ix. p. 173.  Also Mrs. Oliphant’s remarks in her ‘Literary History of the Nineteenth Century’, vol. i. pp. 306-9.—­Ed.]

* * * * *

“THREE YEARS SHE GREW IN SUN AND SHOWER”