“Here thou need’st not dread the raven in the sky;
  Night and day thou art safe,—­our cottage is hard by. 
  Why bleat so after me?  Why pull so at thy chain? 
  Sleep—­and at break of day I will come to thee again!” [7] 60

—­As homeward through the lane I went with lazy feet,
  This song to myself did I oftentimes repeat;
  And it seemed, as I retraced the ballad line by line,
  That but half of it was hers, and one half of it was mine. [8]

  Again, and once again, did I repeat the song; 65
  “Nay,” said I, “more than half to the damsel [9] must belong,
  For she looked with such a look, and she spake with such a tone,
  That I almost received her heart into my own.”

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1836.

  No other sheep ... 1800.]

[Variant 2: 

1836.

  Towards the Lamb she look’d, and from that shady place 1800]

[Variant 3: 

1802.

  ... is ... 1800.]

[Variant 4: 

1827.

  ... which ... 1800.]

[Variant 5: 

1802.

  ... are ... 1800.]

[Variant 6: 

1800.

  ...  Poor creature, it must be
  That thou hast lost thy mother, and ’tis that which troubles thee. 
MS.]

[Variant 7: 

1802.

... the raven in the sky, He will not come to thee, our Cottage is hard by, Night and day thou art safe as living thing can be, Be happy then and rest, what is’t that aileth thee?” 1800.]

[Variant 8:  Italics first used in 1815.]

[Variant 9:  This word was italicised from 1813 to 1832.]

* * * * *

THE FARMER OF TILSBURY VALE

Composed 1800.—­Published 1815 [A]

[The character of this man was described to me, and the incident upon which the verses turn was told me, by Mr. Poole of Nether Stowey, with whom I became acquainted through our common friend, S. T. Coleridge.  During my residence at Alfoxden, I used to see much of him, and had frequent occasions to admire the course of his daily life, especially his conduct to his labourers and poor neighbours; their virtues he carefully encouraged, and weighed their faults in the scales of charity.  If I seem in these verses to have treated the weaknesses of the farmer and his transgressions too tenderly, it may in part be ascribed to my having received the story from one so averse to all harsh judgment.  After his death was found in his escritoir, a lock of grey hair carefully preserved, with a notice that it had been cut from the head of his faithful shepherd, who had served him for a length of years.  I need scarcely add that he felt for all men as his brothers.  He was much beloved by distinguished persons—­Mr. Coleridge, Mr. Southey, Sir H. Davy, and many others; and in his own neighbourhood was highly valued as a magistrate, a man of business, and in every other social relation.  The latter part of the poem perhaps requires some apology, as being too much of an echo to ’The Reverie of Poor Susan’.—­I.F.]