VI He would have loved thy modest grace,
Meek Flower!  To Him I would have said,
“It grows upon its native bed
Beside our Parting-place;
There, cleaving to the ground, it lies 55
With multitude of purple eyes,
Spangling a cushion green like moss;
But we will see it, joyful tide! 
Some day, to see it in its pride,
The mountain will we cross.” 60

VII—­Brother and friend, if verse of mine
Have power to make thy virtues known,
Here let a monumental Stone
Stand—­sacred as a Shrine;
And to the few who pass this way, 65
Traveller or Shepherd, let it say,
Long as these mighty rocks endure,—­
Oh do not Thou too fondly brood,
Although deserving of all good,
On any earthly hope, however pure! [A] 70

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  See 2nd vol. of the Author’s Poems, page 298, and 5th vol., pages 311 and 314, among Elegiac Pieces.—­W.  W. 1842.

These poems are those respectively beginning: 

  “When, to the attractions of the busy world ...”

  “I was thy neighbour once, thou rugged Pile! ...”

  “Sweet Flower! belike one day to have ...”

Ed.

The plant alluded to is the Moss Campion (Silene acaulis, of Linnaeus). 
See note at the end of the volume.—­W.  W. 1842.

See among the “Poems on the Naming of Places,” No.  VI.—­W.  W. 1845.

The note is as follows: 

“Moss Campion (’Silene acaulis’).  This most beautiful plant is scarce in England, though it is found in great abundance upon the mountains of Scotland.  The first specimen I ever saw of it in its native bed was singularly fine, the tuft or cushion being at least eight inches diameter, and the root proportionably thick.  I have only met with it in two places among our mountains, in both of which I have since sought for it in vain.

Botanists will not, I hope, take it ill, if I caution them against carrying off inconsiderately rare and beautiful plants.  This has often been done, particularly from Ingleborough and other mountains in Yorkshire, till the species have totally disappeared, to the great regret of lovers of nature living near the places where they grew.”—­W.  W. 1842.

See also ‘The Prelude’, book xiv. 1. 419, p. 379.—­Ed.]

This poem underwent no change in successive editions.

At a meeting of “The Wordsworth Society” held at Grasmere, in July 1881, it was proposed by one of the members, the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley, then Vicar of Wray, to erect some memorial at the parting-place of the brothers.  The brothers John and William Wordsworth parted at Grisedale Tarn, on the 29th September 1800.  The originator of the idea wrote thus of it in June 1882: