Composed 1804.—Published 1807
[The Poem]
[Grasmere, Town-end. It is remarkable that this flower coming out so early in the spring as it does, and so bright and beautiful, and in such profusion, should not have been noticed earlier in English verse. What adds much to the interest that attends it, is its habit of shutting itself up and opening out according to the degree of light and temperature of the air. —I. F.]
In pencil on opposite page "Has not Chaucer noticed it?"—W. W.
This was classed by Wordsworth among his "Poems referring to the Period of Old Age."-Ed.