“Her feet disperse the powdery snow,
That rises up like smoke.”
Would that be in place in one of the old ballads? They weren’t interested in the appearance of the snow very much. Miss Weiss?
Miss W.: I think I like this ballad because it leaves something to the imagination, the rest tell you everything; it doesn’t say surely that she is still alive, it leaves it to you to think about it.
Teacher: Do you think Wordsworth himself thinks she is still alive?
Pupil: I think he does; I don’t know if he does, but I think he does.
Teacher: In this remote country region, the people who would maintain that she was alive would be—?
Pupil: The country people.
Teacher: What is Wordsworth’s attitude?
Pupil: I don’t think he credits it very much; I think he respects it, but I don’t think he credits it.