‘I will write you down some horridly-expressed verses which call themselves to the tune of “Allan Water” and “Rousseau’s Dream”; the first sketched in autumn, 1825, but undergoing changes for a long time, poor as is the result; the second written at W[illiams’s]. I have not shown them to anyone, and they may give you a sort of guess at the things my mind has been running upon.’
‘On the Banks of Allan Water’ was his favourite air.
[‘The Fashion of this World Passeth Away.’]
‘Ere the buds their stores deliver,
Have ye watched the springtime gay?
Have ye seen the sere leaves shiver
In an autumn day?
Have ye loved some flower appearing,
Tulip, or pale lily tall,
Day by day its head uprearing,