31. VILLAGE CLOCK. The village was Hawkshead.
35. CONFEDERATE. Qualifies "we," or "games." Point out the different shades of meaning for each agreement.
42. TINKLED LIKE IRON. "When very many are skating together, the sounds and the noises give an impulse to the icy trees, and the woods all round the lake tinkle." S. T. Coleridge in The Friend, ii, 325 (1818).
42-44. The keenness of Wordsworth's sense perceptions was very remarkable. His susceptibility to impressions of sound is well illustrated in this passage, which closes (l. 43-46) with a color picture of striking beauty and appropriateness.
50. REFLEX=reflection. Cf.:
Like the reflex of the moon
Seen in a wave under green leaves.
Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, iii, 4.
In later editions Wordsworth altered these lines as follows:
To cut across the image. 1809. To cross the bright reflection. 1820.
54-60. The effect of rapid motion is admirably described. The spinning effect which Wordsworth evidently has in mind we have all noticed in the fields which seem to revolve when viewed from a swiftly moving: train. However, a skater from the low level of a stream would see only the fringe of trees sweep past him. The darkness and the height of the banks would not permit him to see the relatively motionless objects in the distance in either hand.
57-58. This method of stopping short upon one's heels might prove disastrous.