["A whirl-blast from behind the hill" ]
Composed March 18, 1798.—Published 1800.
[Observed] in the holly-grove at Alfoxden, where these verses were written in the spring of 1799[A]. I had the pleasure of again seeing, with dear friends, this grove in unimpaired beauty forty-one years after[B].—I. F.]
Classed among the "Poems of the Fancy."—Ed.
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| A whirl-blast from behind the hill Rushed o'er the wood with startling sound; Then—all at once the air was still, And showers of hailstones pattered round. Where leafless oaks towered high above, I sat within an undergrove Of tallest hollies, tall and green; A fairer bower was never seen. From year to year the spacious floor With withered leaves is covered o'er, And all the year the bower is green. But see! where'er the hailstones drop The withered leaves all skip and hop; There's not a breeze—no breath of air— Yet here, and there, and every where Along the floor, beneath the shade By those embowering hollies made, The leaves in myriads jump and spring, As if with pipes and music rare Some Robin Good-fellow were there, And all those leaves, in festive glee, Were dancing to the minstrelsy. | [1] [2] / [3] | [C] [D] | 5 10 15 20 |
| 1820 | |
| You could not lay a hair between: | Inserted in the editions 1800-1815. |