Note:
Wordsworth's date, as given to Miss Fenwick, is incorrect. In her Journal, April 20, 1802, Dorothy Wordsworth writes:
"William wrote a conclusion to the poem of The Butterfly, 'I've watch'd you now a full half-hour.'"
This, and the structure of the two poems, makes it probable that the latter was originally meant to be a sort of conclusion to the [former] (p. 283); but they were always printed as separate poems.
Many of the "flowers" in the orchard at Dove Cottage were planted by Dorothy Wordsworth, and some of the "trees" by William. The "summer days" of childhood are referred to in [the previous poem], To a Butterfly, written on the 14th of March 1802.—Ed.
[Contents 1802]
[Main Contents]
Foresight
Composed April 28, 1802.—Published 1807
[Also composed in the Orchard, Town-end, Grasmere.— I. F.]