[Sub-Footnote a:] Dora Wordsworth died in July 1847. Probably the change of text in 1849—one of the latest which the poet made—was due to the wish to connect this poem with memories of his dead daughter's childhood, and her "laughing eye."—Ed.
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[Contents 1804]
[Main Contents]
The Small Celandine[A]
Composed 1804.—Published 1807
[The Poem]
[Grasmere, Town-end. It is remarkable that this flower coming out so early in the spring as it does, and so bright and beautiful, and in such profusion, should not have been noticed earlier in English verse. What adds much to the interest that attends it, is its habit of shutting itself up and opening out according to the degree of light and temperature of the air. —I. F.]
In pencil on opposite page "Has not Chaucer noticed it?"—W. W.
This was classed by Wordsworth among his "Poems referring to the Period of Old Age."-Ed.