| 18907 | |
| ... be but gay, | 1836 |
... be but gay,
The 1840 edition returns to the text of 1807.
[return]
[Variant 5:]
| 1815 | |
| ... laughing ... | 1807 |
... laughing ...
[return]
[Footnote A:] It was The Reverie of Poor Susan.—Ed.
[return to footnote mark]
[Footnote B:] This is an error in the original printed text. Evidently a year before the above-mentioned publication in 1815: one of 1810-1815. text Ed.
[return]
Note: The following is from Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal, under date, Thursday, April 15, 1802:
"When we were in the woods beyond Gowbarrow Park, we saw a few daffodils close to the water side. We fancied that the sea had floated the seeds ashore, and that the little colony had so sprung up. But as we went along there were more, and yet more; and, at last, under the boughs of the trees, we saw that there was a long belt of them along the shore, about the breadth of a country turnpike road. I never saw daffodils so beautiful. They grew among the mossy stones, about and above them; some rested their heads upon these stones, as on a pillow for weariness; and the rest tossed and reeled and danced, and seemed as if they verily laughed with the wind that blew upon them over the lake. They looked so gay, ever glancing, ever changing. This wind blew directly over the lake to them. There was here and there a little knot, and a few stragglers higher up; but they were so few as not to disturb the simplicity, unity, and life of that one busy highway. We rested again and again. The bays were stormy, and we heard the waves at different distances, and in the middle of the water, like the sea...."
In [the] edition of 1815 there is a footnote to the lines