My hope, my joy, my sister, and my friend,
Or something dearer still, if reason knows
A dearer thought, or in the heart of love
There be a dearer name.[356]
[356] Compare Byron’s Epistle to Augusta—
My sister! my sweet sister! if a name
Dearer and purer were, it should be thine.
It is a mere coincidence, as Byron could not have seen the Wordsworth MS.—Ed.
WILD-FOWL
The order’d troops