rst adopted in 1827:

I stood, of simple shame the blushing Thrall;
So narrow seemed the brooks, the fields so small,

while the early edition of 1807 contains the far happier lines:

To see the Trees, which I had thought so tall,
Mere dwarfs; the Brooks so narrow, Fields so small.

On the other hand, if the earliest text be invariably retained, some of
the best poems will be spoiled (or the improvements lost), since
Wordsworth did usually alter for the better. For example, few persons
will doubt that the form in which the second stanza of the poem 'To the
Cuckoo' (written in 1802) appeared in 1845, is an improvement on all its
predecessors. I give the readings of 1807, 1815, 1820, 1827, and 1845.

While I am lying on the grass,
I hear thy restless shout:
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
About, and all about! 1807.

While I am lying on the grass,
Thy loud note smites my ear!--
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off and near! 1815.

While I am lying on the grass,
Thy loud note smites my ear!
It seems to fill the whole air's space,
At once far off and near. 1820.

While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear,
That seems to fill the whole air's space,
As loud far off as near. 1827.

While I am lying on the grass
Thy twofold shout I hear,
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off, and near. 1845.

Similarly, in each of the three poems 'To the Daisy', composed in 1802,
and in the 'Afterthought, to the Duddon', the alterations introduced
into the latest editions were all improvements upon the early version.

It might be urged that these considerations would warrant the
interference of an editor, and justify him in selecting the text which
he thought the best upon the whole; but this must be left to posterity.
When editors can escape the bias of contemporary thought and feeling,
when their judgments are refined by distance and mellowed by the new
literary standards of the intervening years,--when in fact Wordsworth is
as far away from his critics as Shakespeare now is--it may be possible
to adjust a final text. But the task is beyond the power of the present
generation.

It may farther be urged that if this reasoning be valid,--and if, for
the present, one text must be retained uniformly throughout,--the
natural plan is to