ve been
gratified by these breathings of simple nature; the more so, because I
conclude from the character of the Poems which you have particularised
that the Volumes cannot but improve upon you. I see that you have
entered into the spirit of them. You mention 'The Daffodils.' You know
Butler, Montagu's friend: not Tom Butler, but the Conveyancer: when I
was in town in spring, he happened to see the Volumes lying on Montagu's
mantle-piece, and to glance his eye upon the very poem of 'The
Daffodils.' 'Aye,' says he, 'a fine morsel this for the Reviewers.' When
this was told me (for I was not present), I observed that there were
_two lines_ in that little poem which, if thoroughly felt, would
annihilate nine-tenths of the reviews of the kingdom, as they would find
no readers; the lines I alluded to were these:

'They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude.'

[These two lines were composed by Mrs. Wordsworth: _Memoirs_, i. 183-4.]

138. *_The Reverie of poor Susan_. [XIII.]

Written 1801 or 1802. This arose out of my observations of the affecting
music of these birds, hanging in this way in the London streets during
the freshness and stillness of the Spring morning.

139. *_Power of Music_. [XIV.]

Taken from life, 1806.

140. *_Star-gazers_. [XV.] Observed by me in Leicester Square, as here
described, 1806.

141. *_Written in March_. [XVI.]

Extempore, 1801. This little poem was a favourite with Joanna Baillie.

142. *_Beggars_. [XVIII.]

Town-End, 1802. Met and described by me to my sister near the Quarry at
the head of Rydal Lake--a place still a chosen resort of vagrants
travelling with their families.

143. *_Gipsies_. [XX.]

Composed at Coleorton, 1807. I had observed them, as here described,
near Castle Donnington on my way to and from Derby.

144. *_Ruth_.

Written in Germany, 1799. Suggested by an account I had of a wanderer in
Somersetshire.

145. *_Resolution and Independence_. [XXII.]

Town-End, 1807. This old man I met a few hundred yards from my cottage
at Town-End, Grasmere; and the account of him is taken from his own
mouth. I was in the state of feeling described in the beginning of the
poem, while crossing over Barton Fell from Mr. Clarkson's at the foot of
Ullswater, towards Askham. The image of the hare I then observed on the
ridge of the Fell.

146. *_The Thorn_. [XXIII.]

Alfoxden, 1798. Arose out of my observing on the ridge of Qu