ada d'Allemagna,'
to the east of the high passes of the Alps, which take you at once from
Italy into Switzerland. The road leads across several smaller heights,
and winds down different vales in succession, so that it was only by the
accidental sound of a few German words I was aware we had quitted Italy;
and hence the unwelcome shock alluded to in the two or three last lines
of the Sonnet with which this imperfect series concludes.

314. *_Composed at Rydal on May morning_, 1838.

This and the following Sonnet [now XXVI.] were composed on what we call
the 'far terrace' at Rydal Mount, where I have murmured out many
thousands of my verses.

315. *_Pillar of Trajan_. [XXVIII.]

These verses had better, perhaps, be transferred to the class of
'Italian Poems.' I had observed in the newspaper that 'The Pillar of
Trajan' was given as a subject for a Prize Poem in English verse. I had
a wish, perhaps, that my son, who was then an undergraduate at Oxford,
should try his fortune; and I told him so: but he, not having been
accustomed to write verse, wisely declined to enter on the task;
whereupon I showed him these lines as a proof of what might, without
difficulty, be done on such a subject.

316. *_The Egyptian Maid_.

In addition to the short notice prefixed to this poem, it may be worth
while here to say, that it rose out of a few words casually used in
conversation by my nephew Henry Hutchinson. He was describing with great
spirit the appearance and movement of a vessel which he seemed to admire
more than any other he had ever seen, and said her name was the Water
Lily. This plant has been my delight from my boyhood, as I have seen it
floating on the lake; and that conversation put me upon constructing and
composing the poem. Had I not heard those words it would never have been
written. The form of the stanza is new, and is nothing but a repetition
of the first five lines as they were thrown off, and is, perhaps, not
well suited to narrative, and certainly would not have been trusted to
had I thought at the beginning that the poem would have gone to such a
length. [The short note referred to _supra_ is as follows: 'For the
names and persons in the following poem see the _History of the Renowned
Prince Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table_; for the rest the
author is answerable; only it may be proper to add that the Lotus, with
the bust of the goddess appearing to rise out of the full-blown flower,
was sugg