t locality I need not more minutely indicate.--ED.

VARIANTS:

[1] 1827.

Yes! full surely 'twas the Echo,
Solitary, clear, profound,
Answering to Thee, shouting Cuckoo!
Giving to thee Sound for Sound. 1807.

[2] Whence the Voice? from air or earth?
This the Cuckoo cannot tell;
But a startling sound had birth,
As the Bird must know full well;

Only in the edition of 1807.

[3] 1815.

Like the voice through earth and sky
By the restless Cuckoo sent; 1807.

[4] _Italics_ were first used in the edition of 1836.

[5] 1836.

Such within ourselves we hear
Oft-times, ours though sent from far; 1807.

Such rebounds our inward ear
Often catches from afar;-- 1827.

Often as thy inward ear
Catches such rebounds, beware,-- 1832.

[6] 1807.

Giddy Mortals! hold them dear; 1827.

The edition of 1832 returns to the text of 1807.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] Writing to Barron Field about this stanza of the poem in 1827,
Wordsworth said, "The word 'rebounds' I wish much to introduce here; for
the imaginative warning turns upon the echo, which ought to be revived
as near the conclusion as possible."--ED.

"NUNS FRET NOT AT THEIR CONVENT'S NARROW ROOM"

Composed 1806.--Published 1807

[In the cottage, Town-end, Grasmere, one afternoon in 1801, my sister
read to me the sonnets of Milton. I had long been well acquainted with
them, but I was particularly struck on that occasion with the dignified
simplicity and majestic harmony that runs through most of them,--in
character so totally different from the Italian, and still more so from
Shakspeare's fine sonnets. I took fire, if I may be allowed to say so,
and produced three sonnets the same afternoon, the first I ever wrote,
except an irregular one at school. Of these three, the only one I
distinctly remember is--"I grieved for Buonaparte." One was never
written down; the third, which was, I believe, preserved, I cannot
particularise.--I. F.]

From 1807 to 1820 this was named _Prefatory Sonnet_, as introducing the
series of "Miscellaneous Sonnets" in these editions. In 1827 it took its
place as the first in that series, following the Dedication
_To ----_.--ED.

Nuns fret not at their convent's narrow room;
And hermits are contented