.. 1800.]

[Variant 2:

1800.

... to thee? 1805, and MS.

The text of 1815 returns to that of 1800.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: On the 27th March 1843, Wordsworth wrote to Professor Henry
Reed of Philadelphia:

"The character of the schoolmaster, had like the Wanderer in 'The
Excursion' a solid foundation in fact and reality, but like him it was
also in some degree a composition: I will not, and need not, call it
an invention--it was no such thing."

Ed.]

* * * * *

THE TWO APRIL MORNINGS

Composed 1799.--Published 1800

One of the "Poems of Sentiment and Reflection."--Ed.

We walked along, while bright and red
Uprose the morning sun;
And Matthew stopped, he looked, and said,
"The will of God be done!"

A village schoolmaster was he, 5
With hair of glittering grey;
As blithe a man as you could see
On a spring holiday.

And on that morning, through the grass,
And by the steaming rills, 10
We travelled merrily, to pass
A day among the hills.

"Our work," said I, "was well begun,
Then, from thy breast what thought,
Beneath so beautiful a sun, 15
So sad a sigh has brought?"

A second time did Matthew stop;
And fixing still his eye
Upon the eastern mountain-top,
To me he made reply: 20

"Yon cloud with that long purple cleft
Brings fresh into my mind
A day like this which I have left
Full thirty years behind.

"And just above yon slope of corn 25
Such colours, and no other,
Were in the sky, that April morn,
Of this the very brother. [1]

"With rod and line I sued the sport
Which that sweet season gave, [2] 30
And, to the church-yard come, [3] stopped short
Beside my daughter's grave.

"Nine summers had she scarcely seen,
The pride of all the vale;
And then she sang [4];--she would have been 35
A very nightingale.

"Six feet in earth my Emma lay;
And yet I loved her more,
For so it seemed, than till that day
I e'er had loved before. 40

"And, turning from her grave, I met,
Beside the church-yard yew,
A blooming Girl, whose hair was wet
With points of mor