nknown," had then ceased for ever. The reason
why Wordsworth erased so delightful and wonderful a stanza, is to me
only explicable on the supposition, that it was his sister he referred
to, she who had accompanied him in former days, in so many of his "long
walks in the country." His wife never did this; she had not the physical
strength to do it; and, if she had been the person referred to,
Wordsworth would hardly, in 1845, have erased such a description of her,
as occurs in the stanza written in 1802, when she was still so vigorous.
Besides, Mary Wordsworth was in no sense "a Child of Nature," as Dorothy
was: while the testimony of the Wordsworth household is explicit, that
it was to his sister, and not to his wife, that the poet referred. I
find no difficulty in the allusion made in the second poem to Dorothy
being yet possibly a "Wife and Friend"; nor to the fact that it was
originally addressed "To a beautiful Young Lady." Neither Dorothy nor
Mary Wordsworth were physically "beautiful," according to our highest
standards; although the poet addressed the latter as "a Phantom of
delight," and as "a lovely apparition." It is quite true that it was
Mary Wordsworth's old age that was "serene and bright," while Dorothy's
was the very reverse; but the poet's anticipation of the future was
written when his sister was young, and was by far the stronger of the
two.--Ed.

* * * * *

TO A YOUNG LADY, WHO HAD BEEN REPROACHED FOR TAKING LONG WALKS IN THE
COUNTRY [A]

Composed 1802.--Published 1807

[Composed at the same time and on the same view as "I met Louisa in the
shade:" indeed they were designed to make one piece.--I.F.]

From 1815 to 1832 this was classed among the "Poems proceeding from
Sentiment and Reflection." In 1836 it was transferred to the group of
"Poems of the Imagination."--Ed.

Dear Child of Nature, let them rail!
--There is a nest in a green dale,
A harbour and a hold;
Where thou, a Wife and Friend, shalt see
Thy own heart-stirring days, [1] and be 5
A light to young and old.

There, healthy as a shepherd boy,
And treading among flowers of joy
Which at no season fade, [2]
Thou, while thy babes around thee cling, 10
Shalt show us how divine a thing
A Woman may be made.

Thy thoughts and feelings shall not die,
Nor leave thee, when grey hairs are nigh
A melancholy slave;