le frae the rock, [A] 35
But we will leave it growing.
O'er hilly path, and open Strath,
We'll wander Scotland thorough;
But, though so near, we will not turn
Into the dale of Yarrow. 40

"Let beeves and home-bred kine partake
The sweets of Burn-mill meadow;
The swan on still St. Mary's Lake
Float double, swan and shadow! [B]
We will not see them; will not go, 45
To-day, nor yet to-morrow;
Enough if in our hearts we know
There's such a place as Yarrow.

"Be Yarrow stream unseen, unknown!
It must, or we shall rue it: 50
We have a vision of our own;
Ah! why should we undo it?
The treasured dreams of times long past,
We'll keep them, winsome Marrow!
For when we're there, although 'tis fair, 55
'Twill be another Yarrow.

"If Care with freezing years should come,
And wandering seem but folly,--
Should we be loth to stir from home,
And yet be melancholy; 60
Should life be dull, and spirits low,
'Twill soothe us in our sorrow,
That earth has something yet to show,
The bonny holms of Yarrow!"

* * * * *

VARIANT ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1832.

... downwards ... 1807.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: See Hamilton's Ballad as above.--W. W. 1807.]

[Footnote B: In his "Recollections of Wordsworth," Aubrey de Vere
reports a conversation, in which the poet said to him,

"Scott misquoted in one of his novels my lines on 'Yarrow', He makes
me write,

'The swans on sweet St. Mary's Lake
Float double, swans and shadow;'

but I wrote,

'The _swan_ on _still_ St. Mary's Lake.'

Never could I have written 'swans' in the plural. The scene when I saw
it, with its still and dim lake, under the dusky hills, was one of
utter loneliness: there was _one_ swan, and one only, stemming the
water, and the pathetic loneliness of the region gave importance to
the one companion of that swan, its own white image in the water. It
was for that reason that I recorded the Swan and the Shadow. Had there
been many swans and many shadows, they would have implied nothing as
regards the character of the place; and I should have said nothing
about them."

See his 'Essays, chiefly on Poetry', vol. ii. p.