what healing thoughts
Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,
And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance--
If I should be where I no more can hear 150
Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams
Of past existence [B]--wilt thou then forget
That on the banks of this delightful stream
We stood together; and that I, so long
A worshipper of Nature, hither came 155
Unwearied in that service: rather say
With warmer love--oh! with far deeper zeal
Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,
That after many wanderings, many years
Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs, 160
And this green pastoral landscape, were to me
More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake!

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1845.

... sweet ... 1798.]

[Variant 2:

1827.

Which ... 1798.]

[Variant 3:

1845.

... with their unripe fruits,
Among the woods and copses lose themselves,
Nor, with their green and simple hue, disturb
The wild green landscape ... 1798.

Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves
Among the woods and copses, nor disturb 1802.]

[Variant 4:

1827.

... Though absent long,
These forms of beauty have not been to me, 1798.]

[Variant 5:

1798.

... inmost mind, MS.]

[Variant 6:

1820.

As may have had no trivial influence 1798.]

[Variant 7:

1798.

... wood, 1798 (some copies).]

[Variant 8:

1836.

... or ... 1798.]

[Variant 9:

1800.

Not ... 1798.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: I have not ventured to call this Poem an Ode; but it was
written with a hope that in the transitions, and the impassioned music
of the versification would be found the principal requisites of that
species of composition.--W. W. 1800.]

[Footnote B: The title in 1798 was 'Lines, written a few miles', etc. In
1815 it assumed its final form.--Ed.]

[Footnote C: Compare the Fenwick note to the poem 'Guilt and Sorrow'
(vol. i. p.78) This visit, five years before, was on his way from "Sarum
plain," on foot and alone--after parting with his friend William
Calvert--to visit another friend, Robert Jones, in Wales.--Ed.]

[Footnote D: The river is not affected by the tides a few miles above
Tint