the mercy of the fields,
And oft of cruelty the sky accused;
On hazard, or what general bounty yields, 1798.

I led a wandering life among the fields;
Contentedly, yet sometimes self-accused,
I liv'd upon what casual bounty yields, 1802.]

[Variant 66:

1802.

The fields ... 1798.]

[Variant 67:

1836.

Three years a wanderer, often have I view'd,
In tears, the sun towards that country tend 1798.

Three years thus wandering, ... 1802.]

[Variant 68:

1836.

And now across this moor my steps I bend-- 1798.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES

[Footnote A: In the 'Prelude', he says it was "three summer days." See
book xiii. l. 337.--Ed.]

[Footnote B: By an evident error, corrected in the first reprint of this
edition (1840). See p. 37.--Ed.[Footnote D of 'Descriptive Sketches',
the preceding poem in this text.]]

[Footnote C: From a short MS. poem read to me when an under-graduate, by
my schoolfellow and friend Charles Farish, long since deceased. The
verses were by a brother of his, a man of promising genius, who died
young.--W. W. 1842.

Charles Farish was the author of 'The Minstrels of Winandermere'.--Ed.]

[Footnote D: Compare Milton's "grinding sword," 'Paradise Lost', vi. l.
329.--Ed.]

* * * * *

SUB-FOOTNOTE

[Sub-Footnote i: Several of the Lakes in the north of England are let
out to different Fishermen, in parcels marked out by imaginary lines
drawn from rock to rock.--W. W. 1798.]

* * * * *

LINES LEFT UPON A SEAT IN A YEW-TREE, WHICH STANDS NEAR THE LAKE OF
ESTHWAITE, ON A DESOLATE PART OF THE SHORE, COMMANDING [A] A BEAUTIFUL
PROSPECT

Composed 1795.--Published 1798

[Composed in part at school at Hawkshead. The tree has disappeared,
and the slip of Common on which it stood, that ran parallel to the
lake, and lay open to it, has long been enclosed; so that the road has
lost much of its attraction. This spot was my favourite walk in the
evenings during the latter part of my school-time. The individual
whose habits and character are here given, was a gentleman of the
neighbourhood, a man of talent and learning, who had been educated at
one of our Universities, and returned to pass his time in seclusion on
his own estate. He died a bachelor in middle age. Ind