course and staid,
I would walk in such a way, MS.]

[Variant 13:

... joyousness. MS.]

[Variant 14:

From the things by ... MS.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: In the editions of 1807-1832 the title was 'The Kitten and
the Falling Leaves'.--Ed.]

* * * * *

SUB-FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Sub-Footnote a: Dora Wordsworth died in July 1847. Probably the change
of text in 1849--one of the latest which the poet made--was due to the
wish to connect this poem with memories of his dead daughter's
childhood, and her "laughing eye."--Ed.]

* * * * *

THE SMALL CELANDINE [A]

Composed 1804.--Published 1807

[Grasmere, Town-end. It is remarkable that this flower coming out so
early in the spring as it does, and so bright and beautiful, and in such
profusion, should not have been noticed earlier in English verse. What
adds much to the interest that attends it, is its habit of shutting
itself up and opening out according to the degree of light and
temperature of the air.--I. F.]

In pencil on opposite page "Has not Chaucer noticed it?"--W. W.

This was classed by Wordsworth among his "Poems referring to the Period
of Old Age."-Ed.

There is a Flower, the lesser Celandine,
That shrinks, like many more, from cold and rain;
And, the first moment that the sun may shine,
Bright as the sun himself, [1] 'tis out again!

When hailstones have been falling, swarm on swarm, 5
Or blasts the green field and the trees distrest,
Oft have I seen it muffled up from harm,
In close self-shelter, like a Thing at rest.

But lately, one rough day, this Flower I passed
And recognised it, though an altered form, 10
Now standing forth an offering to the blast,
And buffeted at will by rain and storm.

I stopped, and said with inly-muttered voice,
"It doth not love the shower, nor seek the cold:
This neither is its courage nor its choice, 15
But its necessity in being old.

"The sunshine may not cheer [2] it, nor the dew;
It cannot help itself in its decay;
Stiff in its members, withered, changed of hue."
And, in my spleen, I smiled that it was grey. 20

To be a Prodigal's Favourite--then, worse truth,
A Miser's Pensioner--behold our