lot!
O Man, that from thy fair and shining youth
Age might but take the things Youth needed not!

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1837.

... itself, ... 1807.]

[Variant 2:

1827

... bless ... 1807.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: Common Pilewort.--W. W. 1807.]

With the last stanza compare one from 'The Fountain', vol. ii. p. 93:

'Thus fares it still in our decay:
And yet the wiser mind
Mourns less for what age takes away
Than what it leaves behind.'

Compare also the other two poems on the Celandine, vol. ii. pp. 300,
303, written in a previous year.--Ed.

* * * * *

AT APPLETHWAITE, NEAR KESWICK

1804

Composed 1804.--Published 1842

[This was presented to me by Sir George Beaumont, with a view to the
erection of a house upon it, for the sake of being near to Coleridge,
then living, and likely to remain, at Greta Hall, near Keswick. The
severe necessities that prevented this arose from his domestic
situation. This little property, with a considerable addition that still
leaves it very small, lies beautifully upon the banks of a rill that
gurgles down the side of Skiddaw; and the orchard and other parts of the
grounds command a magnificent prospect of Derwent Water, the mountains
of Borrowdale and Newlands. Not many years ago I gave the place to my
daughter.--I. F.]

In pencil on the opposite page in Dora Wordsworth's (Mrs. Quillinan's)
handwriting--"Many years ago, Sir; for it was given when she was a frail
feeble monthling."

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--Ed.

BEAUMONT! it was thy wish that I should rear
A seemly Cottage in this sunny Dell,
On favoured ground, thy gift, where I might dwell
In neighbourhood with One to me most dear,
That undivided we from year to year 5
Might work in our high Calling--a bright hope
To which our fancies, mingling, gave free scope
Till checked by some necessities severe.
And should these slacken, honoured BEAUMONT! still
Even then we may perhaps in vain implore 10
Leave of our fate thy wishes [1] to fulfil.
Whether this boon be granted us or not,
Old Skiddaw will look down upon the Spot
With pride, the Muses love it evermore. [2] [A]

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