hose verses among the Evening Voluntaries that have reference to the
Sea. In some future edition I purpose to place it among that class of
poems. It was in that neighbourhood I first became acquainted with the
ocean and its appearances and movements. My infancy and early childhood
were passed at Cockermouth, about eight miles from the coast, and I well
remember that mysterious awe with which I used to listen to anything
said about storms and shipwrecks. Sea-shells of many descriptions were
common in the town, and I was not a little surprised when I heard Mr.
Landor had denounced me as a Plagiarist from himself for having
described a boy applying a sea-shell to his ear, and listening to it for
intimation of what was going on in its native element. This I had done
myself scores of times, and it was a belief among us that we could know
from the sound whether the tide was ebbing or flowing.

382. _Not in the lucid intervals of life_. [IV.]

The lines following, 'Nor do words,' &c., were written with Lord Byron's
character as a poet before me, and that of others among his
contemporaries, who wrote under like influences.

383. _The leaves that rustled on this oak-crowned hill_. [VII.]

Composed by the side of Grasmere Lake. The mountains that enclose the
vale, especially towards Easedale, are most favourable to the
reverberation of sound: there is a passage in 'The Excursion,' towards
the close of the 4th book, where the voice of the raven in flight is
traced through the modifications it undergoes, as I have often heard it
in that vale and others of this district.

384. _Impromptu_. [VIII.]

This Impromptu appeared, many years ago, among the Author's Poems, from
which, in subsequent editions, it was excluded. It is reprinted at the
request of the Friend in whose presence the lines were thrown off.

384a. *_Ibid._

Reprinted at the request of my Sister, in whose presence the lines were
thrown off.

385. *_Composed upon an Evening of extraordinary Splendour and Beauty_
[IX.]

Felt, and in a great measure composed, upon the little mount in front of
our abode at Rydal. In concluding my notices of this class of poems it
may be as well to observe, that among the Miscellaneous Sonnets are a
few alluding to morning impressions, which might be read with mutual
benefit in connection with these Evening Voluntaries. See for example
that one on Westminster Bridge, that on May 2d, on the song of the
Thrush, and the on