eceived her heart into my own."

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1836.

No other sheep ... 1800.]

[Variant 2:

1836.

Towards the Lamb she look'd, and from that shady place 1800]

[Variant 3:

1802.

... is ... 1800.]

[Variant 4:

1827.

... which ... 1800.]

[Variant 5:

1802.

... are ... 1800.]

[Variant 6:

1800.

... Poor creature, it must be
That thou hast lost thy mother, and 'tis that which troubles thee.
MS.]

[Variant 7:

1802.

... the raven in the sky,
He will not come to thee, our Cottage is hard by,
Night and day thou art safe as living thing can be,
Be happy then and rest, what is't that aileth thee?" 1800.]

[Variant 8: _Italics_ first used in 1815.]

[Variant 9: This word was _italicised_ from 1813 to 1832.]

* * * * *

THE FARMER OF TILSBURY VALE

Composed 1800.--Published 1815 [A]

[The character of this man was described to me, and the incident upon
which the verses turn was told me, by Mr. Poole of Nether Stowey, with
whom I became acquainted through our common friend, S. T. Coleridge.
During my residence at Alfoxden, I used to see much of him, and had
frequent occasions to admire the course of his daily life, especially
his conduct to his labourers and poor neighbours; their virtues he
carefully encouraged, and weighed their faults in the scales of charity.
If I seem in these verses to have treated the weaknesses of the farmer
and his transgressions too tenderly, it may in part be ascribed to my
having received the story from one so averse to all harsh judgment.
After his death was found in his escritoir, a lock of grey hair
carefully preserved, with a notice that it had been cut from the head of
his faithful shepherd, who had served him for a length of years. I need
scarcely add that he felt for all men as his brothers. He was much
beloved by distinguished persons--Mr. Coleridge, Mr. Southey, Sir H.
Davy, and many others; and in his own neighbourhood was highly valued as
a magistrate, a man of business, and in every other social relation. The
latter part of the poem perhaps requires some apology, as being too much
of an echo to 'The Reverie of Poor Susan'.--I.F.]

Included in the "Poems referring to the Period of Old Age."--Ed.

'Tis not for the unfeeling, the falsely refined,
The s