[Variant 6:

1820.

As may have had no trivial influence 1798.]

[Variant 7:

1798.

... wood, 1798 (some copies).]

[Variant 8:

1836.

... or ... 1798.]

[Variant 9:

1800.

Not ... 1798.]

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: I have not ventured to call this Poem an Ode; but it was written with a hope that in the transitions, and the impa.s.sioned music of the versification would be found the princ.i.p.al requisites of that species of composition.--W. W. 1800.]

[Footnote B: The t.i.tle in 1798 was 'Lines, written a few miles', etc. In 1815 it a.s.sumed its final form.--Ed.]

[Footnote C: Compare the Fenwick note to the poem 'Guilt and Sorrow'

(vol. i. p.78) This visit, five years before, was on his way from "Sarum plain," on foot and alone--after parting with his friend William Calvert--to visit another friend, Robert Jones, in Wales.--Ed.]

[Footnote D: The river is not affected by the tides a few miles above Tintern.--W. W. 1798.]

[Footnote E: In the edition of 1798, an additional line is here introduced, but it is deleted in the 'errata'. It is

'And the low copses--coming from the trees.'

Ed.]

[Footnote F: Compare 'The Prelude', book xi. l. 108:

'Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very Heaven.'

Ed.]

[Footnote G: This line has a close resemblance to an admirable line of Young, the exact expression of which I cannot recollect.--W. W. 1798.

It is the line:

'And half-create the wondrous world they see.'

'Night Thoughts', (Night vi. l. 427).--Ed.]

[Footnote H: Compare, in _The Recluse_, canto "Home at Grasmere," l. 91:

Her voice was like a hidden Bird that sang, The thought of her was like a flash of light, Or an _unseen_ companionship.

Ed.]

THERE WAS A BOY

Composed 1798.--Published 1800

[Written in Germany, 1799. This is an extract from the Poem on my own poetical education. This practice of making an instrument of their own fingers is known to most boys, though some are more skilful at it than others. William Rainc.o.c.k of Rayrigg, a fine spirited lad, took the lead of all my schoolfellows in this art.--I. F.]

This "extract" will be found in the fifth book of 'The Prelude', ll.

364-397. It was included among the "Poems of the Imagination." In the editions of 1800 to 1832 it had no t.i.tle, except in the table of contents. In 1836, the finally adopted t.i.tle of the poem was given in the text, as well as in the table of contents.--Ed.