The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume Ii Part 99

[Variant 3:

1836.

... such thoughts ... 1827.]

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: This and the three following lines were placed here in the edition of 1836. See note to the previous page.--Ed.]

TO A b.u.t.tERFLY (#1)

Composed March 14, 1802.--Published 1807

[Written in the Orchard, Town-end, Grasmere. My sister and I were parted immediately after the death of our mother, who died in 1778, both being very young.--I. F.]

One of the "Poems referring to the Period of Childhood."--Ed.

Stay near me--do not take thy flight!

A little longer stay in sight!

Much converse do I find in thee, Historian of my infancy!

Float near me; do not yet depart! 5 Dead times revive in thee: Thou bring'st, gay creature as thou art!

A solemn image to my heart, My father's family!

Oh! pleasant, pleasant were the days, 10 The time, when, in our childish plays, My sister Emmeline [A] and I Together chased the b.u.t.terfly!

A very hunter did I rush Upon the prey:--with leaps and springs 15 I followed on from brake to bush; But she, G.o.d love her! feared to brush The dust from off its wings.

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: In the MS. for the edition of 1807 the transcriber (not W.

W.) wrote "Dorothy." This, Wordsworth erased, putting in "Emmeline."--Ed.]

The text of this poem was never changed. It refers to days of childhood spent at c.o.c.kermouth before 1778. "My sister Emmeline" is Dorothy Wordsworth. In her Grasmere Journal, of Sunday, March 14, 1802, the following occurs:

"While we were at breakfast he" (William) "wrote the poem 'To a b.u.t.terfly'. He ate not a morsel, but sate with his s.h.i.+rt neck unb.u.t.toned, and his waistcoat open when he did it. The thought first came upon him as we were talking about the pleasure we both always felt at the sight of a b.u.t.terfly. I told him that I used to chase them a little, but that I was afraid of brus.h.i.+ng the dust off their wings, and did not catch them. He told me how he used to kill all the white ones when he went to school, because they were Frenchmen. Mr. Simpson came in just as he was finis.h.i.+ng the poem. After he was gone, I wrote it down, and the other poems, and I read them all over to him....

William began to try to alter 'The b.u.t.terfly', and tired himself."

Compare the later poem 'To a b.u.t.terfly' (#2) (April 20), p. 297.--Ed.

THE EMIGRANT MOTHER

Composed March 16th and 17th, 1802.--Published 1807

[Suggested by what I have noticed in more than one French fugitive during the time of the French Revolution. If I am not mistaken the lines were composed at Sockburn when I was on a visit to Mary and her brothers.--I. F.]

In the editions of 1807 and 1815, this poem had no distinctive t.i.tle; but in the Wordsworth circle, it was known from the year 1802 as 'The Emigrant Mother', and at least one copy was transcribed with this t.i.tle in 1802. It was first published under that name in 1820. It was revised and altered in 1820, 1827, 1832, 1836, and more especially in 1845.

In Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal the following entries occur:

"Tuesday (March 16).--William went up into the orchard, and wrote a part of 'The Emigrant Mother'."

"Wednesday.--William went up into the orchard, and finished the poem.... I went and sate with W., and walked backwards and forwards in the orchard till dinner-time. He read me his poem."

This poem was included among those "founded on the Affections."--Ed.

Once in a lonely hamlet I sojourned In which a Lady driven from France did dwell; The big and lesser griefs with which she mourned, In friends.h.i.+p she to me would often tell.

This Lady, [1] dwelling upon British [2] ground, 5 Where she was childless, daily would [3] repair To a poor neighbouring cottage; as I found, For sake of a young Child whose home was there.

Once having seen her clasp with fond embrace This Child, I chanted to myself a lay, 10 Endeavouring, in our English tongue, to trace Such things as she unto the Babe might say: [4]