1820.

    Up! up! my friend, and clear your looks,
    Why all this toil and trouble? 
    Up! up! my friend, and quit your books,
    Or surely you’ll grow double. 1798.]

[Variant 2: 

1815.

    And he is ... 1798.]

[Variant 3: 

1837.

    ... these ... 1798.]

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FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  A mediaeval anticipation of this may be quoted in a footnote.

  “Believe me, as my own experience,” once said St. Bernard, “you will
  find more in the woods than in books; the forests and rocks will teach
  you more than you can learn from the greatest Masters.”

I quote this, as sent to me by a friend; but the only passage at all approaching to it which I can verify is the following: 

“Quidquid in Scripturis valet, quidquid in eis spiritualiter sentit, maxime in silvis et in agris meditando et orando se confitetur accepisse, et in hoc nullos aliquando se magistros habuisse nisi quercus et fagos joco illo suo gratioso inter amicos dicere solet.”

See the appendix to Mabillon’s edition of ‘Bernardi Opera’, ii. 1072, ’S.  Bernardi Vita, et Res Gesta, auctore Guilielmo’.—­Ed.]

* * * * *

THE COMPLAINT OF A FORSAKEN INDIAN WOMAN

Composed 1798.—­Published 1798.

When a Northern Indian, from sickness, is unable to continue his journey with his companions; he is left behind, covered over with Deer-skins, and is supplied with water, food, and fuel if the situation of the place will afford it.  He is informed of the track which his companions intend to pursue, and if he is unable to follow, or overtake them, he perishes alone in the Desart; unless he should have the good fortune to fall in with some other Tribes of Indians.  It is unnecessary to add that the females are equally, or still more, exposed to the same fate.  See that very interesting work, Hearne’s ’Journey from Hudson’s Bay to the Northern Ocean’.  When the Northern Lights, as the same writer informs us, vary their position in the air, they make a rustling and a crackling noise.  This circumstance is alluded to in the first stanza of the following poem.—­W.  W. 1798.

  [At Alfoxden, in 1798, where I read Hearne’s ‘Journey’ with deep
  interest.  It was composed for the volume of “Lyrical Ballads.”—­I.  F.]

Classed among the “Poems founded on the Affections.”—­Ed.

* * * * *

THE POEM