Drawn by what peculiar spell,
  By what charm of sight or smell,
  Does the dim-eyed curious Bee,
  Labouring for her waxen cells,
  Fondly settle upon Thee 45
  Prized above all buds and bells
  Opening daily at thy side,
  By the season multiplied? [4]

  Thou art not beyond the moon,
  But a thing “beneath our shoon:”  [A] 50
  Let the bold Discoverer thrid
  In his bark the polar sea;
  Rear who will a pyramid; [5]
  Praise it is enough for me,
  If there be but three or four 55
  Who will love my little Flower.

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1836.

  ... risen ... 1807.]

[Variant 2: 

1832.

  ... shelter’d ... 1807.]

[Variant 3: 

1845.

  Bright as any of the train 1807.]

[Variant 4:  This stanza was added in 1845. (See note [Footnote B, To the Small Celandine], p. 302.)]

[Variant 5: 

1845.

  Let, as old Magellen did,
  Others roam about the sea;
  Build who will a pyramid; [a] 1807.

  Let, with bold advent’rous skill,
  Others thrid the polar sea;
  Rear a pyramid who will; 1820.

  Let the bold Adventurer thrid
  In his bark the polar sea;
  Rear who will a pyramid; 1827.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  This may be an imperfect reminiscence of ‘Comus’, ll. 634-5.—­Ed.]

* * * * *

SUB-FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Sub-Footnote a:  Barron Field asked Wordsworth to restore these lines of 1807, and Wordsworth promised to do so, but never did it.—­Ed.]

The following is an extract from Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere Journal.  Saturday, May 1.

“A heavenly morning.  We went into the garden, and sowed the scarlet beans about the house.  It was a clear sky.  I sowed the flowers, William helped me.  We then went and sat in the orchard till dinner time.  It was very hot.  William wrote ‘The Celandine’ (second part).  We planned a shed, for the sun was too much for us.”

Ed.

* * * * *

STANZAS WRITTEN IN MY POCKET COPY OF THOMSON’S “CASTLE OF INDOLENCE”

Begun 9th May, finished 11th May, 1802.—­Published 1815

[Composed in the orchard, Town-end, Grasmere, Coleridge living with us much at this time:  his son Hartley has said, that his father’s character and habits are here preserved in a livelier way than in anything that has been written about him.  I.F.]