* * * * *

FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  It had appeared in ‘The Morning Post’, February 26, 1803, under the initials W. L. D.—­Ed.]

* * * * *

“IT IS A BEAUTEOUS EVENING, CALM AND FREE”

Composed August, 1802.—­Published 1807

[This was composed on the beach near Calais, in the autumn of 1802.—­I.  F.]

One of the “Miscellaneous Sonnets.”  In 1807 it was No. 19 of that series.—­Ed.

  It is a beauteous evening, calm and free, [1]
  The holy time is quiet as a Nun
  Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
  Is sinking down in its tranquillity;
  The gentleness of heaven broods o’er the Sea:  [2] 5
  Listen! [3] the mighty Being is awake,
  And doth with his eternal motion make
  A sound like thunder—­everlastingly. 
  Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here, [A]
  If thou appear untouched by solemn thought, [4] 10
  Thy nature is not therefore less divine: 
  Thou liest in Abraham’s bosom all the year;
  And worshipp’st at the Temple’s inner shrine,
  God being with thee when we know it not. [B]

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1807.

  Air sleeps,—­from strife or stir the clouds are free; 1837.

  A fairer face of evening cannot be; 1840.

The text of 1845 returns to that of 1807.]

[Variant 2: 

1837.

  ... is on the Sea:  1807.]

[Variant 3: 

1807.

  But list! ... 1837.

The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807.]

[Variant 4: 

1845.

  Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,
  If thou appear’st untouch’d by solemn thought, 1807.

  Dear Child! dear happy Girl! if thou appear
  Heedless—­untouched with awe or serious thought, 1837.

  Heedless-unawed, untouched with serious thought, 1838.

The text of 1840 returns to that of 1807.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A:  I thought, for some time, that the “girl” referred to was Dorothy Wordsworth.  Her brother used to speak, and to write, of her under many names, “Emily,” “Louisa,” etc.; and to call her a “child” in 1802—­a “child of Nature” she was to the end of her days—­or a “girl,” seemed quite natural.  However, a more probable suggestion was made by Mr. T. Hutchinson to Professor Dowden, that it refers to the girl Caroline mentioned in Dorothy Wordsworth’s Journal.