[Footnote A:  D. D., not M. D. The physician is referred to in the fifth stanza.—­Ed.]

[Footnote B:  Compare Thomson’s description of the Bard, in his ’Castle of Indolence’ (canto ii., stanza xxxiii.): 

  He came, the bard, a little Druid wight,
  Of withered aspect; but his eye was keen,
  With sweetness mixed.  In russet brown bedight,
  He crept along, etc.

Ed.]

* * * * *

“STRANGE FITS OF PASSION HAVE I KNOWN”

Composed 1799.—­Published 1800

[Written in Germany, 1799.—­I.F.]

One of the “Poems founded on the Affections.”  In MS. Wordsworth gave, as the title, “A Reverie,” but erased it.—­Ed.

  Strange fits of passion have I known:  [1]
  And I will dare to tell,
  But in the Lover’s ear alone,
  What once to me befel.

  When she I loved looked every day 5
  Fresh as a rose in June, [2]
  I to her cottage bent my way,
  Beneath an [3] evening moon.

  Upon the moon I fixed my eye,
  All over the wide lea; 10
  With quickening pace my horse drew nigh [4]
  Those paths so dear to me.

  And now we reached the orchard-plot;
  And, as we climbed the hill,
  The sinking moon to Lucy’s cot 15
  Came near, and nearer still. [5]

  In one of those sweet dreams I slept,
  Kind Nature’s gentlest boon! 
  And all the while my eyes I kept
  On the descending moon. 20

  My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
  He raised, and never stopped: 
  When down behind the cottage roof,
  At once, the bright moon dropped. [6]

  What fond and wayward thoughts will slide 25
  Into a Lover’s head! 
  “O mercy!” to myself I cried,
  “If Lucy should be dead!”

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1: 

1832.

  ...  I have known, 1800.]

[Variant 2: 

1836.

  When she I lov’d, was strong and gay
  And like a rose in June, 1800.]

[Variant 3: 

1836.

  ... the ... 1800.]

[Variant 4: 

1836.

  My horse trudg’d on, and we drew nigh 1800.]

[Variant 5: 

1836.

  Towards the roof of Lucy’s cot
  The moon descended still. [a] 1800.]

[Variant 6: 

1815.

  ... the planet dropp’d. 1800.]

* * * * *

SUB-FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Sub-Footnote a:  Compare the lines in Arthur Hugh Clough’s poem, ’The Stream of Life’: