No More Learning

. . As we went up the vale of Brothers Water,
more and more cattle feeding, a hundred of them. William finished his
poem before we got to the foot of Kirkstone. There were hundreds of
cattle in the vale. . . . The walk up Kirkstone was very interesting. The
becks among the rocks were all alive. William shewed me the little
mossy streamlet which he had before loved, when he saw its bright
green track in the snow. The view above Ambleside very beautiful.
There we sate, and looked down on the green vale. We watched the crows
at a little distance from us become white as silver, as they flew in
the sunshine; and, when they went still farther, they looked like
shapes of water passing over the green fields. "

Ed.
* * * * *





THE REDBREAST CHASING THE BUTTERFLY [A]


Composed April 18, 1802. --Published 1807


[Observed, as described, in the then beautiful orchard, Town-end,
Grasmere. --I. F. ]

Included among the "Poems of the Fancy. "

In some editions this poem is assigned to the year 1806; but, in Dorothy
Wordsworth's Journal the following occurs, under date "Sunday, 18th"
(April 1802):

"A mild grey morning with rising vapours. We sate in the orchard.
William wrote the poem on the Robin and the Butterfly. . . . W. met me at
Rydal with the conclusion of the poem to the Robin. I read it to him
in bed. We left out some lines. "

Ed.