No More Learning

]


[Variant 14:

1807.

My yearnings are allayed by thee,
My heaviness is turned to glee. MS. ]


* * * * *

SUB-FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Sub-Footnote a: In a letter to Barron Field (24th Oct. 1828),
Wordsworth says that his substitution of the text of 1827 for that of
1807, was due to the objections of Coleridge. --Ed. ]





* * * * *





TO THE CUCKOO


Composed 1802. --Published 1807


[Composed in the Orchard at Town-end, 1804. --I. F. ]

One of the "Poems of the Imagination. "--Ed.




O blithe New-comer! I have heard,
I hear thee and rejoice.
O Cuckoo!
shall I call thee Bird,
Or but a wandering Voice? [A]

While I am lying on the grass 5
Thy twofold shout I hear,
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off, and near. [1]

Though babbling only to the Vale,
Of sunshine and of flowers, 10
Thou bringest unto me a tale [2]
Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome, darling of the Spring!
Even yet thou art to me
No bird, but an invisible thing, [3] 15
A voice, a mystery;

The same whom in my school-boy days
I listened to; that Cry
Which made me look a thousand ways
In bush, and tree, and sky. 20

To seek thee did I often rove
Through woods and on the green;
And thou wert still a hope, a love;
Still longed for, never seen.

And I can listen to thee yet; 25
Can lie upon the plain
And listen, till I do beget
That golden time again.

O blessed Bird! the earth we pace
Again appears to be 30
An unsubstantial, faery place;
That is fit home for Thee!


* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1845.

While I am lying on the grass,
I hear thy restless shout:
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
About, and all about! 1807.

Thy loud note smites my ear! --
From hill to hill it seems to pass,
At once far off and near! 1815.

Thy loud note smites my ear!