If he really wrote "petty," he may have meant
either small rills (rillets), or used the word as Shakespeare used it,
for "pelting" rills.
either small rills (rillets), or used the word as Shakespeare used it,
for "pelting" rills.
William Wordsworth
Had . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 22:
1832.
She could not blame him, or chastise; 1807. ]
[Variant 23: This stanza was added in the edition of 1815. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: The title in the editions of 1807 to 1820 was 'The Blind
Highland Boy. (A Tale told by the Fireside. )'
This poem gave its title to a separate division in the second volume of
the edition of 1807, viz. "The Blind Highland Boy; with other
Poems. "--Ed. ]
[Footnote B: This reading occurs in all the editions. But Wordsworth,
whose MS. was not specially clear, may have written, or meant to write
"petty," (a much better word), and not perceived the mistake when
revising the sheets.
If he really wrote "petty," he may have meant
either small rills (rillets), or used the word as Shakespeare used it,
for "pelting" rills. --Ed. ]
[Footnote C: Compare Tennyson's 'In Memoriam', stanza xix. :
'There twice a day the Severn fills;
The salt sea-water passes by,
And hushes half the babbling Wye,
And makes a silence in the hills, etc. '
Ed. ]
[Footnote D: This and the following six stanzas were added in 1815. --Ed. ]
[Footnote E: Writing to Walter Scott, from Coleorton, on Jan. 20, 1807,
Wordsworth sent him this stanza of the poem, and asked
"Could you furnish me, by application to any of your Gaelic friends, a
phrase in that language which could take its place in the following
verse of eight syllables, and have the following meaning. "
He adds,
"The above is part of a little poem which I have written on a Highland
story told me by an eye-witness . . . "
This is the nearest clue we have to the date of the composition of the
poem. --Ed. ]
It is recorded in Dampier's Voyages that a Boy, the Son of a Captain of
a Man of War, seated himself in a Turtle-shell and floated in it from
the shore to his Father's Ship, which lay at anchor at the distance of
half a mile. Upon the suggestion of a Friend, I have substituted such a
Shell for that less elegant vessel in which my blind voyager did
actually intrust himself to the dangerous current of Loch Levin, as was
related to me by an Eye-witness.
