No More Learning

He all the country could outrun,
Could leave both man and horse behind;
And often, ere the race was done,
He reeled and was stone-blind.
And still there's something in the world
At which his heart rejoices;
For when the chiming hounds are out,
He dearly loves their voices!

Old Ruth works out of doors with him,
And does what Simon cannot do;
For she, not over stout of limb,
Is stouter of the two.
And though you with your utmost skill
From labour could not wean them,
Alas! 'tis very little, all
Which they can do between them.

Beside their moss-grown hut of clay,
Not twenty paces from the door,
A scrap of land they have, but they
Are poorest of the poor.
This scrap of land he from the heath
Enclosed when he was stronger;
But what avails the land to them,
Which they can till no longer?



Editions Editions Edition Edition Editions
1798 and 1800. 1802-1815. 1820. 1827. 1832-1849.

1 1 1 a 1 a 1 a
2 b 2 b 2 b

2 2 3 4 a 3 a
3 b 5 b

3 3 4 a 3 a 6
5 b 5 b

4 6 6 6 4 a
3 b

5 4 5 a 5 a 5 a
4 b 4 b 4 b

6 5 7 8 8

7 7 8 7 7

8 8 9 9 9





APPENDIX VII

'Lines written in Early Spring', ll. 11, 12

Compare the 'Laws of Manu', i. 49:

"Vegetables, as well as animals, have internal consciousness, and are
sensible of pleasure and pain.
"

This I have received from a correspondent, but I have never seen the
English version. --Ed.





* * * * *





APPENDIX VIII

'An Evening Walk'


(1) l. 219,

"His neck, a varying arch, between his towering wings. "

Compare 'Paradise Lost', book vii. l. 438.


(2) l. 286, in the footnote reading of 1793, the line occurs

"Or clock, that blind against the wanderer borne. "

This refers to the winged beetle, the buzzard-clock.


(3) l. 323, "The bird, etc. " The owl. Compare Cowper's 'Task', i. ll.
205, 206.