still
enlivens
his cheek.
William Wordsworth
Now farewell, old Adam! when low [32] thou art laid,
May one blade of grass spring over [33] thy head; 90
And I hope that thy grave, wheresoever it be,
Will hear the wind sigh through the leaves of a tree.
With this picture, which was taken from real life, compare the
imaginative one of 'The Reverie of Poor Susan' [vol. i. p. 226]; and see
(to make up the deficiencies of this class) 'The Excursion, passim'. --W.
W. 1837.
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1837.
Erect as a sunflower he stands, and the streak
Of the unfaded rose is expressed on his cheek. 1815.
. . .
still enlivens his cheek. 1827. ]
[Variant 2:
1840.
There fashion'd that countenance, which, in spite of a stain 1815. ]
[Variant 3:
There's an old man in London, the prime of old men,
You may hunt for his match through ten thousand and ten,
Of prop or of staff, does he walk, does he run,
No more need has he than a flow'r of the sun. 1800.
This stanza appeared only in 1800, occupying the place of the three
first stanzas in the final text. ]
[Variant 4:
1815.
. . . name . . . 1800. ]
[Variant 5:
1815.
