No More Learning

. . we saw 1800. ]


[Variant 8:

1800.

. . . a lake. 1802.

The text of 1815 returns to that of 1800. ]


[Variant 9:

1827.

. . . the margin of the lake.
That way we turn'd our steps; nor was it long,
Ere making ready comments on the sight
Which then we saw, with one and the same voice
We all cried out, that he must be indeed
An idle man, who thus could lose a day 1800.

Did all cry out, that he must be indeed
An Idler, he who thus . . . 1815. ]



* * * * *


FOOTNOTE ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: A new road has destroyed this retirement. (MS. footnote in
Lord Coleridge's copy of the edition of 1836. )--Ed. ]


The text of this poem reached its final state in the edition of 1827.
The same is true of the poem which follows, 'To M. H. ', with the
exception of a single change.

In Wordsworth's early days at Grasmere, a wild woodland path of quiet
beauty led from Dove Cottage along the margin of the lake to the "Point"
referred to in this poem, leaving the eastern shore truly "safe in its
own privacy"--a "retired and difficult way"; the high-way road for
carriages being at that time over White Moss Common. The late Dr.
Arnold, of Rugby and Foxhowe, used to name the three roads from Rydal to
Grasmere thus: the highest, "Old Corruption"; the intermediate, "Bit by
bit Reform"; the lowest and most level, "Radical Reform.