No More Learning

--I. F. ]

One of the "Evening Voluntaries. "--Ed.




The sun has long been set,
The stars are out by twos and threes,
The little birds are piping yet
Among the bushes and trees; [1]
There's a cuckoo, and one or two thrushes, 5
And a far-off wind that rushes,
And a sound of water that gushes, [2]
And the cuckoo's sovereign cry
Fills all the hollow of the sky.

Who would go "parading" 10
In London, "and masquerading," [B]
On such a night of June
With that beautiful soft half-moon,
And all these innocent blisses?
On such a night as this is! 15


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VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:

1807.

. . . and the trees; 1836.

The edition of 1837 returns to the text of 1807. ]


[Variant 2:

1835.

And a noise of wind that rushes,
With a noise of water that gushes; 1807.
]


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FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: It appeared in 1807 as No. II. of "Moods of my own Mind,"
and not again till the publication of "Yarrow Revisited" in 1835. --Ed. ]


[Footnote B: Compare:

'At operas and plays parading,
Mortgaging, gambling, masquerading. '

Burns, 'The Two Dogs, a Tale', II. 124-5. --Ed. ]


"June 8th (1802). --After tea William came out and walked, and wrote
that poem, 'The sun has long been set,' etc. He walked on our own
path, and wrote the lines; he called me into the orchard and there
repeated them to me. "

(Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal. ) The "Friend in whose presence the lines
were thrown off," was his sister. --Ed.





* * * * *





COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, SEPTEMBER 3, 1802


Composed July 31, 1802. --Published 1807


[Written on the roof of a coach, on my way to France.