The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth — Volume 1 (of 8) · Chapter 12"A whirl-blast from behind the hill"
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Observed in the holly-grove at Alfoxden, where these verses were written in the spring of 1799A. I had the pleasure of again seeing, with dear friends, this grove in unimpaired beauty forty-one years afterB.—I. F.]
Classed among the "Poems of the Fancy."—Ed.
Variant 1:
Variant 2:
Variant 3:
The following additional lines occur in the editions 1800 to 1805:
Oh! grant me Heaven a heart at ease That I may never cease to find, Even in appearances like these Enough to nourish and to stir my mind!
Footnote A:
Dorothy Wordsworth's Journal gives the date 1798, and in the spring of 1799 the Wordsworths were not at Alfoxden but in Germany.—Ed.
Footnote B:
The friends were Mrs. Wordsworth, Miss Fenwick, Edward and Dora Quillinan, and William Wordsworth (the poet's son). The date was May 13, 1841.—Ed.
Footnote C:
Compare a letter from Wordsworth to Sir George Beaumont, written in November 1806, and one to Lady Beaumont in December 1806.—Ed.
Footnote D:
"March 18, 1708. The Coleridges left us. A cold windy morning. Walked with them half-way. On our return, sheltered under the hollies during a hail shower. The withered leaves danced with the hailstones. William wrote a description of the storm."
(Dorothy Wordsworth's Alfoxden Journal).—Ed.