"Strange fits of passion have I known"

Composed 1799.—Published 1800

[Written in Germany, 1799.—I. F.]

One of the "Poems founded on the Affections." In MS. Wordsworth gave, as the title, "A Reverie," but erased it.—Ed.

The Poem

text variant footnote line number

Strange fits of passion have I known:
And I will dare to tell,
But in the Lover's ear alone,
What once to me befel.

When she I loved looked every day
Fresh as a rose in June,
I to her cottage bent my way,
Beneath an evening moon.

Upon the moon I fixed my eye,
All over the wide lea;
With quickening pace my horse drew nigh
Those paths so dear to me.

And now we reached the orchard-plot;
And, as we climbed the hill,
The sinking moon to Lucy's cot
Came near, and nearer still.

In one of those sweet dreams I slept,
Kind Nature's gentlest boon!
And all the while my eyes I kept
On the descending moon.

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and never stopped:
When down behind the cottage roof,
At once, the bright moon dropped.

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide
Into a Lover's head!
"O mercy!" to myself I cried,
"If Lucy should be dead!"

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Variant 1:

1832

... I have known,

1800

Variant 2:

1836

When she I lov'd, was strong and gay
And like a rose in June,

1800

Variant 3:

1836

... the ...

1800

Variant 4:

1836

My horse trudg'd on, and we drew nigh

1800

Variant 5:

1836

Towards the roof of Lucy's cot
The moon descended stilla.

1800

Variant 6:

1815

... the planet dropp'd.

1800

Sub-Footnote a:

Compare the lines in Arthur Hugh Clough's poem, The Stream of Life:

'And houses stand on either hand
And thou descendest still.'

Ed.

return to footnote mark

1799 Contents
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