The event, With all the sorrow that it brought, appeared 310 A chastisement; and when I called to mind That day so lately past, when from the crag I looked in such anxiety of hope; With trite reflections of morality, Yet in the deepest passion, I bowed low 315 To God, Who thus corrected my desires; And, afterwards, the wind and sleety rain, And all the business of the elements, The single sheep, and the one blasted tree, And the bleak music from that old stone wall, 320 The noise of wood and water, and the mist That on the line of each of those two roads Advanced in such indisputable shapes; All these were kindred spectacles and sounds To which I oft repaired, and thence would drink, 325 As at a fountain; and on winter nights, Down to this very time, when storm and rain Beat on my roof, or, haply, at noon-day, While in a grove I walk, whose lofty trees, Laden with summer's thickest foliage, rock 330 In a strong wind, some working of the spirit, Some inward agitations thence are brought, Whate'er their office, whether to beguile Thoughts over busy in the course they took, Or animate an hour of vacant ease.

335 * * * * * FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT [Footnote A: Compare Shakespeare's "Stealing and giving odour." ('Twelfth Night', act I.scene i.l.

7.)--Ed.] [Footnote B: Mary Hutchinson .-- Ed.] [Footnote C: Compare the 'Ode, Intimations of Immortality', stanzas v.
and ix .-- Ed.] [Footnote D: Either amongst the Lorton Fells, or the north-western slopes of Skiddaw .-- Ed.] [Footnote E: His sister .-- Ed.] [Footnote F: The year was evidently 1783, but the locality is difficult to determine.

It may have been one or other of two places.

Wordsworth's father died at Penrith, and it was there that the sons went for their Christmas holiday.