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Fragments of "Nutting" in The Prelude

Below are scanned images of The Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850 | William Wordsworth, edited by Jonathan Wordsworth, M.H. Abrams, and Stephen Gill, 1979 with lines and fragments from "Nutting." Wordsworth himself confirmed that these lines were meant to eventually lay to rest in his epic (see editor's footnotes to the text), though it is rewarding to trace the evolution of a memory as rich and enticing as this. When I first began reading The Prelude, I was delighted when I came upon these lines intermixed with so many other "spots in time." Following the trail to this moment of witness solidifies for me the truly evolving nature of the imagination and I find myself falling more and more in love with the work as its rich history reveals itself to me. 

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As we near the end of the path, I want to urge you Reader to consider submitting feedback below. Suggestions or comments that would be especially helpful would be other considerations for the design of the website, accessibility tips or strategies, insights into the digitization of WW's later-printed publications, or really any other feedback you might have! This edition is meant to be an evolving record of a complex transmission and should be treated as editable as the poem it represents. Thank you for reading!

1799 Two Part Prelude

 

...The woods of autumn, and their hidden bowers

With milk-white clusters hung;7 the rod and line—

True symbol of the foolishness of hope—

7. Lines 234-36 are seemingly a reference to Nutting (October-December 1798), which Wordsworth later claimed has been written for The Prelude

1805 Prelude

 

...The woods of autumn, and their hazel bowers

With milk-white clusters hung;2 the rod and line—

True symbol of the foolishness of hope—

2. Lines 234-36 are seemingly a reference to Nutting (October-December 1798), which Wordsworth later claimed had been written for The Prelude, though there is no manuscript evidence to suggest that it was at any time incorporated in 1799. 

1850 Prelude

 

...The woods of autumn, and their hazel bowers

With milk-white clusters hung;2 the rod and line—

True symbol of hope's foolishness, whose strong...

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