EDITOR'S NOTE. FOLLOWING, as the present edition does, the last text of Wordsworth's lifetime, 1849-50, "The Excursion" is given immediately after the "Ode. Intimations of Immortality." "The Prelude follows as a poem of posthumous publication. Had this course not been adopted, the whole of "The Excursion" with Appendices and Indexes would have been too bulky for one volume, and "The Excursion" must have been divided between vol. vi. and vol. vii., which would have been highly undesirable. The reader, however, must bear in mind that " The Prelude" is a poem introductory to the unfinished "Recluse," of which "The Excursion," designed for the Second Part, was the only Part completed. The Prelude," therefore, should properly be read before "The Excursion." E. D. |