"This was written at Alfoxden, in Somersetshire, in the spring of 1798, under circumstances somewhat remarkable. The little girl, who is the heroine, I met with in the area of Goderich Castle, in the year 1793.

"I composed it while walking in the grove at Alfoxden. I composed the last stanza first, having begun with the last line. When it was all but finished I came in and recited it to Mr. Coleridge and my sister, and said, 'A prefatory stanza must be added, and I should sit down to our little tea-meal with greater pleasure if my task was finished.' I mentioned in substance what I wished to be expressed, and Coleridge immediately threw off the stanza thus:

A little child, dear brother Jem.

I objected to the rhyme 'dear brother Jem,' as being ludicrous; but we all enjoyed the joke of hitching in our friend James Tobin's name, who was familiarly called Jem. He was the brother of the dramatist. The said Jem got a sight of the 'Lyrical Ballads,' as it was going to press at Bristol, during which time I was residing in that city. One evening he came to me with a grave face, and said, 'Wordsworth, I have seen the volume that Coleridge and you are about to publish. There is one poem in it which I earnestly entreat you will cancel, for, if published, it will make you everlastingly ridiculous.' I answered that I felt much obliged by the interest he took in my good name as a writer, and begged to know what was the unfortunate piece he alluded to. He said 'It is called, We are Seven,' 'Nay,' said I, 'that shall takes its chance, however;' and he left me in despair."

"The last stanza, 'The cocks did crow, and the moon did shine so cold,' was the foundation of the whole. The words were reported to me by my dear friend Thomas Poole; but I since heard the same reported of other idiots. Let me add, that this long poem was composed in the groves of Alfoxden, almost extempore; not a word, I believe, being corrected, though one stanza was omitted. I mention this in gratitude to those happy moments, for, in truth, I never wrote anything with so much glee."

"Peter Bell was founded upon an anecdote which I had read in a newspaper of an ass being found hanging his head over a canal, in a wretched posture. Upon examination a dead body was found in the water, and proved to be the body of its master. In the woods of Alfoxden I used to take great delight in noticing the habits, tricks, and physiognomy of asses; and I have no doubt that I was put upon writing the poem of 'Peter Bell' out of liking for the creature that is so often dreadfully abused. The countenance, gait, and figure of Peter were taken from a wild rover with whom I walked from Builth, on the river Wye, downwards, nearly as far as the town of Hay. He told me strange stories. It has always been a pleasure to me, through life, to catch at every opportunity that has occured in my rambles of becoming acquainted with this class of people. The number of Peter's wives was taken from the trespasses, in this way, of a lawless creature who lived in the county of Durham, and used to be attended by many women, sometimes not less than half-a-dozen as disorderly as himself;