Note DK — PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1814 (continued 2)
Reading edition
Wordsworth's own children, Catherine and Thomas, were removed by death, in a manner very similar to this, in June and December 1812, while they were living in the Grasmere Parsonage. Compare the two sonnets—
Surprised by joy—impatient as the Wind, (1815)
and
Desponding Father! mark this altered bough, (1835).—ED.