Unwilling to be unnecessarily particular, I have assigned this 
      poem to the dates 1793 and '94; but in fact much of the "Female 
      Vagrant's" story was composed at least two years before. All that 
      relates to her sufferings as a sailor's wife in America, and her 
      condition of mind during her voyage home, were faithfully taken 
      from the report made to me of her own case by a friend who had 
      been subjected to the same trials and affected in the same way. 
      Mr. Coleridge, when I first became acquainted with him, was so 
      much impressed with this poem, that it would have encouraged me to 
      publish the whole as it then stood; but the mariner's fate 
      appeared to me so tragical as to require a treatment more subdued 
      and yet more strictly applicable in expression than I had at first 
      given to it. This fault was corrected nearly fifty years 
      afterwards, when I determined to publish the whole. It may be 
      worth while to remark, that, though the incidents of this attempt 
      do only in a small degree produce each other, and it deviates 
      accordingly from the general rule by which narrative pieces ought 
      to be governed, it is not therefore wanting in continuous hold 
      upon the mind, or in unity, which is effected by the identity of 
      moral interest that places the two personages upon the same 
      footing in the reader's sympathies. My rambles over many parts of 
      Salisbury Plain put me, as mentioned in the preface, upon writing 
      this poem, and left on my mind imaginative impressions the force 
      of which I have felt to this day. From that district I proceeded 
      to Bath, Bristol, and so on to the banks of the Wye, where I took 
      again to travelling on foot. In remembrance of that part of my 
      journey, which was in '93, I began the verses--"Five years have 
      passed."
<BR><BR>
<h3>ADVERTISEMENT</h3>
<h4>PREFIXED TO THE FIRST EDITION OF THIS POEM, PUBLISHED IN 1842</h4>
Not less than one-third of the following poem, though it has 
      from time to time been altered in the expression, was published so 
      far back as the year 1798, under the title of "The Female 
      Vagrant." The extract is of such length that an apology seems to 
      be required for reprinting it here: but it was necessary to 
      restore it to its original position, or the rest would have been 
      unintelligible. The whole was written before the close of the year 
      1794, and I will detail, rather as matter of literary biography 
      than for any other reason, the circumstances under which it was 
      produced.
<BR><BR>During the latter part of the summer of 1793, having passed a 
      month in the Isle of Wight, in view of the fleet which was then 
      preparing for sea off Portsmouth at the commencement of the war, I 
      left the place with melancholy forebodings. The American war was 
      still fresh in memory. The struggle which was beginning, and which 
      many thought would be brought to a speedy close by the 
      irresistible arms of Great Britain being added to those of the 
      allies, I was assured in my own mind would be of long continuance, 
      and productive of distress and misery beyond all possible 
      calculation. This conviction was pressed upon me by having been a 
      witness, during a long residence in revolutionary France, of the 
      spirit which prevailed in that country. After leaving the Isle of 
      Wight, I spent two days in wandering on foot over Salisbury Plain, 
      which, though cultivation was then widely spread through parts of 
      it, had upon the whole a still more impressive appearance than it 
      now retains.
<BR><BR>The monuments and traces of antiquity, scattered in abundance 
      over that region, led me unavoidably to compare what we know or 
      guess of those remote times with certain aspects of modern 
      society, and with calamities, principally those consequent upon 
      war, to which, more than other classes of men, the poor are 
      subject. In those reflections, joined with particular facts that 
      had come to my knowledge, the following stanzas originated.
<BR><BR>In conclusion, to obviate some distraction in the minds of those 
      who are well acquainted with Salisbury Plain, it may be proper to 
      say, that of the features described as belonging to it, one or two 
      are taken from other desolate parts of England.