Song

First publ. B & P vii (DR & L), 6 Nov. 1845; repr. 1849, 1863 (when it was placed in Lyrics: see Appendix A, p. 464), 1865², 1868, 1872, 1888. Our text is 1845. A fair-copy MS, the text of which is intermediate between 1849 and 1863, is in ABL, dated ‘Farnham, Aug. 23 ‘52’; EBB. wrote to her friend Julia Martin on 2 Sept. 1852: ‘Once we went to Farnham, and spent two days with Mr. and Mrs. Paine there in that lovely heathy country, and met Mr. Kingsley, the “Christian Socialist”’ (Letters of EBB ii 83).