In some future edition I purpose to place it among that class of poems.

It was in that neighbourhood I first became acquainted with the ocean and its appearances and movements.

My infancy and early childhood were passed at Cockermouth, about eight miles from the coast, and I well remember that mysterious awe with which I used to listen to anything said about storms and shipwrecks.

Sea-shells of many descriptions were common in the town, and I was not a little surprised when I heard Mr.
Landor had denounced me as a Plagiarist from himself for having described a boy applying a sea-shell to his ear, and listening to it for intimation of what was going on in its native element.

This I had done myself scores of times, and it was a belief among us that we could know from the sound whether the tide was ebbing or flowing.
382.