The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth Volume I Part 27

1836.

There, by the door a h.o.a.ry-headed Sire Touched with his withered hand an ancient lyre; 1820.]

[Variant 43:

1836.

This and the following line were expanded from

Beneath an old-grey oak, as violets lie, 1820.]

[Variant 44:

1836.

... joined the holy sound; 1820.]

[Variant 45:

1836.

While ... 1820.]

[Variant 46:

1845.

Bend o'er th' abyss, the else impervious gloom 1820.

Hang o'er th' abyss:--... 1827.

... the abyss:--... 1832.]

[Variant 47:

1836.

Freshening the waste of sand with shades and springs.

--_She_, solitary, through the desart drear Spontaneous wanders, hand in hand with Fear. 1820.

By choice or doom a gipsy wanders here, Companionless, or hand in hand with fear; Lo! where she sits beneath yon s.h.a.ggy rock, A cowering shape half-seen through curling smoke. MS.]

[Variant 48:

1836.

The Grison gypsey here her tent hath placed, Sole human tenant of the piny waste; Her tawny skin, dark eyes, and glossy locks, Bend o'er the smoke that curls beneath the rocks.[iii] 1820.]

[Variant 49:

1845.

Lines 179-185 were subst.i.tuted in 1845 for

A giant moan along the forest swells Protracted, and the twilight storm foretels, And, ruining from the cliffs, their deafening load Tumbles,--the wildering Thunder slips abroad; On the high summits Darkness comes and goes, Hiding their fiery clouds, their rocks, and snows; The torrent, traversed by the l.u.s.tre broad, Starts like a horse beside the flashing road; In the roofed bridge, at that terrific hour, She seeks a shelter from the battering show'r.

--Fierce comes the river down; the crashing wood Gives way, and half it's pines torment the flood; [iv] Fearful, beneath, the Water-spirits call, And the bridge vibrates, tottering to its fall. 1820.

When rueful moans along the forest swell Protracted, and the twilight storm foretel, And, headlong from the cliffs, a deafening load Tumbles,--and wildering thunder slips abroad; When on the summits Darkness comes and goes, Hiding their fiery clouds, their rocks, and snows; And the fierce torrent, from the l.u.s.tre broad, Starts, like a horse beside the flashing road-- She seeks a covert from the battering shower In the roofed bridge; the bridge, in that dread hour, Itself all quaking at the torrent's power. 1836.]

[Variant 50:

1845.

Lines 186-195 were subst.i.tuted in 1845 for

--Heavy, and dull, and cloudy is the night; No star supplies the comfort of it's light, Glimmer the dim-lit Alps, dilated, round, And one sole light shifts in the vale profound; [s1]

While, [s2] opposite, the waning moon hangs still, And red, above her [s3] melancholy hill.

By the deep quiet gloom appalled, she sighs, [s4]

Stoops her sick head, and shuts her weary eyes.

She hears, upon the mountain forest's brow, The death-dog, howling loud and long, below; --Breaking th' ascending roar of desert floods, And insect buzz, that stuns the sultry woods, [s5]

On viewless fingers [s6] counts the valley-clock, Followed by drowsy crow of midnight c.o.c.k.

--Bursts from the troubled larch's giant boughs The pie, and, chattering, breaks the night's repose. [s7]

The dry leaves stir as with the serpent's walk, And, far beneath, Banditti voices talk; Behind her hill, [s8] the Moon, all crimson, rides, And his red eyes the slinking Water hides.

--Vexed by the darkness, from the piny gulf Ascending, nearer howls the famished wolf, [s9]

While thro' the stillness scatters wild dismay Her babe's small cry, that leads him to his prey. 1820.

s1-s9: see Sub-Variants below. txt. Ed.]

[Variant 51:

1836.

Now, pa.s.sing Urseren's open vale serene, Her quiet streams, and hills of downy green, Plunge with the Russ embrowned by Terror's breath, Where danger roofs the narrow walks of death; 1815.

Plunge where the Reuss with fearless might has rent His headlong way along a dark descent. MS.

In the edition of 1836 these two couplets of 1815 were compressed into one, and in that edition lines 200-201 preceded lines 198-199. They were transposed in 1840.]