-Ah me! all light is mute amid the gloom,
The interlunar cavern of the tomb. 1793-1832.

In broken sounds her elder child demand,
While toward the sky he lifts his pale bright hand, 1836.

--Alas! all light ... 1836.

Those eight lines were withdrawn in 1845.]

[Variant 80:

1836.

... painful ... 1793.]

[Variant 81:

1820.

The distant clock forgot, and chilling dew,
Pleas'd thro' the dusk their breaking smiles to view,

Only in the edition of 1793.]

[Variant 82:

1836.

... on her lap to play
Delighted, with the glow-worm's harmless ray
Toss'd light from hand to hand; while on the ground
Small circles of green radiance gleam around. 1793.]

[Variant 83:

1836.

Oh! when the bitter showers her path assail,
And roars between the hills the torrent gale, 1793.

... sleety showers ... 1827.]

[Variant 84:

1827.

Scarce heard, their chattering lips her shoulder chill,
And her cold back their colder bosoms thrill;
All blind she wilders o'er the lightless heath,
Led by Fear's cold wet hand, and dogg'd by Death;
Death, as she turns her neck the kiss to seek,
Breaks off the dreadful kiss with angry shriek.
Snatch'd from her shoulder with despairing moan,
She clasps them at that dim-seen roofless stone.--
"Now ruthless Tempest launch thy deadliest dart!
Fall fires--but let us perish heart to heart." 1793.

The first, third, and fourth of these couplets were omitted
from the edition of 1820. The whole passage was withdrawn in
1827.]

[Variant 85:

1820.

Soon shall the Light'ning hold before thy head
His torch, and shew them slumbering in their bed,

Only in the edition of 1793.]

[Variant 86:

1820.

While, by the scene compos'd, the breast subsides,
Nought wakens or disturbs it's tranquil tides;
Nought but the char that for the may-fly leaps,
And breaks the mirror of the circling deeps;
Or clock, that blind against the wanderer born
Drops at his feet, and stills his droning horn.
--The whistling swain that plods his ringing way
Where the slow waggon winds along the bay;
The sugh [v] of swallow flocks that twittering sweep,
The solemn curfew swinging long and deep;
The talking boat that moves with pensive sound,
Or drops his anchor down with plunge