Oh! dreadful price of being to resign
    All that is dear in being! better far
    In Want’s most lonely cave till death to pine,
    Unseen, unheard, unwatched by any star;
    Or in the streets and walks where proud men are,
    Better our dying bodies to obtrude,
    Than dog-like, wading at the heels of war,
    Protract a curst existence, with the brood
    That lap (their very nourishment!) their brother’s blood.

Only in the editions of 1798 and 1800.]

[Variant 35: 

1842.

    It would thy brain unsettle even to hear. 1798.]

[Variant 36: 

1842.

    Peaceful as some immeasurable plain
   By the first beams of dawning light impress’d, 1798.]

[Variant 37: 

1827.

    ... has its hour of rest,
    That comes not to the human mourner’s breast. 1798.

    I too was calm, though heavily distress’d! 1802.]

[Variant 38: 

1842.

    Remote from man, and storms of mortal care,
    A heavenly silence did the waves invest;
    I looked and looked along the silent air,
    Until it seemed to bring a joy to my despair. 1798.

    Oh me, how quiet sky and ocean were! 
    My heart was healed within me, I was bless’d. 
    And looked, and looked ... 1802.

    My heart was hushed within me, ... 1815.

    As quiet all within me, ... 1827.]

[Variant 39: 

1800.

    Where looks inhuman dwelt on festering heaps! 1798.]

[Variant 40:  The following stanza appeared only in the editions 1798-1805: 

    Yet does that burst of woe congeal my frame,
    When the dark streets appeared to heave and gape,
    While like a sea the storming army came,
    And Fire from Hell reared his gigantic shape,
    And Murder, by the ghastly gleam, and Rape
    Seized their joint prey, the mother and the child! 
    But from these crazing thoughts my brain, escape! 
   —­For weeks the balmy air breathed soft and mild,
    And on the gliding vessel Heaven and Ocean smiled. 1798.

    At midnight once the storming Army came,
    Yet do I see the miserable sight,
    The Bayonet, the Soldier, and the Flame
    That followed us and faced us in our flight: 
    When Rape and Murder by the ghastly light
    Seized their joint prey, the Mother and the Child! 
    But I must leave these thoughts.—­From night to night,
    From day to day, the air breathed soft and mild;
    And on the gliding vessel Heaven and Ocean smiled. 1802-5.]

[Variant 41: 

1802.

    And oft, robb’d of my perfect mind, I thought
    At last my feet a resting-place had found: 
    Here will I weep in peace, (so fancy wrought,) 1798.]