Fair Swan! by all a mother’s joys caress’d,
    Haply some wretch has ey’d, and call’d thee bless’d;
    Who faint, and beat by summer’s breathless ray,
    Hath dragg’d her babes along this weary way;
    While arrowy fire extorting feverish groans
    Shot stinging through her stark o’er labour’d bones. 
   —­With backward gaze, lock’d joints, and step of pain,
    Her seat scarce left, she strives, alas! in vain,
    To teach their limbs along the burning road
    A few short steps to totter with their load,
    Shakes her numb arm that slumbers with its weight,
    And eyes through tears the mountain’s shadeless height;
    And bids her soldier come her woes to share,
    Asleep on Bunker’s [iv] charnel hill afar;
    For hope’s deserted well why wistful look? 
    Chok’d is the pathway, and the pitcher broke. 1793.

In 1793 this passage occupied the place of the six lines of the final text (250-255).

... and called thee bless’d; The whilst upon some sultry summer’s day She dragged her babes along this weary way; Or taught their limbs along the burning road A few short steps to totter with their load. 1820.

    The while ... 1832.]

[Variant 78: 

1845.

    ... a shooting star ... 1793.]

[Variant 79: 

1845.

    I hear, while in the forest depth he sees,
    The Moon’s fix’d gaze between the opening trees,
    In broken sounds her elder grief demand,
    And skyward lift, like one that prays, his hand,
    If, in that country, where he dwells afar,
    His father views that good, that kindly star;
   —­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Those eight lines were withdrawn in 1845.]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.