Yet, with his infants, man
undaunted creeps
And hangs his small wood-hut
upon the steeps,
Where’er, below, amid
the savage scene
Peeps out a little speck of
smiling green.
A garden-plot the mountain
air perfumes,
Mid the dark pines a little
orchard blooms;
A zig-zag path from the domestic
skiff,
Threading the painful crag,
surmounts the cliff. 1815.
... wood-cabin on the steeps. 1820.
... the desert air perfumes, 1820.
Thridding the painful crag, ... 1832.
Yet, wheresoe’er amid
the savage scene
Peeps out a little spot of
smiling green,
Man with his babes undaunted
thither creeps,
And hangs his small wood-hut
upon the steeps.
A garden-plot ...
1836.]
[Variant 64:
1845.
—Before those hermit doors, that never know 1815.
—Before those lonesome doors, ... 1836.]
[Variant 65:
1845.
The grassy seat beneath their
casement shade
The pilgrim’s wistful
eye hath never stayed. 1815.
The shady porch ne’er
offered a cool seat
To pilgrims overpowered by
summer’s heat. 1836.]
[Variants 66 and 67: See Appendix III.—Ed.]
[Variant 68:
1845.
Lines 246 to 253 were previously:
—There, did the iron
Genius not disdain
The gentle Power that haunts
the myrtle plain,
There might the love-sick
Maiden sit, and chide
Th’ insuperable rocks
and severing tide,
There watch at eve her Lover’s
sun-gilt sail
Approaching, and upbraid the
tardy gale,
There list at midnight, till
is heard no more,
Below, the echo of his parting
oar,
There hang in fear, when growls
the frozen stream, [v]
To guide his dangerous tread,
the taper’s gleam. 1815.
There might the maiden chide,
in love-sick mood,
The insuperable rocks and
severing flood; 1836.
At midnight listen till his
parting oar,
And its last echo, can be
heard no more. 1836.
Yet tender thoughts dwell
there, no solitude
Hath power youth’s natural
feelings to exclude;
There doth the maiden watch
her lover’s sail
Approaching, and upbraid the
tardy gale. C.]
[Variant 69:
1845.
Mid stormy vapours
ever driving by,
Where ospreys, cormorants,
and herons cry; 1815.
Where ospreys,
cormorants, and herons cry,
’Mid stormy vapours
ever driving by, 1836.]
[Variant 70:
1836.
Where hardly given the hopeless
waste to cheer,
Denied the bread of life the
foodful ear, 1815.