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PDFThe pack loud-chiming, [9] and the hunted hare.
So through the darkness and the cold we flew,
And not a voice was idle: with the din
Smitten, [10] the precipices rang aloud; 40
The leafless trees and every icy crag
Tinkled like iron; while far-distant hills [11]
Into the tumult sent an alien sound
Of melancholy, not unnoticed while the stars,
Eastward, were sparkling clear, and in the west 45
The orange sky of evening died away.
Not seldom from the uproar
I retired
Into a silent bay, or sportively
Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous
throng,
To cut across the reflex [12] of a star;
50
Image, that, flying still before me, gleamed
Upon the glassy plain: and oftentimes,
[13]
When we had given our bodies to the wind,
And all the shadowy banks on either side
Came sweeping through the darkness, spinning
still 55
The rapid line of motion, then at once
Have I, reclining back upon my heels,
Stopped short; yet still the solitary
cliffs
Wheeled by me—even as if the
earth had rolled
With visible motion her diurnal round!
60
Behind me did they stretch in solemn train,
Feebler and feebler, and I stood and watched
Till all was tranquil as a summer sea.
[14]
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1809.
That givest ... ‘The Prelude’, 1850.]
[Variant 2:
1815.
Nor ... 1809.]
[Variant 3:
1809.
... valley ... The Prelude’, 1850.]
[Variant 4:
1836.
... I homeward went 1809.]
[Variant 5:
1845.
’Twas mine among the fields ... 1809.]
[Variant 6:
1809.
... blazed through twilight gloom, ‘The Prelude’, 1850.]
[Variant 7:
1815.
... to me 1809.]
[Variant 8:
1827.
... car’d not for its home—... 1809.
... cares not ... 1815.]
[Variant 9:
1840.
... loud bellowing ... 1809.]
[Variant 10:
1836.
Meanwhile ... 1809.]
[Variant 11:
1845.
... while the distant hills 1809.]
[Variant 12:
1827.
To cut across the image ... 1809.
To cross the bright reflection ... 1820.]
[Variant 13:
1820.
That gleam’d upon the ice; and oftentimes 1809.
(This line occupied the place of lines 51-52 of the final text.)
