No More Learning

1815.

Even now, emerging from the forest's gloom,
I heave a sigh at hoary Chartreuse' doom.
Where now is fled that Power whose frown severe
Tamed "sober Reason" till she crouched in fear? 1820. ]


[Variant 13:

1836.

That breathed a death-like silence wide around,
Broke only by the unvaried torrent's sound,
Or prayer-bell by the dull cicada drown'd. 1820.

The editions of 1827 and 1832 omit these lines. ]


[Variant 14:

1836.

The cloister startles at the gleam of arms,
And Blasphemy the shuddering fane alarms; 1815. ]


[Variant 15:

1793.

That . . . 1827.

The edition of 1836 returns to the text of 1793. ]


[Variant 16:

1836.

And swells the groaning torrent with his tears. 1815.

In the editions 1815-1832 lines 61, 62 followed line 66. ]


[Variant 17:

1836.

Nod the cloud-piercing pines their troubled heads, 1815. ]


[Variant 18:

1836.

The cross with hideous laughter Demons mock,
By angels planted on the aereal rock. 1815.

The cross, by angels on the aerial rock
Planted, a flight of laughing demons mock. 1832. ]


[Variant 19:

1836.

. . . sound . . . 1815. ]


[Variant 20:

1836.

To ringing team unknown . . . 1815. ]


[Variant 21:

1827.

Wild round the steeps the little pathway twines, 1815. ]


[Variant 22:

1836.

The viewless lingerer . . . 1815. ]


[Variant 23:

1845.

Tracking the yellow sun from steep to steep,
As up the opposing hills, with tortoise foot, they creep. 1815.

And track the yellow light . . . 1836.

. . . on naked steeps
As up the opposing hill it slowly creeps. C. ]


[Variant 24:

1845.

Here half a village shines, in gold arrayed,
Bright as the moon; . . . 1815. ]


[Variant 25:

1827.

From the dark sylvan roofs the restless spire
Inconstant glancing, mounts like springing fire. 1815. ]


[Variant 26:

1836.

. . . the waves . . . 1815. ]


[Variant 27:

1836.

Th' unwearied sweep of wood thy cliffs that scales;
The never-ending waters of thy vales; 1815. ]


[Variant 28:

1836.

Line 111 was previously three lines, thus--

The cots, those dim religious groves embower,
Or, under rocks that from the water tower
Insinuated, sprinkling all the shore, 1815. ]


[Variant 29:

1836.

. . . his . . . 1815. ]


[Variant 30:

1836.

Whose flaccid sails in forms fantastic droop,
Bright'ning the gloom where thick the forests stoop;

Only in the editions 1815 to 1832. ]


[Variant 31:

1827.

. . . like swallows' nests that cleave on high; 1815. ]


[Variant 32:

1827.

While Evening's solemn bird melodious weeps,
Heard, by star-spotted bays, beneath the steeps;

Only in the editions of 1815 and 1820. ]


[Variant 33:

1836.

--Thy lake, mid smoking woods, that blue and grey
Gleams, streaked or dappled, hid from morning's ray 1815.

As beautiful the flood where blue or grey
Dappled, or streaked, as hid from morning's ray. C. ]


[Variant 34:

1836.

. . . to fold 1815. ]


[Variant 35:

1836.

From thickly-glittering spires the matin bell
Calling the woodman from his desert cell,
A summons to the sound of oars, that pass,
Spotting the steaming deeps, to early mass;
Slow swells the service o'er the water born,
While fill each pause the ringing woods of morn. 1815.

Calls forth the woodman with its cheerful knell. C. ]


[Variant 36: This couplet was first added in 1845. ]


[Variant 37:

1845.

Farewell those forms that in thy noon-tide shade,
Rest, near their little plots of wheaten glade; 1820.

Ye lovely forms that in the noontide shade
Rest near their little plots of wheaten glade. C. ]


[Variant 38:

1845.

Those charms that bind . . . 1820. ]


[Variant 39:

1836.

And winds, . . . 1820. ]


[Variant 40:

1836.

Yet arts are thine that soothe the unquiet heart,
And smiles to Solitude and Want impart.
I lov'd, 'mid thy most desart woods astray,
With pensive step to measure my slow way,
By lonely, silent cottage-doors to roam,
The far-off peasant's day-deserted home. 1820.

I loved by silent cottage-doors to roam,
The far-off peasant's day-deserted home; 1827.

These two lines take the place of the second and third couplets of the
1820 text quoted above. ]


[Variant 41:

1836.

Once did I pierce to where a cabin stood;
The red-breast peace had buried it in wood, 1820.

And once I pierced the mazes of a wood,
Where, far from public haunt, a cabin stood; 1827. ]


[Variant 42:

1836.

There, by the door a hoary-headed Sire
Touched with his withered hand an ancient lyre; 1820. ]


[Variant 43:

1836.

This and the following line were expanded from

Beneath an old-grey oak, as violets lie, 1820. ]


[Variant 44:

1836.

. . . joined the holy sound; 1820. ]


[Variant 45:

1836.

While . . . 1820. ]


[Variant 46:

1845.

Bend o'er th' abyss, the else impervious gloom 1820.

Hang o'er th' abyss:--. . . 1827.

. . . the abyss:--. . . 1832. ]


[Variant 47:

1836.

Freshening the waste of sand with shades and springs.
--_She_, solitary, through the desart drear
Spontaneous wanders, hand in hand with Fear. 1820.

By choice or doom a gipsy wanders here,
Companionless, or hand in hand with fear;
Lo! where she sits beneath yon shaggy rock,
A cowering shape half-seen through curling smoke. MS. ]


[Variant 48:

1836.

The Grison gypsey here her tent hath placed,
Sole human tenant of the piny waste;
Her tawny skin, dark eyes, and glossy locks,
Bend o'er the smoke that curls beneath the rocks. [iii] 1820. ]


[Variant 49:

1845.

Lines 179-185 were substituted in 1845 for

A giant moan along the forest swells
Protracted, and the twilight storm foretels,
And, ruining from the cliffs, their deafening load
Tumbles,--the wildering Thunder slips abroad;
On the high summits Darkness comes and goes,
Hiding their fiery clouds, their rocks, and snows;
The torrent, traversed by the lustre broad,
Starts like a horse beside the flashing road;
In the roofed bridge, at that terrific hour,
She seeks a shelter from the battering show'r.
--Fierce comes the river down; the crashing wood
Gives way, and half it's pines torment the flood;
[iv] Fearful, beneath, the Water-spirits call,
And the bridge vibrates, tottering to its fall. 1820.

When rueful moans along the forest swell
Protracted, and the twilight storm foretel,
And, headlong from the cliffs, a deafening load
Tumbles,--and wildering thunder slips abroad;
When on the summits Darkness comes and goes,
Hiding their fiery clouds, their rocks, and snows;
And the fierce torrent, from the lustre broad,
Starts, like a horse beside the flashing road--
She seeks a covert from the battering shower
In the roofed bridge; the bridge, in that dread hour,
Itself all quaking at the torrent's power. 1836. ]


[Variant 50:

1845.

Lines 186-195 were substituted in 1845 for

--Heavy, and dull, and cloudy is the night;
No star supplies the comfort of it's light,
Glimmer the dim-lit Alps, dilated, round,
And one sole light shifts in the vale profound; [s1]
While, [s2] opposite, the waning moon hangs still,
And red, above her [s3] melancholy hill.
By the deep quiet gloom appalled, she sighs, [s4]
Stoops her sick head, and shuts her weary eyes.
She hears, upon the mountain forest's brow,
The death-dog, howling loud and long, below;
--Breaking th' ascending roar of desert floods,
And insect buzz, that stuns the sultry woods, [s5]
On viewless fingers [s6] counts the valley-clock,
Followed by drowsy crow of midnight cock.
--Bursts from the troubled larch's giant boughs
The pie, and, chattering, breaks the night's repose. [s7]
The dry leaves stir as with the serpent's walk,
And, far beneath, Banditti voices talk;
Behind her hill, [s8] the Moon, all crimson, rides,
And his red eyes the slinking Water hides.
--Vexed by the darkness, from the piny gulf
Ascending, nearer howls the famished wolf, [s9]
While thro' the stillness scatters wild dismay
Her babe's small cry, that leads him to his prey. 1820.

s1-s9: see Sub-Variants below. txt. Ed. ]


[Variant 51:

1836.

Now, passing Urseren's open vale serene,
Her quiet streams, and hills of downy green,
Plunge with the Russ embrowned by Terror's breath,
Where danger roofs the narrow walks of death; 1815.

Plunge where the Reuss with fearless might has rent
His headlong way along a dark descent. MS.

In the edition of 1836 these two couplets of 1815 were compressed into
one, and in that edition lines 200-201 preceded lines 198-199. They were
transposed in 1840. ]


[Variant 52:

1836.

By floods, that, thundering from their dizzy height,
Swell more gigantic on the stedfast sight;
Black drizzling crags, that beaten by the din,
Vibrate, as if a voice complained within;
Bare steeps, where Desolation stalks afraid,
Unstedfast, by a blasted yew unstayed;
By cells whose image, trembling as he prays,
Awe-struck, the kneeling peasant scarce surveys;
Loose hanging rocks the Day's bless'd eye that hide,
And crosses reared to Death on every side,
Which with cold kiss Devotion planted near,
And bending water'd with the human tear;
That faded "silent" from her upward eye,
Unmoved with each rude form of Danger nigh, 1815. ]


[Variant 53:

1836.

On as we move a softer prospect opes,
Calm huts, and lawns between, and sylvan slopes. 1815. ]


[Variant 54:

1845.
While mists, suspended on the expiring gale,
Moveless o'er-hang the deep secluded vale, 1815.

Where mists, 1836.

Where mists suspended on the evening gale,
Spread roof-like o'er a deep secluded vale, C.

Given to clear view beneath a hoary veil
Of mists suspended on the evening gale. MS. ]


[Variant 55:

1836.

The beams of evening, slipping soft between,
Light up of tranquil joy a sober scene. 1815.

Gently illuminate a sober scene; 1827. ]


[Variant 56: In the editions 1815-1832 ll. 214, 215 follow, instead of
preceding, ll. 216-219. ]


[Variant 57:

1845.

On the low brown wood-huts delighted sleep
Along the brightened gloom reposing deep. 1815.

Here, on the brown wood-cottages they sleep,
There, over lawns and sloping woodlands creep. 1836.

There, over lawn or sloping pasture creep. C. ]


[Variant 58:

1845.

Winding its dark-green wood and emerald glade,
The still vale lengthens underneath the shade;
While in soft gloom the scattering bowers recede,
Green dewy lights adorn the freshened mead, 1815.

Winding its darksome wood and emerald glade,
The still vale lengthens underneath the shade
Of low-hung vapour: on the freshened mead
The green light sparkles;--the dim bowers recede. 1836. ]


[Variant 59:

1836.

. . . drizzling . . . 1815. ]


[Variant 60:

1845.

. . . my soul awake,
Lo! Fear looks silent down on Uri's lake;
Where by the unpathwayed margin still and dread
Was never heard the plodding peasant's tread: 1815. ]


[Variant 61:

1845.

Tower like a wall the naked rocks, or reach
Far o'er the secret water dark with beech; 1815.

Tower-like rise up the naked rocks, or stretch 1836. ]


[Variant 62:

1845.

More high, to where creation seems to end,
Shade above shade the desert pines ascend. 1815.

. . . the aerial pines . . . 1820.

Shade above shade, the aerial pines ascend,
Nor stop but where creation seems to end. 1836. ]


[Variant 63:

1845.

(Compressing eight lines into four. )

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.

Hovering o'er rugged wastes too bleak to rear
That common growth of earth, the foodful ear; 1820. ]


[Variant 71:

1820.

Dwindles the pear on autumn's latest spray,
And apple sickens pale in summer's ray; 1815. ]


[Variant 72:

1845.

Ev'n here Content has fixed her smiling reign 1815. ]


[Variant 73:

1845.

And often grasps her sword, and often eyes:
Her crest a bough of Winter's bleakest pine,
Strange "weeds" and alpine plants her helm entwine,
And wildly-pausing oft she hangs aghast,
While thrills the "Spartan fife" between the blast. 1815.

Flowers of the loftiest Alps her helm entwine;
And, wildly pausing, oft she hangs aghast,
As thrills . . . 1836.

And oft at Fancy's call she stands aghast,
As if some old Swiss air had checked her haste,
Or thrill of Spartan fife were caught between the blast. C. ]


[Variant 74:

1845.

'Tis storm; and, hid in mist from hour to hour, 1815. ]


[Variant 75:

1845.

Glances the fire-clad eagle's wheeling form; 1815.

. . . glorious form; 1836. ]


[Variant 76:

1845.

Wide o'er the Alps a hundred streams unfold, 1815.

Those eastern cliffs . . . 1836. ]


[Variant 77:

1845.

. . . strives to shun
The west . . . 1815.

. . . tries to shun
The _west_, . . . 1836. ]


[Variant 78:

1845.

Where in a mighty crucible expire
The mountains, glowing hot, like coals of fire. 1815. ]


[Variant 79:

1836.

While burn in his full eyes the glorious tears. 1820. ]


[Variant 80:

1836.

Exalt, and agitate . . . 1820. ]


[Variant 81:

1836.

On Zutphen's plain; or where, with soften'd gaze,
The old grey stones the plaided chief surveys;
Can guess the high resolve, the cherished pain
Of him whom passion rivets to the plain, 1820. ]


[Variant 82:

1836.

And watch, from pike to pike, amid the sky
Small as a bird the chamois-chaser fly, 1820. ]


[Variant 83:

1836.

Thro' worlds where Life, and Sound, and Motion sleep;
Where Silence still her death-like reign extends,
Save when the startling cliff unfrequent rends:
In the deep snow the mighty ruin drowned,
Mocks the dull ear . . . 1820. ]


[Variant 84:

1836.

While the near moon, that coasts the vast profound,
Wheels pale and silent her diminished round, 1820. ]


[Variant 85:

1827.

Flying more fleet than vision can pursue! 1820. ]


[Variant 86:

1836.

Then with Despair's whole weight his spirits sink,
No bread to feed him, and the snow his drink,
While, ere his eyes . . . 1820. ]


[Variant 87:

1836.

Hence shall we turn where, heard with fear afar, 1820. ]


[Variant 88:

1836.

. . . from . . . 1820. ]


[Variant 89:

1836.

Nought but the herds that pasturing upward creep,
Hung dim-discover'd from the dangerous steep,
Or summer hamlet, flat and bare, on high
Suspended, mid the quiet of the sky. 1815. ]


[Variant 90:

1836.

Broke only by the melancholy sound 1815. ]


[Variant 91: The two previous lines were added in 1836. ]


[Variant 92:

1832.

Save that, the stranger seen below, . . . 1815. ]


[Variant 93:

1836.

When warm from myrtle bays and tranquil seas,
Comes on, to whisper hope, the vernal breeze,
When hums the mountain bee in May's glad ear,
And emerald isles to spot the heights appear, 1815. ]


[Variant 94:

When fragrant scents beneath th' enchanted tread
Spring up, his choicest wealth around him spread,

Inserted in the editions 1815 to 1832. ]


[Variant 95:

1836.

The pastoral Swiss begins the cliffs to scale,
To silence leaving the deserted vale, 1815]


[Variant 96:

1836.

Mounts, where the verdure leads, from stage to stage,
And pastures on, as in the Patriarch's age: 1815.