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.
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.
Wordsworth - 1
the little joy to man allowed,
Fades like the lustre of an evening cloud; [143]
Or like the beauty in a flower installed,
Whose season was, and cannot be recalled. 535
Yet, when opprest by sickness, grief, or care,
And taught that pain is pleasure's natural heir,
We still confide in more than we can know;
Death would be else the favourite friend of woe. [144]
'Mid savage rocks, and seas of snow that shine, 540
Between interminable tracts of pine,
Within a temple stands an awful shrine, [145]
By an uncertain light revealed, that falls
On the mute Image and the troubled walls.
Oh! give not me that eye of hard disdain 545
That views, undimmed, Ensiedlen's [Bb] wretched fane.
While ghastly faces through the gloom appear, [146]
Abortive joy, and hope that works in fear; [147]
While prayer contends with silenced agony, [148]
Surely in other thoughts contempt may die. 550
If the sad grave of human ignorance bear
One flower of hope--oh, pass and leave it there! [Cc]
The tall sun, pausing [149] on an Alpine spire,
Flings o'er the wilderness a stream of fire:
Now meet we other pilgrims ere the day [150] 555
Close on the remnant of their weary way;
While they are drawing toward the sacred floor
Where, so they fondly think, the worm shall gnaw no more. [151]
How gaily murmur and how sweetly taste
The fountains [Dd] reared for them [152] amid the waste! 560
Their thirst they slake:--they wash their toil-worn feet,
And some with tears of joy each other greet. [153]
Yes, I must [154] see you when ye first behold
Those holy turrets tipped with evening gold,
In that glad moment will for you a sigh 565
Be heaved, of charitable sympathy; [155]
In that glad moment when your [156] hands are prest
In mute devotion on the thankful breast!
Last, let us turn to Chamouny that shields [157]
With rocks and gloomy woods [158] her fertile fields: 570
Five streams of ice amid her cots descend,
And with wild flowers and blooming orchards blend;--[Ee]
A scene more fair than what the Grecian feigns
Of purple lights and ever-vernal plains;
Here all the seasons revel hand in hand: 575
'Mid lawns and shades by breezy rivulets fanned [159]
[160] They sport beneath that mountain's matchless height [161]
That holds no commerce with the summer night. [Ee]
From age to age, throughout [162] his lonely bounds
The crash of ruin fitfully resounds; 580
Appalling [163] havoc! but serene his brow,
Where daylight lingers on [164] perpetual snow;
Glitter the stars, and all is black below. [Ee]
What marvel then if many a Wanderer sigh,
While roars the sullen Arve in anger by, [165] 585
That not for thy reward, unrivall'd [166] Vale! [Ff]
Waves the ripe harvest in the autumnal gale;
That thou, the slave of slaves, art doomed to pine
And droop, while no Italian arts are thine,
To soothe or cheer, to soften or refine. [167] 590
Hail Freedom! whether it was mine to stray,
With shrill winds whistling round my lonely way, [168]
On [169] the bleak sides of Cumbria's heath-clad moors,
Or where dank sea-weed lashes Scotland's shores;
To scent the sweets of Piedmont's breathing rose, 595
And orange gale that o'er Lugano blows;
Still have I found, where Tyranny prevails,
That virtue languishes and pleasure fails, [170]
While the remotest hamlets blessings share
In thy loved [171] presence known, and only there; 600
_Heart_-blessings--outward treasures too which the eye
Of the sun peeping through the clouds can spy,
And every passing breeze will testify. [172]
There, to the porch, belike with jasmine bound
Or woodbine wreaths, a smoother path is wound; [173] 605
The housewife there a brighter garden sees,
Where hum on busier wing her happy bees; [174]
On infant cheeks there fresher roses blow;
And grey-haired men look up with livelier brow,--[175]
To greet the traveller needing food and rest; 610
Housed for the night, or but a half-hour's guest. [176]
And oh, fair France! though now the traveller sees
Thy three-striped banner fluctuate on the breeze;[177]
Though martial songs have banished songs of love,
And nightingales desert the village grove, [178] 615
Scared by the fife and rumbling drum's alarms,
And the short thunder, and the flash of arms;
That cease not till night falls, when far and nigh,
Sole sound, the Sourd [Gg] prolongs his mournful cry! [179]
--Yet, hast thou found that Freedom spreads her power 620
Beyond the cottage-hearth, the cottage-door:
All nature smiles, and owns beneath her eyes
Her fields peculiar, and peculiar skies.
Yes, as I roamed where Loiret's waters glide
Through rustling aspens heard from side to side, 625
When from October clouds a milder light
Fell where the blue flood rippled into white;
Methought from every cot the watchful bird
Crowed with ear-piercing power till then unheard;
Each clacking mill, that broke the murmuring streams, 630
Rocked the charmed thought in more delightful dreams;
Chasing those pleasant dreams, [180] the falling leaf
Awoke a fainter sense [181] of moral grief;
The measured echo of the distant flail
Wound in more welcome cadence down the vale; 635
With more majestic course the water rolled,
And ripening foliage shone with richer gold. [182]
--But foes are gathering--Liberty must raise
Red on the hills her beacon's far-seen blaze;
Must bid the tocsin ring from tower to tower! -- 640
Nearer and nearer comes the trying hour! [183]
Rejoice, brave Land, though pride's perverted ire
Rouse hell's own aid, and wrap thy fields in fire:
Lo, from the flames a great and glorious birth;
As if a new-made heaven were hailing a new earth! [184] 645
--All cannot be: the promise is too fair
For creatures doomed to breathe terrestrial air:
Yet not for this will sober reason frown
Upon that promise, not the hope disown;
She knows that only from high aims ensue 650
Rich guerdons, and to them alone are due. [185]
Great God! by whom the strifes of men are weighed
In an impartial balance, give thine aid
To the just cause; and, oh! do thou preside
Over the mighty stream now spreading wide: [Hh] 655
So shall its waters, from the heavens supplied
In copious showers, from earth by wholesome springs,
Brood o'er the long-parched lands with Nile-like wings!
And grant that every sceptred child of clay
Who cries presumptuous, "Here the flood shall stay," [186] 660
May in its progress see thy guiding hand,
And cease the acknowledged purpose to withstand; [187]
Or, swept in anger from the insulted shore,
Sink with his servile bands, to rise no more! [188]
To-night, my Friend, within this humble cot 665
Be scorn and fear and hope alike forgot [189]
In timely sleep; and when, at break of day,
On the tall peaks the glistening sunbeams play, [190]
With a light heart our course we may renew,
The first whose footsteps print the mountain dew. [191] 670
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1827.
. . . a spot of holy ground,
By Pain and her sad family unfound,
Sure, Nature's God that spot to man had given,
Where murmuring rivers join the song of even;
Where falls . . . 1820. ]
[Variant 2:
1836.
Where the resounding power of water shakes 1820.
Where with loud voice the power of waters shakes 1827. ]
[Variant 3:
1836.
And not unrecompensed the man shall roam,
Who, to converse with Nature, quits his home,
And plods o'er hills and vales his way forlorn,
Wooing her various charms from eve to morn. 1820.
Yet not unrecompensed the man shall roam,
Who at the call of summer quits his home,
And plods through some far realm o'er vale and height,
Though seeking only holiday delight; 1827. ]
[Variant 4: Lines 13 and 14 were introduced in 1827. ]
[Variant 5:
1827.
No sad vacuities [i] his heart annoy;--
Blows not a Zephyr but it whispers joy;
For him lost flowers their idle sweets exhale;
He tastes the meanest note that swells the gale;
For him sod-seats . . . 1815.
Breathes not a zephyr but it whispers joy;
For him the loneliest flowers their sweets exhale;
He marks "the meanest note that swells the [ii] gale;" 1820. ]
[Variant 6:
1820.
And dear the green-sward to his velvet tread; 1815. ]
[Variant 7:
1815.
Whilst . . . Only in 1820. ]
[Variant 8:
1820.
. . . with kindest ray
To light him shaken by his viewless way. 1815. ]
[Variant 9:
1836.
With bashful fear no cottage children steal
From him, a brother at the cottage meal, 1815. ]
[Variant 10:
1845.
Much wondering what sad stroke of crazing Care,
Or desperate Love could lead a wanderer there. 1815.
Much wondering in what fit of crazing care,
Or desperate love, a wanderer came there. 1836. ]
[Variant 11:
1836.
Me, lured by hope her sorrows to remove,
A heart that could not much itself approve,
O'er Gallia's wastes of corn dejected led,
Her road elms rustling high above my head,
Or through her truant pathways' native charms,
By secret villages and lonely farms,
To where the Alps . . . 1820.
. . . could not much herself approve, 1827.
. . . lured by hope its sorrows to remove, 1832.
The lines 46, 47, were expanded in the edition of 1836 from one line in
the editions of 1820-1832. ]
[Variant 12:
1836.
I sigh at hoary Chartreuse' doom.
Where now is fled that Power whose frown severe
Tamed "sober Reason" till she crouched in fear?
That breathed a death-like peace these woods around;
The cloister startles . . . 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.
Fades like the lustre of an evening cloud; [143]
Or like the beauty in a flower installed,
Whose season was, and cannot be recalled. 535
Yet, when opprest by sickness, grief, or care,
And taught that pain is pleasure's natural heir,
We still confide in more than we can know;
Death would be else the favourite friend of woe. [144]
'Mid savage rocks, and seas of snow that shine, 540
Between interminable tracts of pine,
Within a temple stands an awful shrine, [145]
By an uncertain light revealed, that falls
On the mute Image and the troubled walls.
Oh! give not me that eye of hard disdain 545
That views, undimmed, Ensiedlen's [Bb] wretched fane.
While ghastly faces through the gloom appear, [146]
Abortive joy, and hope that works in fear; [147]
While prayer contends with silenced agony, [148]
Surely in other thoughts contempt may die. 550
If the sad grave of human ignorance bear
One flower of hope--oh, pass and leave it there! [Cc]
The tall sun, pausing [149] on an Alpine spire,
Flings o'er the wilderness a stream of fire:
Now meet we other pilgrims ere the day [150] 555
Close on the remnant of their weary way;
While they are drawing toward the sacred floor
Where, so they fondly think, the worm shall gnaw no more. [151]
How gaily murmur and how sweetly taste
The fountains [Dd] reared for them [152] amid the waste! 560
Their thirst they slake:--they wash their toil-worn feet,
And some with tears of joy each other greet. [153]
Yes, I must [154] see you when ye first behold
Those holy turrets tipped with evening gold,
In that glad moment will for you a sigh 565
Be heaved, of charitable sympathy; [155]
In that glad moment when your [156] hands are prest
In mute devotion on the thankful breast!
Last, let us turn to Chamouny that shields [157]
With rocks and gloomy woods [158] her fertile fields: 570
Five streams of ice amid her cots descend,
And with wild flowers and blooming orchards blend;--[Ee]
A scene more fair than what the Grecian feigns
Of purple lights and ever-vernal plains;
Here all the seasons revel hand in hand: 575
'Mid lawns and shades by breezy rivulets fanned [159]
[160] They sport beneath that mountain's matchless height [161]
That holds no commerce with the summer night. [Ee]
From age to age, throughout [162] his lonely bounds
The crash of ruin fitfully resounds; 580
Appalling [163] havoc! but serene his brow,
Where daylight lingers on [164] perpetual snow;
Glitter the stars, and all is black below. [Ee]
What marvel then if many a Wanderer sigh,
While roars the sullen Arve in anger by, [165] 585
That not for thy reward, unrivall'd [166] Vale! [Ff]
Waves the ripe harvest in the autumnal gale;
That thou, the slave of slaves, art doomed to pine
And droop, while no Italian arts are thine,
To soothe or cheer, to soften or refine. [167] 590
Hail Freedom! whether it was mine to stray,
With shrill winds whistling round my lonely way, [168]
On [169] the bleak sides of Cumbria's heath-clad moors,
Or where dank sea-weed lashes Scotland's shores;
To scent the sweets of Piedmont's breathing rose, 595
And orange gale that o'er Lugano blows;
Still have I found, where Tyranny prevails,
That virtue languishes and pleasure fails, [170]
While the remotest hamlets blessings share
In thy loved [171] presence known, and only there; 600
_Heart_-blessings--outward treasures too which the eye
Of the sun peeping through the clouds can spy,
And every passing breeze will testify. [172]
There, to the porch, belike with jasmine bound
Or woodbine wreaths, a smoother path is wound; [173] 605
The housewife there a brighter garden sees,
Where hum on busier wing her happy bees; [174]
On infant cheeks there fresher roses blow;
And grey-haired men look up with livelier brow,--[175]
To greet the traveller needing food and rest; 610
Housed for the night, or but a half-hour's guest. [176]
And oh, fair France! though now the traveller sees
Thy three-striped banner fluctuate on the breeze;[177]
Though martial songs have banished songs of love,
And nightingales desert the village grove, [178] 615
Scared by the fife and rumbling drum's alarms,
And the short thunder, and the flash of arms;
That cease not till night falls, when far and nigh,
Sole sound, the Sourd [Gg] prolongs his mournful cry! [179]
--Yet, hast thou found that Freedom spreads her power 620
Beyond the cottage-hearth, the cottage-door:
All nature smiles, and owns beneath her eyes
Her fields peculiar, and peculiar skies.
Yes, as I roamed where Loiret's waters glide
Through rustling aspens heard from side to side, 625
When from October clouds a milder light
Fell where the blue flood rippled into white;
Methought from every cot the watchful bird
Crowed with ear-piercing power till then unheard;
Each clacking mill, that broke the murmuring streams, 630
Rocked the charmed thought in more delightful dreams;
Chasing those pleasant dreams, [180] the falling leaf
Awoke a fainter sense [181] of moral grief;
The measured echo of the distant flail
Wound in more welcome cadence down the vale; 635
With more majestic course the water rolled,
And ripening foliage shone with richer gold. [182]
--But foes are gathering--Liberty must raise
Red on the hills her beacon's far-seen blaze;
Must bid the tocsin ring from tower to tower! -- 640
Nearer and nearer comes the trying hour! [183]
Rejoice, brave Land, though pride's perverted ire
Rouse hell's own aid, and wrap thy fields in fire:
Lo, from the flames a great and glorious birth;
As if a new-made heaven were hailing a new earth! [184] 645
--All cannot be: the promise is too fair
For creatures doomed to breathe terrestrial air:
Yet not for this will sober reason frown
Upon that promise, not the hope disown;
She knows that only from high aims ensue 650
Rich guerdons, and to them alone are due. [185]
Great God! by whom the strifes of men are weighed
In an impartial balance, give thine aid
To the just cause; and, oh! do thou preside
Over the mighty stream now spreading wide: [Hh] 655
So shall its waters, from the heavens supplied
In copious showers, from earth by wholesome springs,
Brood o'er the long-parched lands with Nile-like wings!
And grant that every sceptred child of clay
Who cries presumptuous, "Here the flood shall stay," [186] 660
May in its progress see thy guiding hand,
And cease the acknowledged purpose to withstand; [187]
Or, swept in anger from the insulted shore,
Sink with his servile bands, to rise no more! [188]
To-night, my Friend, within this humble cot 665
Be scorn and fear and hope alike forgot [189]
In timely sleep; and when, at break of day,
On the tall peaks the glistening sunbeams play, [190]
With a light heart our course we may renew,
The first whose footsteps print the mountain dew. [191] 670
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1827.
. . . a spot of holy ground,
By Pain and her sad family unfound,
Sure, Nature's God that spot to man had given,
Where murmuring rivers join the song of even;
Where falls . . . 1820. ]
[Variant 2:
1836.
Where the resounding power of water shakes 1820.
Where with loud voice the power of waters shakes 1827. ]
[Variant 3:
1836.
And not unrecompensed the man shall roam,
Who, to converse with Nature, quits his home,
And plods o'er hills and vales his way forlorn,
Wooing her various charms from eve to morn. 1820.
Yet not unrecompensed the man shall roam,
Who at the call of summer quits his home,
And plods through some far realm o'er vale and height,
Though seeking only holiday delight; 1827. ]
[Variant 4: Lines 13 and 14 were introduced in 1827. ]
[Variant 5:
1827.
No sad vacuities [i] his heart annoy;--
Blows not a Zephyr but it whispers joy;
For him lost flowers their idle sweets exhale;
He tastes the meanest note that swells the gale;
For him sod-seats . . . 1815.
Breathes not a zephyr but it whispers joy;
For him the loneliest flowers their sweets exhale;
He marks "the meanest note that swells the [ii] gale;" 1820. ]
[Variant 6:
1820.
And dear the green-sward to his velvet tread; 1815. ]
[Variant 7:
1815.
Whilst . . . Only in 1820. ]
[Variant 8:
1820.
. . . with kindest ray
To light him shaken by his viewless way. 1815. ]
[Variant 9:
1836.
With bashful fear no cottage children steal
From him, a brother at the cottage meal, 1815. ]
[Variant 10:
1845.
Much wondering what sad stroke of crazing Care,
Or desperate Love could lead a wanderer there. 1815.
Much wondering in what fit of crazing care,
Or desperate love, a wanderer came there. 1836. ]
[Variant 11:
1836.
Me, lured by hope her sorrows to remove,
A heart that could not much itself approve,
O'er Gallia's wastes of corn dejected led,
Her road elms rustling high above my head,
Or through her truant pathways' native charms,
By secret villages and lonely farms,
To where the Alps . . . 1820.
. . . could not much herself approve, 1827.
. . . lured by hope its sorrows to remove, 1832.
The lines 46, 47, were expanded in the edition of 1836 from one line in
the editions of 1820-1832. ]
[Variant 12:
1836.
I sigh at hoary Chartreuse' doom.
Where now is fled that Power whose frown severe
Tamed "sober Reason" till she crouched in fear?
That breathed a death-like peace these woods around;
The cloister startles . . . 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.
