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.
William Wordsworth
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.
