many
times shown....

"And so the poem has no definite end, but passes off, as it were, into
the illimitable. It rises out of the perturbations of time and
transitory things, and, passing upward itself, takes our thoughts with
it to calm places and eternal sunshine."--ED.

VARIANTS:

[1] 1837.

... born of heavenly birth, 1815.

[2] 1837.

... which ... 1815.

[3] 1837.

... is ... 1815.

[4] 1820.

... of the crystal Wharf, 1815.

[5] 1837.

A rural Chapel, neatly drest,
In covert like a little nest; 1815.

[6] 1837.

And faith and hope are in their prime, 1815.

[7]

And right across the verdant sod
Towards the very house of God;

Inserted in the editions of 1815 to 1832.

[8] 1837.

A gift ... 1815.

[9] 1837.

Is through ... 1815.

[10] 1837.

... she no less
To the open day gives blessedness. 1815.

[11] 1837.

... hand of healing,--
The altar, whence the cross was rent,
Now rich with mossy ornament,--
The dormitory's length laid bare,
Where the wild-rose blossoms fair;
And sapling ash, whose place of birth
Is that lordly chamber's hearth? 1815.

For altar, ... 1827.

Or dormitory's length ... 1827.

[12] 1837.

Methinks she passeth by the sight, 1815.

[13] 1827.

And in this way she fares, till at last 1815.

[14] 1845.

Gently ... 1815.

[15] 1837.

Like the river in its flowing;
Can there be a softer sound? 1815.

[16] 1837.

--When now again the people rear
A voice of praise, with awful chear! 1815.

[17] 1837.

Turn, with obeisance gladly paid,
Towards the spot, where, full in view,
The lovely Doe of whitest hue, 1815.

[18]

This whisper soft repeats what he
Had known from early infancy.

In the editions of 1815 to 1832 the paragraph begins with these
lin