[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.