English poem
Variants On The Text
[Variant 1:
1836.
... thorny ... 1798.]
[Variant 2:
1836.
... it is overgrown. 1798.]
[Variant 3:
1836.
... were ... 1798.]
[Variant 4:
1836.
... had ... 1798.]
[Variant 5:
1820.
I've measured it from side to side: 'Tis three feet long [i] and two feet wide. 1798.]
[Variant 6:
1827.
That's like ... 1798.]
[Variant 7:
1827.
But if you'd ... 1798.]
[Variant 8:
1827.
The heap that's like ... 1798.]
[Variant 9: In the editions 1798 to 1815.
Nay rack your brain--'tis all in vain, I'll tell you every thing I know; But to the thorn, and to the pond Which is a little step beyond, I wish that you would go: Perhaps when you are at the place You something of her tale may trace.
XI I'll give you the best help I can: Before you up the mountain go, Up to the dreary mountain-top, I'll tell you all I know.]
[Variant 10:
1845.
'Tis now some two and twenty years, 1798.
'Tis known, that twenty years are passed 1820.]
[Variant 11:
1820.
And she was happy, happy still Whene'er she thought of Stephen Hill. 1798.]
[Variant 12:
1815.
... on that woful day A cruel, cruel fire, they say, Into her bones was sent: It dried her body like a cinder, And almost turn'd her brain to tinder. 1798.]
[Variant 13:
1836.
'Tis said, a child was in her womb, As now to any eye was plain; 1798.
'Tis said, her lamentable state Even to a careless eye was plain; 1820.
Alas! her lamentable state 1827.]
[Variant 14:
1836.
... she was... 1798.]
[Variant 15:
1820.
Oh me! ten thousand times I'd rather That he had died, that cruel father! 1798.]
[Variant 16:
1820.
Last Christmas when we talked of this, Old Farmer Simpson did maintain, That in her womb the infant wrought 1798.]
[Variant 17:
1827.
No more I know, I wish I did, And I would tell it all to you; 1798.]
[Variant 18:
1827.
There's none that ever knew: 1798.]
[Variant 19:
1827.
And if a child was born or no, There's no one that could ever tell; 1798.]
[Variant 20:
1827.
There's no one knows, as I have said, 1798.]
[Variant 21:
1827.
... I've described ... 1798.]
[Variant 22:
1845.
... in faith, ... 1798.]
[Variant 23:
1798.
In truth, it was ... 1800.
The edition of 1815 returns to the text of 1798.]
[Variant 24:
1827.
... and what's the pond? And what's the hill of moss to her? And what's the ... 1798.]
[Variant 25:
1800.
I've heard the scarlet moss is red 1798.]
[Variant 26:
1845.
But then the beauteous hill of moss 1798.
It might not be--the Hill of moss 1827.
But then the beauteous Hill of moss 1832. (Returning to the text of 1798.)
But then the speckled hill of moss 1836.]
[Variant 27:
1827.
But ... 1798.]
[Variant 28:
1845.
... is buried ... 1798.]
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