The first draught of the Third Edition carried quatrain forty-two as follows:
And if the Cup, and if the Lip you press,
End in what All begins and ends in—Yes;
Imagine then you are what heretofore
You were—hereafter you shall not be less.
Quatrain forty-eight in the first draught of Third Edition read:
A Moment's Halt—a momentary taste
Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste—
Before the starting Caravan has reach'd
The Nothing it set out from—Oh, make haste!
In the final draught of Third Edition the same stanza ran:
A Moment's Halt—a momentary taste
Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste—
And Lo!—the phantom Caravan has reach'd
The Nothing it set out from—Oh, make haste!
In the first draught of the Third Edition, there stood the following quatrain, later deleted:
Better, oh, better, cancel from the Scroll
Of Universe one luckless Human Soul,
Than drop by drop enlarge the Flood that rolls
Hoarser with Anguish as the Ages Roll.
Transcriber's Notes:
1. A Table of Contents has been created for this e-text where none existed in the original work.