“And under the roots of the Sensitive Plant.”
III, 100.
[The prefatory And is not in the Harvard MS.]
“But the mandrakes and toadstools and docks and darnels
Rose like the dead from their ruined charnels.”
III, 112.
[The word brambles appears for mandrakes in the Harvard MS.]
These three variations, all of which are interesting, are the only ones I have noted as uncanceled in this particular poem, beyond those recorded by Professor Woodberry. But there are many cases where the manuscript shows, in Shelley’s own handwriting, variations subsequently canceled by him; and these deserve study by all students of the poetic art. His ear was so exquisite and his sense of the balance of a phrase so remarkable, that it is always interesting to see the path by which he came to the final utterance, whatever that was. I have, therefore, copied a number of these modified lines, giving, first, Professor Woodberry’s text, and then the original form of language, as it appears in Shelley’s handwriting, italicizing the words which vary, and giving the pages of Professor Woodberry’s edition. The cancelation or change is sometimes made in pen, sometimes in pencil; and it is possible that, in a few cases, it may have been made by Mrs. Shelley.
“Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky.”
“Gazed through its tears on the tender sky.”