Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Carlyle's laugh and other surprises

[20] there is a canceled verse of Shelley's “Curse” against Lord Eldon for depriving him of his children,--a verse so touching that I think it should be preserved. The verse beginning-

By those unpractised accents of young speech,

opened originally as follows:--

By that sweet voice which who could understand
To frame to sounds of love and lore divine,
Not thou.

This was abandoned and the following substituted :--

By those pure accents which at my command
Should have been framed to love and lore divine,
Now like a lute, fretted by some rude hand,
Uttering harsh discords, they must echo thine.

This also was erased, and the present form substituted, although I confess it seems to me both less vigorous and less tender. Professor Woodberry mentions the change, but does not give the canceled verse. In this and other cases I do not venture to blame him for the omission, since an editor must, after all, exercise his own judgment. Yet I cannot but wish that he had carried his citation, even of canceled variations, a little further; and it is evident that some future student of poetic art will yet find rich gleanings in the Harvard Shelley manuscript.