The following stanza, which comprised the original first verse, was removed prior to publication:

Though you should build a bark of dead men's bones,
    And rear a phantom gibbet for a mast,
Stitch creeds together for a sail, with groans
    To fill it out, bloodstained and aghast;
Although your rudder be a Dragon's tail,
    Long sever'd, yet still hard with agony,
        Your cordage large uprootings from the skull
Of bald Medusa; certes you would fail
    To find the Melancholy, whether she
       Dreameth in any isle of Lethe dull.

Lethe : the River of Oblivion, one of the rivers of the lower regions, whose water had the power to make those who drank it forget their previous existence.

Wolfs : wolf’s bane and nightshade : poisonous plants from which opiates and sedatives were extracted.

Proserpine (Persephone) : goddess of the underworld.

Death-moth : according to some accounts, the spirit left the body out of the mouth in the form of a moth.

Psyche : the story of Psyche was not a myth, but rather an antique fairy tale told by Apuleius. She was imprisoned in a tower by Cupid (desire), a state of affairs which is thought to represent the situation of the human soul in the body.

Beauty : She lives in Beauty : the first published version has 'She dwells with Beauty', though this appears to be a 'correction' suggested by the publisher, possibly to avoid similarity with Byron's 'She walks in beauty'.

Soul : His soul shall taste the anguish of her might : one further alteration apparently suggested by his publisher to 'His soul shall taste the sadness of her might', which is what appeared at publication.