Alexander Pope: Selected Poetry and Prose

The changes he made give a sharper idea of the moon shining
in darkness. Refulgent is not simply a dignified Latinism, for
it appropriately expresses the idea of reflection in the light of
the moon:

As when the moon, refulgent lamp of night,

O’er heaven’s clear azure sheds her silver light,

pure spreads sacred

In the second couplet his thoughts again turned first to the
quality of the moonlight, to its trembling lustre and to the
flood of golden colour it sheds:

As still in air the trembling lustre stood,

And o’er its golden border shoots a flood.

In the revision there is a radical change to quietness, solemnity,
and deep serenity (the deep of course also refers to the sea):

When no loose gale disturbs the deep serene,

And no dim cloud o’ercasts the solemn scene.

At this stage we may note the change in epithet from ‘silver’ to
‘sacred’ in the second line of the opening couplet. As the idea of
a sacred and solemn serenity took hold, it is underscored by the
lulling smoothness induced by rhythmical changes and the
removal of the unnecessary epithets ‘loose’ and ‘dim’:

When not a breath disturbs the deep serene,

And not a cloud o’ercasts the solemn scene.

‘Not a breath’ is a much more delicate touch than ‘no loose
gale’. In the third couplet the change is not so radical:

Around her silver throne the planets glow,

And stars unnumbered trembling beams bestow

becomes in the revision:

Around her throne the vivid planets roll,

And stars unnumbered gild the glowing pole.

Energy is heightened in the first line through the introduction
of movement around a fixed point; the change has the effect
of enhancing the dignity and centrality of the moon more
effectively than the comparatively inert epithet ‘silver’; ‘vivid’