Cling from the rocks, with pale wood-weeds be

tween ;

And its own twilight softens the whole scene,
Save where aloft the subtle sunbeams shine
On withered briers that o'er the crags recline;
Save where, with sparkling foam, a small cascade
Illumines, from within, the leafy shade;
Beyond, along the vista of the brook,

Where antique roots its bustling course o'erlook,
The eye reposes on a secret bridge,*

Half gray, half shagged with ivy to its ridge; There, bending o'er the stream, the listless swain Lingers behind his disappearing wain.

Did Sabine grace adorn my living line,

Blandusia's praise, wild stream, should yield to

thine!

Never shall ruthless minister of death

'Mid thy soft glooms the glittering steel unsheath;
No goblets shall, for thee, be crowned with flowers,
No kid with piteous outcry thrill thy bowers;
The mystic shapes that by thy margin rove
A more benignant sacrifice approve,

A mind, that, in a calm, angelic mood
Of happy wisdom, meditating good,

Beholds, of all from her high powers required,
Much done, and much designed, and more desired,-

*The reader who has made the tour of this country will recognize, in this description, the features which characterize the lower waterfall in the grounds of Rydal.

Harmonious thoughts, a soul by truth refined,
Entire affection for all human kind.

Dear Brook, farewell! To-morrow's noon again Shall hide me, wooing long thy wild-wood strain; But now the sun has gained his western road, And eve's mild hour invites my steps abroad.

While, near the midway cliff, the silvered kite In many a whistling circle wheels her flight; Slant watery lights, from parting clouds, apace Travel along the precipice's base;

Cheering its naked waste of scattered stone,
By lichens gray, and scanty moss, o'ergrown ;
Where scarce the foxglove peeps, or thistle's beard,
And restless stone-chat, all day long, is heard.

How pleasant, as the sun declines, to view The spacious landscape change in form and hue! Here, vanish, as in mist, before a flood Of bright obscurity, hill, lawn, and wood; There, objects, by the searching beams betrayed, Come forth, and here retire in purple shade; Even the white stems of birch, the cottage white, Soften their glare before the mellow light; The skiffs, at anchor where with umbrage wide Yon chestnuts half the latticed boat-house hide, Shed from their sides, that face the sun's slant beam, Strong flakes of radiance on the tremulous stream: Raised by yon travelling flock, a dusty cloud

Mounts from the road, and spreads its moving

shroud;

The shepherd, all involved in wreaths of fire, Now shows a shadowy speck, and now is lost entire.

Into a gradual calm the breezes sink,

A blue rim borders all the lake's still brink;
There doth the twinkling aspen's foliage sleep,
And insects clothe, like dust, the glassy deep:
And now, on every side, the surface breaks
Into blue spots, and slowly lengthening streaks;
Here, plots of sparkling water tremble bright
With thousand thousand twinkling points of light;
There, waves that, hardly weltering, die away,
Tip their smooth ridges with a softer ray;
And now the whole wide lake in deep repose
Is hushed, and like a burnished mirror glows,
Save where, along the shady western marge,
Coasts, with industrious oar, the charcoal barge.

Their panniered train a group of potters goad, Winding from side to side up the steep road; The peasant, from yon cliff of fearful edge Shot, down the headlong path darts with his sledge; Bright beams the lonely mountain-horse illume, Feeding 'mid purple heath, "green rings,"* and broom;

While the sharp slope the slackened team confounds,

*"Vivid rings of green."-GREENWOOD's Poem on Shooting.

Downward the ponderous timber-wain resounds; In foamy breaks the rill, with merry song, Dashed o'er the rough rock, lightly leaps along; From lonesome chapel at the mountain's feet, Three humble bells their rustic chime repeat; Sounds from the water-side the hammered boat; And blasted quarry thunders, heard remote !

Even here, amid the sweep of endless woods, Blue pomp of lakes, high cliffs and falling floods, Not undelightful are the simplest charms, Found by the grassy door of mountain farms.

Sweetly ferocious,* round his native walks, Pride of his sister-wives, the monarch stalks; Spur-clad his nervous feet, and firm his tread; A crest of purple tops the warrior's head. Bright sparks his black and rolling eyeball hurls Afar, his tail he closes and unfurls;

On tiptoe reared, he strains his clarion throat, Threatened by faintly answering farms remote: Again with his shrill voice the mountain rings, While, flapped with conscious pride, resound his wings!

Where, mixed with graceful birch, the sombrous pine

*"Dolcemente feroce." TASSO. In this description of the cock, I remembered a spirited one of the same animal in L'Agriculture, ou les Géorgiques Françoises, of M. Rossuet.

And yew-tree o'er the silver rocks recline;

I love to mark the quarry's moving trains,
Dwarf panniered steeds, and men, and numerous
wains:

How busy all the enormous hive within,
While Echo dallies with its various din !
Some (hear you not their chisels' clinking sound?)
Toil, small as pigmies in the gulf profound;
Some, dim between the lofty cliffs descried,
O'erwalk the slender plank from side to side;
These, by the pale-blue rocks that ceaseless ring,
In airy baskets hanging, work and sing.

Just where a cloud above the mountain rears An edge all flame, the broadening sun appears; A long blue bar its ægis orb divides,

And breaks the spreading of its golden tides;
And now that orb has touched the purple steep
Whose softened image penetrates the deep.

'Cross the calm lake's blue shades the cliffs aspire,
With towers and woods, a "prospect all on fire";
While coves and secret hollows, through a ray
Of fainter gold, a purple gleam betray.

Each slip of lawn the broken rocks between
Shines in the light with more than earthly green:
Deep yellow beams the scattered stems illume,
Far in the level forest's central gloom :
Waving his hat, the shepherd, from the vale,
Directs his winding dog the cliffs to scale, -
The dog, loud barking, 'mid the glittering rocks,