Pregnant with recollections of the time When on thy bofom, fpacious Windermere! A Youth, I practifed this delightful art; Toffed on the waves alone, or 'mid a crew Of joyous comrades. Now the reedy marge Cleared, with a ftrenuous arm I dipped the oar Free from obftruction; and the boat advanced Through crystal water, smoothly as a hawk, That, difentangled from the fhady boughs Of fome thick wood, her place of covert, cleaves With corresponding wings the abyss of air.
"Obferve," the Vicar faid, "yon rocky ifle
With birch-trees fringed; my hand fhall guide the helm, While thitherward we bend our course; or while
We seek that other, on the western shore,
Where the bare columns of those lofty firs, Supporting gracefully a maffy dome Of fombre foliage, seem to imitate
A Grecian temple rifing from the Deep."
From "The Excurfion," Book IX.
There was a boy; ye knew him well, ye cliffs And iflands of Winander! Many a time, At evening, when the earliest stars began To move along the edges of the hills, Rifing or fetting, would he ftand alone, Beneath the trees, or by the glimmering lake; And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands Preff'd closely palm to palm, and to his mouth Uplifted, he, as through an instrument,
Blew mimic hootings to the filent owls,
That they might answer him. And they would shout Across the watery vale, and shout again,
Refponfive to his call,—with quivering peals, And long halloos, and fcreams, and echoes loud Redoubled and redoubled; concourfe wild
Of mirth and jocund din! And, when it chanced That pauses of deep filence mock'd his skill, Then, fometimes, in that filence, while he hung Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise Has carried far into his heart the voice
Of mountain torrents; or the vifible fcene
Would enter unawares into his mind
With all its folemn imagery, its rocks,
Its woods, and that uncertain heaven, received Into the bofom of the fteady lake.
This boy was taken from his mates, and died In childhood, ere he was full twelve years old. Fair are the woods, and beauteous is the spot, The vale where he was born; the churchyard hangs Upon a flope above the village school;
And there, along that bank, when I have paff'd At evening, I believe that oftentimes
A long half-hour together I have stood Mute-looking at the grave in which he lies!
Left upon a Seat in a Yew-Tree, which stands near the Lake of Efthwaite, on a defolate part of the shore commanding a beautiful prospect.
AY, Traveller! reft. This lonely Yew-tree ftands Far from all human dwelling: what if here No sparkling rivulet spread the verdant herb? What if these barren boughs the bee not loves? Yet, if the wind breathe foft, the curling waves That break against the shore, shall full thy mind By one foft impulse saved from vacancy.
That piled these stones, and with the moffy fod First covered o'er, and taught this aged tree With its dark arms to form a circling bower, I well remember.-He was one who owned No common foul. In youth by fcience nursed,
And led by Nature into a wild scene
Of lofty hopes, he to the world went forth A favoured being, knowing no defire
Which genius did not hallow,-'gainst the taint Of diffolute tongues, and jealousy, and hate, And fcorn,-against all enemies prepared, All but neglect. The world, for so it thought, Owed him no fervice; wherefore he at once With indignation turned himself away, And with the food of pride fuftained his foul In folitude. Stranger! these gloomy boughs Had charms for him; and here he loved to fit, His only vifitants a ftraggling sheep,
The ftone-chat, or the fand-lark,
And on these barren rocks, with juniper, And heath and thistle, thinly sprinkled o'er, Fixing his downcaft eye, he many an hour A morbid pleasure nourished, tracing here An emblem of his own unfruitful life: And lifting up his head, he then would gaze On the more diftant fcene,-how lovely 'tis Thou feeft, and he would gaze till it became Far lovelier, and his heart could not sustain The beauty, ftill more beauteous! Nor, that time, When Nature had fubdued him to herself,
Would he forget those beings, to whose minds, Warm from the labours of benevolence,
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