ARGUMENT.

General Sketch of the Lakes

· Author's Regret of his Youth passed amongst them-Short Description of Noon · Cascade Noon-tide Retreat ·Precipice and Sloping Lights Mountain Farm, and

Scene
Face of Nature as the Sun declines

the Cock-Slate Quarry - Sunset - Superstition of the Coun

try, connected with that Moment

1

-

Swans Female Beggar

Twilight Sounds - Western Lights-Spirits - Night Moonlight-Hope-Night Sounds - Conclusion.

AN EVENING WALK.

FAR from my

dearest friend, 'tis mine to rove Thro' bare grey dell, high wood, and pastoral cove; His wizard course where hoary Derwent takes Thro' crags, and forest glooms, and opening lakes, Staying his silent waves, to hear the roar

That stuns the tremulous cliffs of high Lodore;
Where silver rocks the savage prospect chear
Of giant yews that frown on Rydal's mere;
Where peace to Grasmere's lonely island leads,
To willowy hedgerows, and to emerald meads;
Leads to her bridge, rude church, and cottag'd
grounds,

Her rocky sheepwalks, and her woodland bounds;
Where, bosom'd deep, the shy * Winander peeps
Mid' clustering isles, and holly-sprinkled steeps;

* These lines are only applicable to the middle part of that lake.

Where twilight glens endear my Esthwaite's shore, And memory of departed pleasures, more.

Fair scenes! with other eyes, than once, I

gaze

Upon the varying charm your round displays,
Than when, ere-while, I taught, “a happy child,”
The echoes of your rocks my carols wild:
Then did no ebb of chearfulness demand
Sad tides of joy from Melancholy's hand;

In youth's keen eye the livelong day was bright,
The sun at morning, and the stars of night,
Alike, when heard the bittern's hollow bill,

Or the first woodcocks roam'd the moonlight hill.

In thoughtless gaiety I cours'd the plain, And hope itself was all I knew of pain. For then, ev'n then, the little heart would beat At times, while young Content forsook her seat, And wild Impatience, panting upward, show'd Where, tipp'd with gold, the mountain-summits glow'd.

* In the beginning of winter, these mountains are frequented by woodcocks, which in dark nights retire into the woods.

Alas! the idle tale of man is found

Depicted in the dial's moral round;

With Hope Reflexion blends her social rays
To gild the total tablet of his days;

Yet still, the sport of some malignant Pow'r,
He knows but from its shade the

present hour.

But why, ungrateful, dwell on idle pain? To show what pleasures yet to me remain,' Say, will my Friend, with unreluctant ear, The history of a poet's ev'ning hear?

When, in the south, the wan noon, brooding still, Breath'd a pale steam around the glaring hill, And shades of deep embattl'd clouds were seen, Spotting the northern cliffs with lights between; When, at the barren wall's unsheltered end, Where long rails far into the lake extend,

Crowded the shortened herds, and beat the tides With their quick tails, and lash'd their speckled

sides;

When school-boys stretch'd their length upon the green;

And, round the humming elm, a glimmering scene!

In the brown park, in herds, the troubled deer
Shook the still-twinkling tail and glancing ear;
When horses in the sunburnt * intake stood,
And vainly eyed below, the tempting flood,
Or tracked the Passenger, in mute distress,
With forward neck the closing gate to press.

-Then, while I wandered up the huddling rill Brightening with water-breaks the sombrous + ghyll, As by enchantment, an obscure retreat

Opened at once, and stayed my devious feet.
While thick above the rill the branches close,
In rocky basin its wild waves repose,

Inverted shrubs, and moss of gloomy green,

Cling from the rocks, with pale wood-weeds

between ;

Save that aloft the subtle sunbeams shine

On wither'd briars that o'er the crags recline,
Sole light admitted here, a small cascade,
Illumes with sparkling foam the impervious shade;

*The word intake is local, and signifies a mountain inclo

sure.

+ Gill is also, I believe, a term confined to this country. Glen, gill, and dingle, have the same meaning.