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 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; Her rocky sheepwalks, and her woodland bounds; * 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, In youth's keen eye the livelong day was bright, 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 Yet still, the sport of some malignant Pow'r, 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 -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. 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, *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. |