And who but listened?-till was paid O Brother! I revere the choice Yet, would that Thou, with me and mine, Hadst heard this never-failing rite; And seen on other faces shine A true revival of the light Which Nature and these rustic Powers, In simple childhood, spread through ours! For pleasure hath not ceased to wait That guards the lowliest of the poor. How touching, when, at midnight, sweep The mutual nod, the grave disguise For names once heard, and heard no more; For infant in the cradle laid. Ah! not for emerald fields alone, With ambient streams more pure and bright Than fabled Cytherea's zone Glittering before the Thunderer's sight, Is to my heart of hearts endeared The ground where we were born and reared! Hail, ancient Manners! sure defence, And ye that guard them, Mountains old! Bear with me, Brother! quench the thought That slights this passion, or condemns; From the proud margin of the Thames, To humbler streams, and greener bowers. Yes, they can make, who fail to find, That through the clouds do sometimes steal, And all the far-off past reveal. Hence, while the imperial City's din Beats frequent on thy satiate ear, A pleased attention I may win That neither overwhelm nor cloy, But fill the hollow vale with joy! THE RIVER DUDDON. I. Nor envying Latian shades-if yet they throw The Sabine Bard was moved her praise to sing; Round the moist marge of Persian fountains cling; Through ice-built arches radiant as heaven's bow ; For Duddon, long-loved Duddon, is my theme! : II. CHILD of the clouds! remote from every taint Thine are the honours of the lofty waste; And Desolation is thy Patron-saint! She guards thee, ruthless Power! who would not spare Those mighty forests, once the bison's screen, Where stalked the huge deer to his shaggy lair* Through paths and alleys roofed with sombre green; Thousands of years before the silent air Was pierced by whizzing shaft of hunter keen! * The deer alluded to is the Leigh, a gigantic species long since extinct. |