His brain will burn, his stout heart split Some blest assurance, from this clo

The marvel of the PERILOUS SEAT, Which whosoe'er approached of strength was shorn,

no sign was Though King or Knight the most re

THE

RIVER DUDDON.

A SERIES OF SONNETS1.

[Composed between 1806-1820.-Published 1820.]

The River Duddon rises upon Wrynose Fell, on the confines of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and ancashire; and, having served as a boundary to the two last Counties for the space of about twentye miles, enters the Irish Sea, between the Isle of Walney and the Lordship of Millum.

TO THE REV. DR. WORDSWORTH
WITH THE SONNETS TO THE RIVER DUDDON,
AND OTHER POEMS IN THIS COLLECTION,
1820).

Composed Christmastide, 1819.-Published 1820.]
The Minstrels played their Christmas tune
To-night beneath my cottage-eaves;
While, smitten by a lofty moon,
The encircling laurels, thick with leaves,
Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen,
That overpowered their natural green.
Through hill and valley every breeze
Had sunk to rest with folded wings:
Keen was the air, but could not freeze,
Nor check, the music of the strings;

5

10

So stout and hardy were the band
That scraped the chords with strenuous hand!
And who but listened?-till was paid
Respect to every Inmate's claim:
The greeting given, the music played,
In honour of each household name,
Duly pronounced with lusty call,
And Merry Christmas" wished to all!

→ Brother! I revere the choice

That took thee from thy native hills;
And it is given thee to rejoice:
Though public care full often tills
Heaven only witness of the toil)
A barren and ungrateful soil.

15

20

With ambient streams more pure and bright 50
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!

1 These Sonnets (No. XXVII. excepted) appeared early in 1820, in a volume entitled The River Dudon, A Series of Sonnets: Vaudracour and Julia: and other Poems. To which is annexed A Topographical Description of the Country of the Lakes, in the North of England. They were writen at various intervals between 1806 and 1820. Sonnet No. XIV. (O Mountain Stream!) was written efore April, 1807, when it first appeared amongst the Miscellaneous Sonnets of Poems in Two Folumes; and Sonnet No. XXVII. (Fallen, and diffused) was published in 1819, along with The Wagoner; included, in the collective (4 vol.) ed. of 1820, amongst the Miscellaneous Sonnets; and, in d. 1827, transferred to its present place in this Series.-ED.

I seek the birthplace of a native Stream. All hail, ye mountains! hail, thou morning light!

ΙΟ

No meaner Poet than the whistling Blas
And Desolation is thy Patron-saint!
She guards thee, ruthless Power! whe
would not spare

Those mighty forests, once the bisou

screen,

Where stalked the huge deer to his shagg lair 1

Through paths and alleys roofed with darkest green;

Thousands of years before the silent air Was pierced by whizzing shaft of hunte keen!

III.

How shall I paint thee?-Be this nake

stone

Pleased could my verse, a speaking monu
My seat, while I give way to such intent

ment,

Make to the eyes of men thy feature
known.

But as of all those tripping lambs not on
Outruns his fellows, so hath Nature lent
To thy beginning nought that doth pre
sent

To dignify the spot that gives thee birth
Peculiar ground for hope to build upon.
No sign of hoar Antiquity's esteem
Appears, and none of modern Fortune

care;

Better to breathe at large on this clear Yet thou thyself hast round thee shed

height

Than toil in needless sleep from dream to

dream:

a gleam

Of brilliant moss, instinct with freshnes

rare;

Pure flow the verse, pure, vigorous, free, Prompt offering to thy Foster-mothe

and bright,

For Duddon, long-loved Duddon, is my

theme!

Earth!

1 The deer alluded to is the Leigh, a giganti species long since extinct.