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Is hushed, am I at rest. My Friends! Where twilight glens endear my Est restrain waite's shore,

Those busy cares that would allay my And memory of departed pleasures, mor

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ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY.

[Composed 1787-89.-Published 1793.] General Sketch of the Lakes-Author's regret of his Youth which was passed amongst them— Short description of Noon-Cascade-Noontide Retreat-Precipice and sloping LightsFace of Nature as the Sun declines-Moun

tain-farm, and the Cock-Slate-quarry-Sunset-Superstition of the Country connected with that moment-Swans-Female Beggar

Twilight-sounds-Western

Fair scenes, erewhile, I taught, a happ

child,

The echoes of your rocks my carols wild
The spirit sought not then, in cherish

sadness,

A cloudy substitute for failing gladness.
In youth's keen eye the livelong day w
bright,

The sun at morning, and the stars at nigh
Alike, when first the bittern's hollow bil
Was heard, or woodcocks 3 roamed t
moonlight hill.

In thoughtless gaiety I coursed t plain,

And hope itself was all I knew of pain; For then the inexperienced heart wou beat

Lights-Spirits At times, while young Content forso her seat,

Night Moonlight - Hope-Night-sounds
Conclusion.

FAR from my dearest Friend, 'tis mine to

rove

Through bare grey dell, high wood, and pastoral cove;

And wild Impatience, pointing upwar showed,

Through passes yet unreached, a bright road.

Alas! the idle tale of man is found Where Derwent rests, and listens to the Depicted in the dial's moral round;

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To willowy hedge-rows, and to emerald He knows but from its shade the prese

meads;

Leads to her bridge, rude church, and

cottaged grounds,

hour.

But why, ungrateful, dwell on idle pai Her rocky sheepwalks, and her woodland To show what pleasures yet to me remai

bounds;

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Say, will my Friend, with unrelucta

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And shades of deep-embattled clouds were On withered briars that o'er the crags

seen,

40

recline;

cascade

Spotting the northern cliffs with lights Save where, with sparkling foam, a small between; When crowding cattle, checked by rails Illumines, from within, the leafy shade; that make Beyond, along the vista of the brook, 66 Where antique roots its bustling course o'erlook,

A fence far stretched into the shallow lake,

Lashed the cool water with their restless tails,

Or from high points of rock looked out for fanning gales;

When school-boys stretched their length upon the green;

45

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Lingers behind his disappearing wain. And round the broad-spread oak, a glim--Did Sabine grace adorn my living line, Bandusia's praise, wild stream, should yield to thine!

mering scene,

In the rough fern-clad park, the herded deer

Never shall ruthless minister of death

Shook the still-twinkling tail and glanc- 'Mid thy soft glooms the glittering steel ing ear;

unsheath;

75

When horses in the sunburnt intake1 No goblets shall, for thee, be crowned

stood,

And vainly eyed below the tempting flood,

50 Ortracked the passenger, in mute distress, With forward neck the closing gate to

press

with flowers,

No kid with piteous outcry thrill thy
bowers;

The mystic shapes that by thy margin rove
A more benignant sacrifice approve—
A mind that, in a calm angelic mood

Then, while I wandered where the hud- Of happy wisdom, meditating good,

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80

Beholds, of all from her high powers

required,

Much done, and much designed, and more desired,-

Harmonious thoughts, a soul by truth

refined,

Entire affection for all human kind. 85

Dear Brook, farewell! To-morrow's

noon again

Shall hide me, wooing long thy wildwood strain;

60 But now the sun has gained his western road,

And its own twilight softens the whole

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In many a whistling circle wheels her And insects clothe, like dust, the glass flight;

deep:

Slant watery lights, from parting clouds, And now, on every side, the surfac

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rings," and broom;

Yon chestnuts half the latticed boat-house Feeding 'mid purple heath, "gree hide, Shed from their sides, that face the sun's While the sharp slope the slackened tear

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Strong flakes of radiance on the tremulous Downward the ponderous timber-wain r

stream:

sounds;

13 Raised by yon travelling flock, a dusty In foamy breaks the rill, with merry song Dashed o'er the rough rock, lightly lear along;

110

cloud Mounts from the road, and spreads its moving shroud;

The shepherd, all involved in wreaths of fire,

Now shows a shadowy speck, and now is lost entire.

Into a gradual calm the breezes sink, A blue rim borders all the lake's still brink; 115 There doth the twinkling aspen's foliage sleep,

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rears

Even here, amid the sweep of endless Just where a cloud above the mountain woods, Blue pomp of lakes, high cliffs and falling An edge all flame, the broadening sun floods,

Not undelightful are the simplest charms, Found by the grassy door of mountainfarms.

145

Sweetly ferocious, round his native walks,

appears;

A long blue bar its ægis orb divides, 170 And breaks the spreading of its golden tides;

And now that orb has touched the purple steep,

Whose softened image penetrates the deep. Pride of his sister-wives, the monarch 'Cross the calm lake's blue shades the stalks;

Spur-clad his nervous feet, and firm his tread;

A crest of purple tops the warrior's head. Bright sparks his black and rolling eyeball hurls

150

Afar, his tail he closes and unfurls;
On tiptoe reared, he strains his clarion
throat,

Threatened by faintly-answering farms

remote:

Again with his shrill voice the mountain rings,

cliffs aspire,

With towers and woods, a "prospect all

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Of fainter gold, a purple gleam betray. Each slip of lawn the broken rocks between

Shines in the light with more than earthly green:

Deep yellow beams the scattered stems illume,

180 Far in the level forest's central gloom : While, flapped with conscious pride, re- Waving his hat, the shepherd, from the

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vale,

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Its darkening boughs and leaves in Long grass and willows form the wover

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