Whence the swart fairies of the mine below Too weak to awe the land. Were I a flame-shaft of the northern * dawn On Skiddaw's highth I'd take my glittering stand, His murky brow sublime, While Darkness still with her broad mantle wraps The giant-limbs of his majestic form, And Silence clasps his foot Save where hoarse torrents rush. Thence would I stretch my sword cherubic wide A ruby sea of fire Between thy mountains dun. * Skiddawlies to the north of Keswic. 45 50 55 Then quench the fervent blushes on thy cheek, To sparkle thro' the air In many a fleecy flake. 60 Yet wherefore dream? perchance when life recedes And woes have rid me of this mortal robe That tempts my trammel'd step To droil in earthly care, The doom-fulfilling Angel shall conduct Above thy shining floor That heave their sapphire roofs; To my delighted spirit shall consign 65 The rule of every vapour that ascends 70 Or thro' thy bubbling wave: Of every breeze that plays along thy breast, Or shakes the pattering foliage of thy trees, blast that howls Of every Thy dark-brown hills among. Then will I pall me in tempestuous gloom; Black, rough, as lava-fields. And (when I've learnt to sway destroying storms, And from unerring hand To hurl the fiery doom,) Yon froof, profaner of my realm, assail, And every building fall; 80 85 * From one situation on the lake an echo repeats seven times. JOSEPH POCKLINGTON, Esq. has decorated an island in the lake of which he is owner, with stables in the form of a church, a mock fort neatly white-wash'd, a trim boat-house leaning on the remains of a Druidical Temple, whose central ftone is yearly painted with white lead and oil, &c. The roaring surges from its shore shall dash Thy hall wide-wasting flame To shapeless ruin sear. There, (as o'er slaughter-fields the Fiend of war The cloud of steaming blood And agonizing groans,) Awhile I'll lower o'er the crumbling wrack Till the gusts slink anew to wombing dens, The murmuring waters hush. Then shall my satiate ire no more forbid The tears of twilight on the isle to gleam, Or rainbow-girded showers To kiss the flowery shore. 90 95 100 I'll show the Elves where on its scented brink 105 The purple violets drench their heads in dew, The rifted oak with misletoe shall teem, And from the mossier walls, Unfading ivy bow. From cloudy exile will I then recall The ghosts of Druids to their ring of stones, And from their golden harps melodious, pour (While thro' the streakless blue Slow winds the full-orb'd moon, And all the stars in living radiance bath'd, Keswic, their beamy locks,). The dusky Fays of Borro's echoing cave From their deep palace by the sound evok'd, Shall on thy tawny sands Their jetty tribute fling; 110 115 120 125 |