OH you who hither oft with pilgrim feet,
Have o’er the pathless common trac’d your way;
This scene of savage grandeur to survey;
And here have stood with admiration meet,
Gazing on all the varied prospect round,
Glancing on ev’ry side your eager eye,
From where the view the dim-seen mountains bound:
Beneath whose brows pellucid waters lie,
To where, far stretching from the distant main,
A shining mirror seems yon liquid plain;
Its utmost limits bounded by the sky.
Oh say, did ne’er poetic fervour warm,
One glowing breast of those who here have stray’d,
Did ne’er th’ enchantress, Fancy, lend her aid
To paint in vivid hues each native charm
Of this wild spot, that, thro’ revolving years,
It still attracts admiring eyes in vain,
Nor in one poet’s lines its name appears?
Come, while its summer glories yet remain,
Ye sons of song, in some appropriate lay,
This lofty barrier of the waste pourtray;
Tow’ring majestic o’er the verdant plain.
Describe this vast stupendous pile of rock,
As rugged as the confines of the world,
Whence the huge masses far beneath it hurl’d,
Seem sever’d by a mighty earthquake’s shock;
Paint the rude columns of this lofty mound,
With ivy’s polish’d foliage wreathed o’er,
(Whose tendrils twine the jutting rocks around,)
Their tops adorn’d with many a golden flower;
Each fissure of the broken rocks between,
The yew’s dark boughs and shrubs of lightest green,
Form for the raven’s nest a leafy bower.
With what sincere delight I wander here;
When from the cares and toils of life set free,
I hail the blest return of liberty;
And these lov’d scenes my wearied spirits cheer;
At ease reclin’d upon this airy brow,
The prospect stretching wide, pleas’d I survey
The stony slope, the hanging woods below,
The ridges of the heath, the winding way,
The sun-beams glitt’ring on the marshy ground,
The cultivated farms which smile around,
And yon far hills with mists of ev’ning grey.
Here all conspires to tranquillize the breast;
The verdure of the earth, th’ unclouded skies-
The mingl’d songs which from the woodlands rise,
The sun’s last rays faint glimmering in the west-
I feel the soothing influence of the scene,
The undisturb’d repose of this retreat
Sheds o’er my mind the calm of peace serene,
From life’s continual cares a respite sweet-
For not one anxious thought can here molest,
Nor does one pensive sigh steal from my breast,
Till hence I turn my slow reluctant feet.
(Isabella Lickbarrow)
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Based on Topics: Life Poems, World Poems, Mind Poems, War & Peace Poems, Flowers Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Liberty & Freedom PoemsBased on Keywords: conspires, dim-seen, mingl, tranquillize