Methought beneath a Castle huge I stood,
That seemed to grow out of a rock sublime,
Through the dominion of its solitude
Augustly frowning at the rage of Time.
Its lofty minarets, indistinct and dim,
Looked through the brooding clouds; and as a smile
Of passing sunlight showed these structures grim
Burning like fire, I could have thought the while
That they were warriors keeping watch on high,
All motionless, and sheathed in radiant panoply.
What mortal feet these rampart-heights might scale!
Lo! like black atoms mingling in the sky
The far-off rooks and their fleet shadows sail;
Scarce hears the soul their melancholy cry.
What lovely colours bathed the frowning brow
Of that imperial mansion! Radiant green,
And purple fading in a yellow glow!
Oh! lovelier ne’er on mossy bank was seen
In vernal joy; while bands of chartered flowers
Revelled like fairy sprites along their palace towers.
Down sank the drawbridge with a thundering shock;
And in an instant, ere the eye could know,
Bound the stern castle to the opposing rock,
And hung in calmness o’er the flood below;-
A roaring flood, that, born amid the hills,
Forced his lone path through many a darksome glen,
Till, joined by all his tributary rills,
From lake and tarn, from marish and from fen,
He left his empire with a kingly glee,
And fiercely bade recoil the billows of the sea.
I felt it was a dream; nor wished to wake:
Though dim and pale by fits the vision grew;
And oft that ocean dwindled to a lake,
And cliff and castle from the clouds withdrew.
Oft, all I heard was but a gentle swell,
Like the wild music of the summer leaves;
Till, like an army mustering in the dell,
The blasts came rushing from their pine-clad caves,
And swept the silence of the scene away,
Even like a city stormed upon the Sabbath-day.
Though strange my dream, I knew the Scottish strand,
And the bold Firth that rolling fiercely bright
Far-distant faded ‘mid that mountain land,
As ‘mid dark clouds a sudden shower of light.
Long have my lips been mute in Scotland’s praise!
Now is the hour for inspiration’s song!
The shadowy glories of departed days
Before my tranc
(John Wilson)
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Based on Topics: Light Poems, Time Poems, Soul Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Dreams Poems, Cry Poems, Fire Poems, Smiling Poems, Summer Poems, Anger Poems, Silence PoemsBased on Keywords: tranc, drawbridge, pine-clad, marish, augustly