EXTRACT

FROM THE CONCLUSION OF A POEM,

Composed upon leaving School.

DEAR native Regions, I foretell
From what I feel at this farewell,
That, wheresoe'er my steps shall tend,

And whensoe'er my course shall end,

If in that hour a single tie
Survive of local sympathy,

My soul will cast the backward view,
The longing look alone on you.

Thus, when the Sun, prepared for rest,
Hath gained the precincts of the West,
Though his departing radiance fail

To illuminate the hollow Vale,
A lingering light he fondly throws
On the dear Hills where first he rose.

II.

EXTRACTS

FROM A POEM ENTITLED

AN EVENING WALK;

Published in 1793.

BRIGHT'NING the cliffs between, where sombrous pine And yew-trees o'er the silver rocks recline;

I love to mark the quarry's moving trains,

Dwarf panniered steeds, and men, and numerous wains :

How busy the enormous hive within,

While Echo dallies with the various din!

Some (hardly heard their chisel's clinking sound)

Toil, small as pigmies, in the gulf profound;

Some, dim between th' aëreal cliffs descry'd,

O'erwalk the slender plank from side to side;
These, by the pale-blue rocks that ceaseless ring,
Glad from their airy baskets hang and sing.

Now, while the solemn evening Shadows sail
On red slow-waving pinions down the vale,
How pleasant near the tranquil lake to stray,
Where winds the road along a secret bay;
By rills that tumble down the woody steeps,
And run in transport to the dimpling deeps;
Along the "wild meandering shore" to view,
Obsequious Grace the winding swan pursue.
He swells his lifted chest, and backward flings
His bridling neck between his towering wings;
In all the majesty of ease divides,

And glorying looks around, the silent tides:
On as he floats, the silvered waters glow,

Proud of the varying arch and moveless form of snow.

While tender Cares and mild domestic Loves
With furtive watch pursue her as she moves;
The Female with a meeker charm succeeds,
And her brown Little-ones around her leads,
Nibbling the water-lilies as they pass,

Or playing wanton with the floating grass.

VOL. I.

F

She, in a mother's care, her beauty's pride
Forgets, unweary'd watching every side:

She calls them near, and with affection sweet
Alternately relieves their weary feet;
Alternately they 'mount her back, and rest,
Close by her mantling wings' embraces prest.

Now with religious awe the farewel light
Blends with the solemn colouring of the night;

Mid groves of clouds that crest the mountain's brow,
And round the West's proud lodge their shadows throw,
Like Una shining on her gloomy way,

The half-seen form of Twilight roams astray;

Shedding, through paly loopholes mild and small,
Gleams that upon the lake's still bosom fall,
Beyond the mountain's giant reach that hides
In deep determined gloom his subject tides.
Soft o'er the surface creep those lustres pale
Tracking the fitful motions of the gale.
With restless interchange at once the bright
Wins on the shade, the shade upon the light.
No favoured eye was e'er allowed to gaze
On lovelier spectacle in faery days;