But now and then with pressure of his thumb T' The scatter'd grain; and, thievishly resolv❜di th' impending famine, often scar'd,.... As oft return-a pert voracious kind. escape Clean riddance quickly made, one only care His wonted strut; and, wading at their head With well-consider'd steps, seems to resent Beneath the frozen clod; all seeds of herbs The long protracted rigour of the year Thins all their num'rous flocks. In chinks and holes Ten thousand seek an unmolested end, A As instinct prompts; self-buried ere they die. By the way-side, or stalking in the path, Lean pensioners upon the trav'ler's track, Pick up their nauseous dole, though sweet to them, Of voided pulse or half-digested grain. The streams are lost amid the splendid blank, Lies undissolv'd; while silently beneath, No frost can bind it there; its utmost force Large growth of what may seem the sparkling trees And shrubs of fairy land. The crystal drops That trickle down the branches, fast congeal'd, Shoot into pillars of pellucid length, And prop the pile they but adorn'd before. Here grotto within grotto safe defies The sun-beam; there, emboss'd and fretted wild, The likeness of some object seen before. As she with all her rules can never reach. Less worthy of applause, though more admir'd, Thy most magnificent and mighty freak The wonder of the North. No forest fell When thou wouldst build; no quarry sent its stores T'enrich thy walls: but thou didst hew the floods, And make thy marble of the glassy wave. In such a palace Aristæus found Cyrene, when he bore the plaintive tale Of his lost bees to her maternal ear: In such a palace poetry might place. The armory of winter; where his troops, The gloomy clouds, find weapons, arrowy sleet, Skin-piercing volley, blossom-bruising hail, And snow that often blinds the tray'ler's course, And wraps him in an unexpected tomb. Silently as a dream the fabric rose;→→→ No sound of hammer or of saw was there: Were soon conjoin'd; nor other cement ask'd Than water interfus'd to make them one. →→ Lamps gracefully dispos'd, and of all hues, Illumin'd ev'ry side: a wat❜ry light Gleam'd through the clear transparency, that seem'd Another moon new risen, or meteor fall'n |