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button start of addendum - Genius of the Caves
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3rd edn addenda, page 305:-
Like distant thunder: Or my raptur'd gaze,
E'en from the yew-fring'd margin down the steep
Pursues the [1] foaming cataract's headlong course,
Till spent and dazzl'd on those watry hues
Midway it rests, where light refracted paints
Each clustering dew-drop's glassy orb, and vies
With melting Iris' vernal-tinctur'd bow.
Or whether by the taper's glim'ring ray
Led on, my steps pervade thy secret shrine,
Yordas, where hid from Phaebus' garrish eye,
With contemplation, thy compeer, thou sit'st,
And like a curtain spread'st thy cloud of night
Around thy throne. I feel, I feel thee near!
Full many a young idea that e'er this
Hath slept in silence, at thy thrilling call
Starts from its trance, and kindling into life,
With joy and mingled awe attemper'd, swells
My crouded soul, and ever and anon
As at the wizard's call, my straining eye,
Quick glancing, sees a thousand fleeting shapes
Scatter'd from bright ey'd fancy's dewy plume.
Parent of horrors, hail! to my fix'd eye
Thy sacred form in these, these solemn scenes
Reveal'd, descends: And O! more awful far
This great design, grav'd by fair nature's hand,
These frowning rocks, and min'ral roofs reflect
Thy semblance, than cou'd Raphael's warmth devise,
Than Phidias featur'd marble: And thy voice
Borne on the panting wing of each low blast,
That sighs along the vault, awakes the soul
To feelings more ennobled than the lyre
Of Orpheus, or the rapture-breathnig strains
Of Handel e'er inspir'd. O! may I oft
In this Egerian cave, great power, attend
[1] Weathercoat-cave in Chapel in the dale.
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