button to main menu   West's Guide to the Lakes, 1778/1821

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Page 297:-
Now leave the varying beauties of the scene,
And dash the scowling mountain's brows sublime.
Sweep down their rugged sides, august and steep,
With many a furrow-mark'd, and shelving ridge,
And paint the pebbled margin of the flood.
But seize! ah, seize on Pillar's lofty top,
That passing mist which half obscures its peak.
Its evanescent form no art depicts!
No fancy wing'd so quick to give it shape!-
It flies, alas! and mix'd with common air,
Brightens, and fades - insensibly - away!
Describe the dread serenity that dwells
In all this region of romantic view,
Of awful silence - silence undisturb'd,
Save when, as gently mov'd by zephyrs bland,
The hedge-row mingles with its sweets a sigh;
Or the wing'd inmates of the wat'ry vale
Carol, responsive, to the general song
Of rising Nature. From her lap he throws
The richest offerings of the growing year;
And ev'ry tow'ring hill, and daisy'd bank,
Breathes choicest incense to th'Almighty Power,
Beneficent, whose works are only good.
Pictor.
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