button to main menu  Gents Mag 1792 p.941

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Gentleman's Magazine 1792 p.941

  Helvellyn
  poem

Verses on Helvellyn

VERSES,
Begun on the Spot, and since finished, in Remembrance of the Refreshment received from a Spring near the Summit of HELVEYLIN, August 2, 1792.

THE full-orb'd moon o'er Loughrigg* fell†
Ting'd the rough crag with golden spell
At the approach of morn;
No cloud the lofty cliffs o'erhung,
No breath of wind refreshing sung
Through the upstanding corn.

O'er mountains high, to valleys deep,
And higher still, and still more steep,
We brush'd the early dew.
Toil wet the brow; the beauties round
Lessen'd the labour of the ground,
And spurr'd us to pursue.

Beneath our feet, upon a hill,
We saw the parent of a gill‡
Entomb'd in mountains drear.
My Mentor urg'd me to go on -
"Leave, leave the tempting draught alone,
For danger lurketh there."

Again we toil'd - a steep ascent§
Made me with parched tongue repent
I had not dar'd to try.
* The head of the Ambleside valley from the Salutation inn.
† A barren, and sometimes a ragged, hill.
‡ A small water from a tarn, so called from its being less than a lake; this was of amazing depth, and was skirted by Seat Sandal and two other steep mountains.
§ Grisdale Pike.
The
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