button to main menu  Wordsworth's Guide 1810, edn 1835
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page 118
Before we reached Seathwaite in Borrowdale, a few stars had appeared, and we pursued our way down the Vale, to Rosthwaite, by moonlight.
Scawfell and Helvellyn being the two Mountains of this region which will best repay the fatigue of ascending them, the following Verses may be here introduced with propriety. They are from the Author's Miscellaneous Poems.

TO ___.


  Helvellyn
ON HER FIRST ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT OF HELVELLYN.


INMATE of a Mountain Dwelling,
Thous hast clomb aloft, and gazed,
From the watch-towers of Helvellyn;
Awed, delighted, and amazed!

Potent was the spell that bound thee
Not unwilling to obey;
For blue Ether's arms, flung round thee,
Stilled the pantings of dismay.

Lo! the dwindled woods and meadows!
What a vast abyss is there!
Lo! the clouds, the solemn shadows,
And the glistenings - heavenly fair!

And a record of commotion
Which a thousand ridges yield;
Ridge, and gulf, and distant ocean
Gleaming like a silver shield!

- Take thy flight; - possess, inherit
Alps or Andes - they are thine!
With the morning's roseate Spirit,
Sweep their length of snowy line;
gazetteer links
button -- "Helvellyn" -- Helvellyn ascent 1800s
button -- "Pikes, the" -- Scafell Pike
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