A sweeter home than earth's most cherish'd spotSome orb of beauty words cannot relate, Circling the spirit free as yet from blot Of sin, ere its probationary state Began-But here in vain we strive to speculate. XII. Oft when the thunderstorm has ceased, I've gazed As Wordsworth's Solitary sad amazed ; That cannot be described in verse like mine, Of Rydal's mighty Bard: earth, air, and sky With mountain-structures cloud-built domes outshine All palaces by Fancy raised-the eye In pageantries of Nature may faint types of Heaven descry. XIII. Outbursts of sunlight after summer shower That bending for the loss of splendour grieves. Hope of its weight the drooping soul relieves, And virtues brighten forth, that in the breast Beneath Prosperity's broad glare would undiscerned rest. XIV. We drink in, as it were, the flow of life Around us, that insoul'd becomes a part Even of our being: thought is ne'er at strife With thought, when love of Nature's at the heart, They who from mountain-heights look o'er the vale, XV. Those who hereafter view the golden corn August, 1833. NOTES TO "ADLESTROP HILL." P. 218, 1. 6. Oft when the thunderstorm has ceased I've gazed, &c. I allude here to the description of the magnificent spectacle seen among the mountains, in the second Book of Wordsworth's Excursion, by the Solitary. I cannot resist the temptation to transcribe part of it. "The appearance instantaneously disclosed Clouds, mists, streams, watery rocks and emerald turf, Clouds of all tincture, rocks and sapphire sky, Confused, commingled, mutually inflamed, Molten together, and composing thus, WARWICKSHIRE. Nec tam Larissæ percussit campus opimæ, Mobilibus pomaria rivis. HORATII, liber i. Od. 7. I. HERE is the aspect of the country grand ; Green are the meads through which clear rivers flow; Here o'er the road, as guardians of the land, Vast oaks their venerable branches throw; And in the sunlight woods continuous glow, Where Perdita might choose her choicest store Of flowers with artless comment to bestow On high-born swains; and where, with Hellenore Laurel-crown'd, sylvan boys from openings might out pour. II. Here Flora's spots of loveliness surpass Armida's gardens or Alcina's isle : Gay flower-beds, fountains bosom'd in soft grass, Wind flower-inwoven creepers, here beguile The slave to Mammon of his golden cares, As plays o'er Avon's stream eve's roseate smile. And Nature here her richest livery wears, Flourishing as her poet's fame, whose throne no rival shares. III. Beautiful are the fields that brighten round And Ariels, as he sleeps on sacred ground, Visit the day-dreams even of rustic loon. Juliet before the eye of fancy glows With love, far lovelier than in grand saloon The richest gems of beauty: Shakspeare throws IV. Mightiest of mighty bards! may I unblamed 'Twas thine all characters of life to hit Or in the soul sublime emotions raise, Or melt with tenderness, delight with wit; |