This block - and yon, whose Church-like frame Gives to the savage Pass its name. Be thankful, even though tired and faint, 4. My Soul was grateful for delight Is of the clime in which we live; Who comes not hither ne'er shall know The brook adown the rocky steeps. Farewell, thou desolate Domain ! And who is she? Can that be Joy! Who, with a sunbeam for her guide, "Whate'er the weak may dread, the wicked dare, XXXVI. EVENING ODE, COMPOSED UPON AN EVENING OF EXTRAORDINARY SPLENDOUR AND BEAUTY. 1. HAD this effulgence disappeared With flying haste, I might have sent, Among the speechless clouds, a look Of blank astonishment; But 'tis endued with power to stay, And sanctify one closing day, That frail Mortality may see — What is? ah no, but what can be! Time was when field and watery cove With modulated echoes rang, While choirs of fervent Angels sang Their vespers in the grove; Or, crowning, star-like, each some sovereign height, Methinks, if audibly repeated now the gleam Than doth this silent spectacle 2. No sound is uttered, but a deep The hollow vale from steep to steep, Called forth by wondrous potency Whate'er it strikes, with gem-like hues! In vision exquisitely clear, Herds range along the mountain side; And glistening antlers are descried ; Thine is the tranquil hour, purpureal Eve! From worlds not quickened by the sun A portion of the gift is won; An intermingling of Heaven's pomp is spread 3. And, if there be whom broken ties Yon hazy ridges to their eyes Climbing suffused with sunny air, To stop no record hath told where! And tempting Fancy to ascend, And with immortal Spirits blend! -Wings at my shoulder seem to play; On those bright steps that heaven-ward raise Come forth, ye drooping old men, look abroad, And wake him with such gentle heed As may attune his soul to meet the dower 4. Such hues from their celestial Urn This glimpse of glory, why renewed? Nay, rather speak with gratitude; For, if a vestige of those gleams Dread Power! whom peace and calmness serve From THEE if I would swerve, Oh, let thy grace remind me of the light - 'Tis past, the visionary splendour fades ; And night approaches with her shades. Note. The multiplication of mountain-ridges, described, at the commencement of the third Stanza of this ode, as a kind of Jacob's Ladder, leading to Heaven, is produced either by watery vapours, or sunny haze; -in the present instance, by the latter cause. Allusions to the Ode, entitled "Intimations of Immortality," at the conclusion of the fourth volume, pervade the last stanza of the foregoing Poem. XXXVII. LINES, COMFOSED A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN ABBEY, ON REVISITING THE BANKS OF THE WYE DURING A TOUR. JULY 13. 1798. FIVE years have past; five summers, with the length These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs - * The river is not affected by the tides a few miles above Tintern. |