What now of all your toils are known? A grassy trench, a broken stone!" This to himself; for moral strain To Bertram were addressed in vain.
Of different mood, a deeper sigh Awoke, when Rokeby's turrets high Were northward in the dawning seen To rear them o'er the thicket green. O then, though Spenser's self had strayed Beside him through the lovely glade, Lending his rich luxuriant glow Of fancy, all its charms to show, Pointing the stream rejoicing free, As captive set at liberty,
Flashing her sparkling waves abroad, And clamoring joyful on her road; Pointing where, up the sunny banks, The trees retire in scattered ranks, Save where, advanced before the rest, On knoll or hillock rears his crest, Lonely and huge, the giant oak, As champions, when their band is broke, Stand forth to guard the rearward post, The bulwark of the scattered host,- All this, and more, might Spenser say, Yet waste in vain his magic lay, While Wilfrid eyed the distant tower, Whose lattice lights Matilda's bower.
The open vale is soon passed o'er. Rokeby, though nigh, is seen no more;
Sinking mid Greta's thickets deep, A wild and darker course they keep, A stern and lone, yet lovely road, As e'er the foot of minstrel trode! Broad shadows o'er their passage fell, Deeper and narrower grew the dell; It seemed some mountain, rent and riven, A channel for the stream had given, So high the cliffs of limestone gray Hung beetling o'er the torrent's way, Yielding, along their rugged base, A flinty footpath's niggard space,
Where he who winds 'twixt rock and wave May hear the headlong torrent rave, And like a steed in frantic fit,
That flings the froth from curb and bit, May view her chafe her waves to spray O'er every rock that bars her way, Till foam-globes on her eddies ride, Thick as the schemes of human pride That down life's current drive amain, As frail, as frothy, and as vain!
The cliffs that rear their haughty head High o'er the river's darksome bed Were now all naked, wild, and gray, Now waving all with greenwood spray; Here trees to every crevice clung, And o'er the dell their branches hung; And there all splintered and uneven, The shivered rocks ascend to heaven;
Oft, too, the ivy swathed their breast, And wreathed its garland round their crest, Or from the spires bade loosely flare Its tendrils in the middle air. As pennons wont to wave of old O'er the high feast of baron bold, When revelled loud the feudal rout, And the arched halls returned their shout; Such and more wild is Greta's roar, And such the echoes from her shore; And so the ivied banners gleam, Waved wildly o'er the brawling stream.
Now from the stream the rocks recede, But leave between no sunny mead, No, nor the spot of pebbly sand, Oft found by such a mountain strand; Forming such warm and dry retreat, As fancy deems the lonely seat, Where hermit, wandering from his cell, His rosary might love to tell.
But here, 'twixt rock and river, grew A dismal grove of sable yew,
With whose sad tints were mingled seen The blighted fir's sepulchral green.
Seemed that the trees their shadows cast The earth that nourished them to blast; For never knew that swarthy grove The verdant hue that fairies love; Nor wilding green, nor woodland flower, Arose within its baleful bower:
The dank and sable earth receives Its only carpet from the leaves,
That, from the withering branches cast, Bestrewed the ground with every blast. Though now the sun was o'er the hill, In this dark spot 't was twilight still, Save that on Greta's farther side
Some straggling beams through copsewood glide; And wild and savage contrast made That dingle's deep and funeral shade With the bright tints of early day, Which, glimmering through the ivy spray, On the opposing summit lay.
ROKEBY AT SUNSET.
THE sultry summer day is done,
The western hills have hid the sun, But mountain peak and village spire Retain reflection of his fire.
Old Barnard's towers are purple still To those that gaze from Toller Hill; Distant and high, the tower of Bowes Like steel upon the anvil glows; And Stanmore's ridge, behind that lay, Rich with the spoils of parting day, In crimson and in gold arrayed, Streaks yet a while the closing shade, Then slow resigns to darkening heaven The tints which brighter hours had given. Thus aged men, full loath and slow,
The vanities of life forego,
And count their youthful follies o'er, Till memory lends her light no more.
The eve, that slow on upland fades, Has darker closed on Rokeby's glades, Where, sunk within their banks profound, Her guardian streams to meeting wound. The stately oaks, whose sombre frown Of noontide make a twilight brown, Impervious now to fainter light, Of twilight make an early night. Hoarse into middle air arose The vespers of the roosting crows, And with congenial murmurs seem To wake the genii of the stream; For louder clamored Greta's tide, And Tees in deeper voice replied, And fitful waked the evening wind, Fitful in sighs its breath resigned.
UT all our praises why should lords engross? Rise, honest Muse! and sing the Man of Ross: Pleased Vaga echoes through her winding bounds, And rapid Severn hoarse applause resounds.
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