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IV.

TAKE, cradled Nursling of the mountain, take
This parting glance, no negligent adieu!

A Protean change seems wrought while I

pursue

The curves, a loosely-scattered chain doth make;
Or rather thou appear'st a glistering snake,
Silent, and to the gazer's eye untrue,

Thridding with sinuous lapse the rushes, through
Dwarf willows gliding, and by ferny brake.
Starts from a dizzy steep the undaunted Rill
Robed instantly in garb of snow-white foam;

And laughing dares the Adventurer, who hath clomb
So high, a rival purpose to fulfil ;

Else let the Dastard backward wend, and roam,

Seeking less bold achievement, where he will !

V.

SOLE listener, Duddon! to the breeze that played
With thy clear voice, I caught the fitful sound
Wafted o'er sullen moss and craggy mound,
Unfruitful solitudes, that seemed to upbraid
The sun in heaven! - but now to form a shade
For Thee, green alders have together wound
Their foliage; ashes flung their arms around;
And birch-trees risen in silver colonnade.

And thou hast also tempted here to rise,

'Mid sheltering pines, this Cottage rude and grey; Whose ruddy children, by the mother's eyes

Carelessly watched, sport through the summer day,
Thy pleased associates:- light as endless May
On infant bosoms lonely Nature lies.

VI.

FLOWERS.

ERE yet our course was graced with social trees
It lacked not old remains of hawthorn bowers,
Where small birds warbled to their paramours;
And, earlier still, was heard the hum of bees;
I saw them ply their harmless robberies,

And caught the fragrance which the sundry flowers,
Fed by the stream with soft perpetual showers,
Plenteously yielded to the vagrant breeze.

There bloomed the strawberry of the wilderness;
The trembling eyebright showed her sapphire blue,
The thyme her purple, like the blush of even ;
And, if the breath of some to no caress

Invited, forth they peeped so fair to view,

All kinds alike seemed favourites of Heaven.

VII.

"CHANGE me, some God, into that breathing rose !"
The love-sick Stripling fancifully sighs,
The envied flower beholding, as it lies
On Laura's breast, in exquisite repose ;
Or he would pass into her Bird, that throws

The darts of song from out its wiry cage;

Enraptured,

could he for himself engage

The thousandth part of what the Nymph bestows, And what the little careless Innocent

Ungraciously receives. Too daring choice!

There are whose calmer mind it would content To be an unculled floweret of the glen,

Fearless of plough and scythe; or darkling wren, That tunes on Duddon's banks her slender voice.

VIII.

WHAT aspect bore the Man who roved or fled,
First of his tribe, to this dark dell who first
In this pellucid Current slaked his thirst?

What hopes came with him? what designs were spread
Along his path? His unprotected bed

What dreams encompassed? Was the intruder nursed
In hideous usages, and rites accursed,

That thinned the living and disturbed the dead?
No voice replies; the earth, the air is mute;
And Thou, blue Streamlet, murmuring yield'st no more
Than a soft record that whatever fruit

Of ignorance thou might'st witness heretofore,
Thy function was to heal and to restore,

To soothe and cleanse, not madden and pollute!

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