No More Learning

How pleasant, as the sun declines, to view [25]
The spacious landscape change in form and hue! 100
Here, vanish, as in mist, before a flood
Of bright obscurity, hill, lawn, and wood;
There, objects, by the searching beams betrayed,
Come forth, and here retire in purple shade;
Even the white stems of birch, the cottage white, 105
Soften their glare before the mellow light;
The skiffs, at anchor where with umbrage wide
Yon chestnuts half the latticed boat-house hide,
Shed from their sides, that face the sun's slant beam,
Strong flakes of radiance on the tremulous stream: 110
Raised by yon travelling flock, a dusty cloud
Mounts from the road, and spreads its moving shroud;
The shepherd, all involved in wreaths of fire,
Now shows a shadowy speck, and now is lost entire.

Into a gradual calm the breezes [26] sink, [27] 115
A blue rim borders all the lake's still brink;
There doth the twinkling aspen's foliage sleep,
And insects clothe, like dust, the glassy deep: [28]
And now, on every side, the surface breaks
Into blue spots, and slowly lengthening streaks; 120
Here, plots of sparkling water tremble bright
With thousand thousand twinkling points of light;
There, waves that, hardly weltering, die away,
Tip their smooth ridges with a softer ray;
And now the whole wide lake in deep repose 125
Is hushed, and like a burnished mirror glows, [29]
Save where, along the shady western marge,
Coasts, with industrious oar, the charcoal barge. [30]

Their panniered train a group of potters goad,
Winding from side to side up the steep road; 130
The peasant, from yon cliff of fearful edge
Shot, down the headlong path darts with his sledge; [31]
Bright beams the lonely mountain-horse illume
Feeding 'mid purple heath, "green rings," [K] and broom;
While the sharp slope the slackened team confounds, 135
Downward [L] the ponderous timber-wain resounds;
[32] In foamy breaks the rill, with merry song,
Dashed o'er [33] the rough rock, lightly leaps along;
From lonesome chapel at the mountain's feet,
Three humble bells their rustic chime repeat; 140
Sounds from the water-side the hammered boat;
And 'blasted' quarry thunders, heard remote!

Even here, amid the sweep of endless woods,
Blue pomp of lakes, high cliffs and falling floods,
Not undelightful are the simplest charms, 145
Found by the grassy [34] door of mountain-farms.

Sweetly ferocious, [M] round his native walks,
Pride of [35] his sister-wives, the monarch stalks;
Spur-clad his nervous feet, and firm his tread;
A crest of purple tops the warrior's head. [36] 150
Bright sparks his black and rolling [37] eye-ball hurls
Afar, his tail he closes and unfurls;
[38] On tiptoe reared, he strains [39] his clarion throat,
Threatened by faintly-answering farms remote:
Again with his shrill voice the mountain rings, 155
While, flapped with conscious pride, resound his wings! [40]

Where, mixed with graceful birch, the sombrous pine
And yew-tree [41] o'er the silver rocks recline;
I love to mark the quarry's moving trains,
Dwarf panniered steeds, and men, and numerous wains: 160
How busy all [42] the enormous hive within,
While Echo dallies with its [43] various din!
Some (hear you not their chisels' clinking sound? ) [44]
Toil, small as pigmies in the gulf profound;
Some, dim between the lofty [45] cliffs descried, 165
O'erwalk the slender [46] plank from side to side;
These, by the pale-blue rocks that ceaseless ring,
In airy baskets hanging, work and sing. [47]

Just where a cloud above the mountain rears [48]
An [49] edge all flame, the broadening sun appears; 170
A long blue bar its aegis orb divides,
And breaks the spreading of its golden tides;
And now that orb has touched the purple steep
Whose softened image penetrates the deep. [50]

'Cross the calm lake's blue shades the cliffs aspire, 175
With towers and woods, a "prospect all on fire"; [N]
While [51] coves and secret hollows, through a ray
Of fainter gold, a purple gleam betray.
Each slip of lawn the broken rocks between
Shines in the light with more than earthly green: [52] 180
Deep yellow beams the scattered stems [53] illume,
Far in the level forest's central gloom:
Waving his hat, the shepherd, from [54] the vale,
Directs his winding dog the cliffs to scale,--
The dog, loud barking, 'mid the glittering rocks, 185
Hunts, where his master points, the intercepted flocks. [55]
Where oaks o'erhang the road the radiance shoots
On tawny earth, wild weeds, and twisted roots;
The druid-stones a brightened ring unfold; [56]
And all the babbling brooks are liquid gold; 190
Sunk to a curve, the day-star lessens still,
Gives one bright glance, and drops [57] behind the hill. [P]

In these secluded vales, if village fame,
Confirmed by hoary hairs, belief may claim;
When up the hills, as now, retired the light, 195
Strange apparitions mocked the shepherd's sight.
[58]

The form appears of one that spurs his steed
Midway along the hill with desperate speed; [59]
Unhurt pursues his lengthened flight, while all
Attend, at every stretch, his headlong fall. 200
Anon, appears a brave, a gorgeous show
Of horsemen-shadows moving to and fro; [60]
At intervals imperial banners stream, [61]
And now the van reflects the solar beam; [62]
The rear through iron brown betrays a sullen gleam. 205
While silent stands the admiring crowd below,
Silent the visionary warriors go,
Winding in ordered pomp their upward way [Q]
Till the last banner of their [63] long array
Has disappeared, and every trace is fled 210
Of splendour--save the beacon's spiry head
Tipt with eve's latest gleam of burning red. [64]

Now, while the solemn evening shadows sail,
On slowly-waving pinions, [65] down the vale;
And, fronting the bright west, yon oak entwines 215
Its darkening boughs and leaves, in stronger lines; [66]
'Tis pleasant near the tranquil lake to stray [67]
Where, winding on along some secret bay, [68]
The swan uplifts his chest, and backward flings
His neck, a varying arch, between his towering wings: 220
The eye that marks the gliding creature sees
How graceful, pride can be, and how majestic, ease. [69]

While tender cares and mild domestic loves
With furtive watch pursue her as she moves,
The female with a meeker charm succeeds, 225
And her brown little-ones around her leads,
Nibbling the water lilies as they pass,
Or playing wanton with the floating grass.
She, in a mother's care, her beauty's pride
Forgetting, calls the wearied to her side; [70] 230
Alternately they mount her back, and rest
Close by her mantling wings' embraces prest. [R]

Long may they float upon this flood serene;
Theirs be these holms untrodden, still, and green,
Where leafy shades fence off the blustering gale, 235
And breathes in peace the lily of the vale! [71]
Yon isle, which feels not even the milk-maid's feet,
Yet hears her song, "by distance made more sweet," [72] [S]
Yon isle conceals their home, their hut-like bower;
Green water-rushes overspread the floor; [73] 240
Long grass and willows form the woven wall,
And swings above the roof the poplar tall.
Thence issuing often with unwieldy stalk,
They crush with broad black feet their flowery walk; [74]
Or, from the neighbouring water, hear at morn [75] 245
The hound, the horse's tread, and mellow horn;
Involve their serpent-necks in changeful rings,
Rolled wantonly between their slippery wings,
Or, starting up with noise and rude delight,
Force half upon the wave their cumbrous flight. [76] 250

Fair Swan! by all a mother's joys caressed,
Haply some wretch has eyed, and called thee blessed;
When with her infants, from some shady seat
By the lake's edge, she rose--to face the noontide heat;
Or taught their limbs along the dusty road 255
A few short steps to totter with their load. [77]

I see her now, denied to lay her head,
On cold blue nights, in hut or straw-built shed,
Turn to a silent smile their sleepy cry,
By pointing to the gliding moon [78] on high. 260

--[79] When low-hung clouds each star of summer hide,
And fireless are the valleys far and wide,
Where the brook brawls along the public [80] road
Dark with bat-haunted ashes stretching broad,
[81] Oft has she taught them on her lap to lay 265
The shining glow-worm; or, in heedless play,
Toss it from hand to hand, disquieted;
While others, not unseen, are free to shed
Green unmolested light upon their mossy bed. [82]

Oh! when the sleety showers her path assail, 270
And like a torrent roars the headstrong gale; [83]
No more her breath can thaw their fingers cold,
Their frozen arms her neck no more can fold;
[84] Weak roof a cowering form two babes to shield,
And faint the fire a dying heart can yield! 275
Press the sad kiss, fond mother!