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Home  »  The Complete Poetical Works by William Wordsworth  »  XLIII. ILLUSTRATION

ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS

XLIII. ILLUSTRATION

ECCLESIASTICAL SONNETS


THE Virgin Mountain, wearing like a Queen A brilliant crown of everlasting snow, Sheds ruin from her sides; and men below Wonder that aught of aspect so serene Can link with desolation. Smooth and green, And seeming, at a little distance, slow, The waters of the Rhine; but on they go Fretting and whitening, keener and more keen; Till madness seizes on the whole wide Flood, Turned to a fearful Thing whose nostrils breathe 10 Blasts of tempestuous smoke–wherewith he tries To hide himself, but only magnifies; And doth in more conspicuous torment writhe, Deafening the region in his ireful mood.