| |
| THIS height a ministering angel might select: | |
| For from the summit of Black Comb (dread name | |
| Derived from clouds and storms!) the amplest range | |
| Of unobstructed prospect may be seen | |
| That British ground commands:—low dusky tracts, | 5 |
| Where Trent is nursed, far southward! Cambrian hills | |
| To the southwest, a multitudinous show; | |
| And, in a line of eyesight linked with these, | |
| The hoary peaks of Scotland that give birth | |
| To Teviot’s stream, to Annan, Tweed, and Clyde:— | 10 |
| Crowding the quarter whence the sun comes forth, | |
| Gigantic mountains rough with crags; beneath, | |
| Right at the imperial station’s western base, | |
| Main ocean, breaking audibly, and stretched | |
| Far into silent regions blue and pale;— | 15 |
| And visibly engirding Mona’s Isle, | |
| That, as we left the plain, before our sight | |
| Stood like a lofty mount, uplifting slowly | |
| (Above the convex of the watery globe) | |
| Into clear view the cultured fields that streak | 20 |
| Her habitable shores, but now appears | |
| A dwindled object, and submits to lie | |
| At the spectator’s feet.—Yon azure ridge, | |
| Is it a perishable cloud? or there | |
| Do we behold the line of Erin’s coast? | 25 |
| Land sometimes by the roving shepherd-swain | |
| (Like the bright confines of another world) | |
| Not doubtfully perceived.—Look homeward now! | |
| In depth, in height, in circuit, how serene | |
| The spectacle, how pure!—Of Nature’s works, | 30 |
| In earth, and air, and earth-embracing sea, | |
| A revelation infinite it seems; | |
| Display august of man’s inheritance, | |
| Of Britain’s calm felicity and power! | |
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