Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Windermere (Winandermere) | | The Boy of Winander | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
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THERE was a boy: ye knew him well, ye cliffs | |
| And islands of Winander!—many a time | |
| At evening, when the earliest stars began | |
| To move along the edges of the hills, | |
| Rising or setting, would he stand alone | 5 |
| Beneath the trees or by the glimmering lake, | |
| And there, with fingers interwoven, both hands | |
| Pressed closely palm to palm, and to his mouth | |
| Uplifted, he, as through an instrument, | |
| Blew mimic hootings to the silent owls, | 10 |
| That they might answer him; and they would shout | |
| Across the watery vale, and shout again, | |
| Responsive to his call, with quivering peals, | |
| And long halloos and screams, and echoes loud, | |
| Redoubled and redoubled, concourse wild | 15 |
| Of jocund din; and, when a lengthened pause | |
| Of silence came and baffled his best skill, | |
| Then sometimes, in that silence while he hung | |
| Listening, a gentle shock of mild surprise | |
| Has carried far into his heart the voice | 20 |
| Of mountain torrents; or the visible scene | |
| Would enter unawares into his mind, | |
| With all its solemn imagery, its rocks, | |
| Its woods, and that uncertain heaven, received | |
| Into the bosom of the steady lake. | 25 | | | |
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