Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/113

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scenery, inspired us with terror, whilst he described the universal uproar that was awakened through the mountains by a sudden burst of' involuntary laughter in the heart of their precipices; an incident which a kindred intellect, his friend and neighbour at Grasmere, Wordsworth, (whose ' Lyrical Bal- lads,' exclusivelyalmost of all modern compositions, breathe the true, nervous, and simple spirit of poetry) lias worked up into the following admirable effusion :

" 'Twas that delightful season, when the broom,

lull ftower'd, and visible on every steep,

" Along the ropses runs in veins of gold,

" Our pathway led us on to Rotha's banks,

li And when we came in front of that tal! rock

" Which looks towards the East, T there stopp'd short,

" And trae'd the lofty barrier with my eye

From base to summit; such delight I found

" To note in shrub and tree, in stone and flower,

' That intermixture of delicious hues,

Along so vast a surface, all at onc< ,

(> In one impression, by connecting force

" Of their own beauty, imag'd in the heart.

When I had gaz'd perhaps two minutes' space,

' Joanna, looking in my eyes, beheld

That ravishment of mine, and laugh'd aloud. The rock, like something starting from a sleep, ' Took up the lady's voice, and laugh'd again ' That ancient, woman seated on Helm-crag " Was ready with her cavern; Hammar-Scar,

< And the tall steep of Silver-How sent forth. ' A noise oiTaiuditor; southern Loughrigg heard

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