Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 1, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/127

75 Peaceful as some immeasurable plain

By the first beams of dawning light impress'd,

In the calm sunshine slept the glittering main.

The very ocean has its hour of rest,

That comes not to the human mourner's breast.

Remote from man, and storms of mortal care,

A heavenly silence did the waves invest:

I looked and looked along the silent air,

Until it seemed to bring a joy to my despair.

Ah! how unlike those late terrific sleeps!

And groans, that rage of racking famine spoke:

The unburied dead that lay in festering heaps!

The breathing pestilence that rose like smoke!

The shriek that from the distant battle broke!

The mine's dire earthquake, and the pallid host

Driven by the bomb's incessant thunder-stroke

To loathsome vaults, where heart-sick anguish toss'd,

Hope died, and fear itself in agony was lost!