Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 2, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/192

184 Above the Rotha, by the forest side.

—Now, by those dear immunities of heart

Engender'd betwixt malice and true love,

I was not loth to be so catechiz'd,

And this was my reply.—"As it befel,

One summer morning we had walk'd abroad

At break of day, Joanna and myself.

—'Twas that delightful season, when the broom,

Full flower'd, and visible on every steep,

Along the copses runs in veins of gold.

Our pathway led us on to Rotha's banks,

And when we came in front of that tall rock

Which looks towards the East, I there stopp'd short,

And trac'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 once,

In one impression, by connecting force