Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 2, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/200

192 On which it grew, or to be left alone

To its own beauty. Many such there are,

Fair ferns and flowers, and chiefly that tall plant

So stately, of the Queen Osmunda nam'd,

Plant lovelier in its own retir'd abode

On Grasmere's beach, than Naid by the side

Of Grecian brook, or Lady of the Mere

Sole-sitting by the shores of old Romance.

——So fared we that sweet morning: from the fields

Meanwhile, a noise was heard, the busy mirth

Of Reapers, Men and Women, Boys and Girls.

Delighted much to listen to those sounds,

And in the fashion which I have describ'd,

Feeding unthinking fancies, we advanc'd

Along the indented shore; when suddenly,

Through a thin veil of glittering haze, we saw

Before us on a point of jutting land

The tall and upright figure of a Man

Attir'd in peasant's garb, who stood alone