Page:Poems and extracts - Wordsworth.djvu/34

 Whilst now a paler hue the foxglove takes And chequers still with red the dusky brakes: When odours which declined repelling day, Thro' temperate air uninterrupted stray; When darken'ed groves their softest shadows wear And falling waters we distinctly hear; When through the gloom more venerable shows Some ancient Fabric, awful in repose, While sunburnt hills their swarthy looks conceal, And swelling hay-cocks thicken up the vale: When the loos'd horse now, as his pasture leads, Comes slowly grazing through the adjoining meads, Whose stealing pace, and lengthened shade we fear 'Till torn-up forage in his teeth we hear: When nibbling sheep at large pursue their food, And unmolested kine re-chew the cud; When curlews cry beneath the village walls. And to her straggling brood the partridge calls; Their short-lived jubilee the creatures keep.

Rh