Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 2.djvu/274

266 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

Of their own beauty, imaged in the heart.

—When I had gazed perhaps two minutes' space,

Joanna, looking in my eyes, beheld

That ravishment of mine, and laughed aloud.

The rock, like something starting from a sleep,

Took up the Lady's voice, and laughed 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 of laughter; southern Loughrigg heard,

And Fairfield answered with a mountain tone:

Helvellyn far into the clear blue sky

Carried the Lady's voice,—old Skiddaw blew

His speaking-trumpet;—back out of the clouds

Of Glaramara southward came the voice;

And Kirkstone tossed it from his misty head.

—Now whether, (said I to our cordial Friend

Who in the hey-day of astonishment

Smiled in my face) this were in simple truth

A work accomplished by the brotherhood

Of ancient mountains, or my ear was touched

With dreams and visionary impulses,