Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/123

97 Like human Life from darkness."—At the word

We followed where he led:—a sudden turn

Through a strait passage of encumbered ground,

Proved that such hope was vain:—for now we stood

Shut out from prospect of the open Vale,

And saw the water, that composed this Rill,

Descending, disembodied, and diffused

O'er the smooth surface of an ample Crag,

Lofty, and steep, and naked as a Tower.

All further progress here was barred;—And who,

Thought I, if master of a vacant hour,

Here would not linger, willingly detained?

Whether to such wild objects he were led

When copious rains have magnified the stream

Into a loud and white-robed Waterfall,

Or introduced at this more quiet time.

Upon a semicirque of turf-clad ground,

The hidden nook discovered to our view

A Mass of rock, resembling, as it lay

Right at the foot of that moist precipice,

A stranded Ship, with keel upturned,—that rests

Fearless of winds and waves. Three several Stones