Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/30

4 Of some huge cave, whose rocky ceiling casts

A twilight of its own, an ample shade,

Where the wren warbles; while the dreaming Man,

Half conscious of the soothing melody,

With side-long eye looks out upon the scene,

By that impending covert made more soft,

More low and distant! Other lot was mine;

Yet with good hope that soon I should obtain

As grateful resting-place, and livelier joy.

Across a bare wide Common I was toiling

With languid feet, which by the slippery ground

Were baffled; nor could my weak arm disperse

The host of insects gathering round my face,

And ever with me as I paced along.

Upon that open level stood a Grove,

The wished-for Port to which my steps were bound.

Thither I came, and there—amid the gloom

Spread by a brotherhood of lofty elms—

Appeared a roofless Hut; four naked walls

That stared upon each other! I looked round,

And to my wish and to my hope espied

Him whom I sought; a Man of reverend age,