Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/376

350 Who from their Dwellings came not forth to join

In this sad service, less disturbed than we.

They started at the tributary peal

Of instantaneous thunder, which announced

Through the still air the closing of the Grave;

And distant mountains echoed with a sound

Of lamentation, never heard before!"

The Pastor ceased.—My venerable Friend

Victoriously upraised his clear bright eye;

And, when that eulogy was ended, stood

Enwrapt,—as if his inward sense perceived

The prolongation of some still response,

Sent by the ancient soul of this wide Land,

The spirit of its mountains and its seas,

Its cities, temples, fields, its awful power,

Its rights and virtues—by that Deity

Descending; and supporting his pure heart

With patriotic confidence and joy.

And, at the last of those memorial words,

The pining Solitary turned aside,

Whether through manly instinct to conceal

Tender emotions spreading from the heart