Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/433

407 And down the Valley on the Streamlet's bank

Pursued our way, a broken Company,

Mute or conversing, single or in pairs.

Thus having reached a bridge, that overarched

The hasty rivulet where it lay becalmed

In a deep pool, by happy chance we saw

A two-fold Image; on a grassy bank

A snow-white Ram, and in the crystal flood

Another and the same! Most beautiful,

On the green turf, with his imperial front

Shaggy and bold, and wreathed horns superb,

The breathing Creature stood; as beautiful,

Beneath him, shewed his shadowy Counterpart.

Each had his glowing mountains, each his sky,

And each seemed centre of his own fair world:

Antipodes unconscious of each other,

Yet, in partition, with their several spheres,

Blended in perfect stillness, to our sight!

"Ah! what a pity were it to disperse,

Or to disturb, so fair a spectacle,

And yet a breath can do it!"

These few words