Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/435

409 But an inexorable law forbade,

And each resigned the oar which he had seized.

Whereat, with willing hand I undertook

The needful labour; grateful task!—to me

Pregnant with recollections of the time

When, on thy bosom, spacious Windermere!

A Youth, I practised this delightful art;

Tossed on the waves alone, or mid a crew

Of joyous Comrades.—Now the reedy marge

Cleared, with a strenuous arm I dipped the oar,

Free from obstruction; and the Boat advanced

Through crystal water, smoothly as a Hawk,

That, disentangled from the shady boughs

Of some thick wood, her place of covert, cleaves

With correspondent wings the abyss of air.

—"Observe," the Vicar said, "yon rocky Isle

With birch-trees fringed; my hand shall guide the helm,

While thitherward we bend our course; or while

We seek that other, on the western shore,—

Where the bare Columns of those lofty Firs,

Supporting gracefully a massy Dome

Of sombre foliage, seem to imitate

A Grecian Temple rising from the Deep."