Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/58

44 The brown woods wav'd, while ever trickling springs Wash'd from the naked roots of oak and pine, The crumbling soil; and still at every fall Down the steep windings of the channel'd rock, Remurm'ring rush'd the congregated floods With hoarser inundation; till at last They reach'd a grassy plain, which from the skirts Of that high desart spread her verdant lap, And drank the gushing moisture, where confin'd In one smooth current, o'er the lilied vale Clearer than glass it flow'd. Autumnal spoils Luxuriant spreading to the rays of morn, Blush'd o'er the cliffs, whose half-incircling mound As in a sylvan theatre inclos'd That flow'ry level. On the river's brink I spy'd a fair pavilion, which diffus'd Its floating umbrage 'mid the silver shade Of osiers. Now the western sun reveal'd Between two parting cliffs his golden orb, And pour'd across the shadow of the hills, On rocks and floods, a yellow stream of light That chear'd the solemn scene. My list'ning pow'rs Were aw'd, and every thought in silence hung, And wond'ring expectation. Then the voice Of that cœlestial pow'r, the mystic show Declaring, thus my deep attention call'd. Inhabitant