Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/107

 BOOK FOURTH.

SUMMER VACATION.

was the summer's noon when quickening steps

Followed each other till a dreary moor

Was crossed, a bare ridge clomb, upon whose top

Standing alone, as from a rampart's edge,

I overlooked the bed of Windermere,

Like a vast river, stretching in the sun.

With exultation, at my feet I saw

Lake, islands, promontories, gleaming bays,

A universe of Nature's fairest forms

Proudly revealed with instantaneous burst,

Magnificent, and beautiful, and gay.

I bounded down the hill shouting amain

For the old Ferryman; to the shout the rocks

Replied, and when the Charon of the flood

Had staid his oars, and touched the jutting pier,