Page:The Prelude, Wordsworth, 1850.djvu/237

BOOK VIII.] Like one of these, where Fancy might run wild,

Though under skies less generous, less serene:

There, for her own delight had Nature framed

A pleasure-ground, diffused a fair expanse

Of level pasture, islanded with groves

And banked with woody risings; but the Plain

Endless, here opening widely out, and there

Shut up in lesser lakes or beds of lawn

And intricate recesses, creek or bay

Sheltered within a shelter, where at large

The shepherd strays, a rolling hut his home.

Thither he comes with spring-time, there abides

All summer, and at sunrise ye may hear

His flageolet to liquid notes of love

Attuned, or sprightly fife resounding far,

Nook is there none, nor tract of that vast space

Where passage opens, but the same shall have

In turn its visitant, telling there his hours

In unlaborious pleasure, with no task

More toilsome than to carve a beechen bowl

For spring or fountain, which the traveller finds,

When through the region he pursues at will

His devious course. A glimpse of such sweet life

I saw when, from the melancholy walls

Of Goslar, once imperial, I renewed