Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 5.djvu/649

CANTO II. Without a furnace in unpurchased groves,

And flings off famine from its fertile breast,

A priceless market for the gathering guest;—

These, with the luxuries of seas and woods,

The airy joys of social solitudes,

Tamed each rude wanderer to the sympathies

Of those who were more happy, if less wise,

Did more than Europe's discipline had done,

And civilised Civilisation's son!

XII.

Of these, and there was many a willing pair,

Neuha and Torquil were not the least fair:

Both children of the isles, though distant far;

Both born beneath a sea-presiding star;

Both nourished amidst Nature's native scenes,

Loved to the last, whatever intervenes

Between us and our Childhood's sympathy,

Which still reverts to what first caught the eye.

He who first met the Highlands' swelling blue

Will love each peak that shows a kindred hue,

Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face,

And clasp the mountain in his Mind's embrace.

Long have I roamed through lands which are not mine,

Adored the Alp, and loved the Apennine,

Revered Parnassus, and beheld the steep

Jove's Ida and Olympus crown the deep:

But 'twas not all long ages' lore, nor all

Their nature held me in their thrilling thrall;

The infant rapture still survived the boy,

And Loch-na-gar with Ida looked o'er Troy,