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258

The River Duddon.

A SERIES OF SONNETS.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE RIVER DUDDON rises upon Wrynose Fell, on the confines of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire; and, serving as a boundary to the two last counties, for the space of about twenty-five miles, enters the Irish Sea, between the Isle of Walney and the Lordship of Millum.

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Yes, they can make, who fail to find,
Short leisure even in busiest days;
Moments, to cast a look behind,
And profit by those kindly rays

That through the clouds do sometimes steal,
And all the far-off past reveal.

Hence, while the imperial city's din
Beats frequent on thy satiate ear,
A pleased attention I may win
To agitations less severe,
That neither overwhelm nor cloy,
But fill the hollow vale with joy!

I.

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I seek the birthplace of a native stream.
All hail, ye mountains! hail, thou morning
light!

Better to breathe upon this aery height
Than pass in needless sleep from dream to
dream:
Land bright,

III.

How shall I paint thee?--Be this naked

stone

ment,

Pleased could my verse, a speaking monu
My seat while I give way to such intent;
[known.
Make to the eyes of men thy features
Outruns his fellows, so hath nature lent
But as of all those tripping lambs not one
To thy beginning naught that doth present
Peculiar grounds for hope to build upon.
To dignify the spot that gives thee birth,
No sign of hoar antiquity's esteem
Appears, and none of modern fortune's
[gleam
Yet thou thyself hast round thee shed a
Of brilliant moss, instinct with freshness
rare;
[earth!

care;

Pure flow the verse, pure, vigorous, free, Prompt offering to thy foster-mother,

For Duddon, long-loved Duddon is my

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SOLE listener, Duddon! to the breeze that played [sound With thy clear voice, I caught the fitful

Unfruitful solitudes, that seemed to upbraid

*The deer alluded to is the Leigh, a gigantic Wafted o'er sullen moss and craggy mound, species long since extinct.

The sun in heaven !-but now, to form a

shade

VIII.

for thee, green alders have together wound WHAT aspect bore the man who roved or

Their foliage; ashes flung their arms

around;

And birch-trees risen in silver colonnade. And thou hast also tempted here to rise, 'Mid sheltering pines, this cottage rude and grey;

Whose ruddy children, by the mother's eyes Carelessly watched, sport through the summer day, [May Thy pleased associates-light as endless On infant bosoms lonely nature lies.

trees

VI.

FLOWERS.

ERE yet our course was graced with social [bowers, It lacked not old remains of hawthorn Where small birds warbled to their para[bees; mours; And, earlier still, was heard the hum of I saw them ply their harmless robberies, And caught the fragrance which the sundry flowers, [showers, Fed by the stream with soft perpetual Plenteously yielded to the vagrant breeze. There bloomed the strawberry of the [sapphire blue, (1) The trembling eyebright showed her The thyme her purple, like the blush of

wilderness;

even;

And, if the breath of some to no caress Invited, forth they peeped so fair to view, All kinds alike seemed favourites of Heaven.

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fled,
|first
First of his tribe, to this dark dell-who
In this pellucid current slaked his thirst?
What hopes came with him? what designs
were spread

Along his path? His unprotected bed
What dreams encompassed? Was the

intruder nursed

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[stone Chosen for ornament: stone matched with In studied symmetry, with interspace For the clear waters to pursue their race Without restraint.-How swiftly have they 'flown, [child Succeeding - still succeeding! Here the Puts, when the high-swoln flood runs fierce and wild, [here His budding courage to the proof;—and Declining manhood learns to note the sly And sure encroachments of infirmity, Thinking how fast time runs, life's end how

near !

X.

THE SAME SUBJECT.

NOT so that pair whose youthful spirits

dance

With prompt emotion, urging them to pass; A sweet confusion checks the shepherd-lass; Blushing she eyes the dizzy flood askance,To stop ashamed-too timid to advance; She ventures once again-another pause! His outstretched hand he tauntingly with

draws

She sues for help with piteous utterance!

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No fiction was it of the antique age;
A sky-blue stone, within this sunless cleft,
Is of the very footmarks unbereft
Which tiny elves impressed; on that smooth
stage

Dancing with all their brilliant equipage
In secret revels-haply after theft

Of some sweet babe, flower stolen, and coarse weed left

For the distracted mother to assuage
Her grief with, as she might !-But, where,
oh ! where

Is traceable a vestige of the notes
That ruled those dances, wild in character?
Deep underground?-Or in the upper air,
On the shrill wind of midnight? or where
floats

O'er twilight fields the autumnal gossamer?

XII.

HINTS FOR THE FANCY.

ON, loitering muse.

the swift stream

chides us-on!
Albeit his deep-worn channel doth immure
Objects immense portrayed in miniature,
Wild shapes for many a strange comparison!
Niagaras, Alpine passes, and anon
Abodes of Naiads, calm abysses pure,
Bright liquid mansions, fashioned to endure
When the broad oak drops, a leafless
skeleton,

And the solidities of mortal pride,
Palace and tower, are crumbled into dust!
The bard who walks with Duddon for his
guide,

Shall find such toys of fancy thickly set ;-
Turn from the sight, enamoured muse-we

must;

And, if thou canst, leave them without regret !

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