Page:Poems and extracts - Wordsworth.djvu/34

Whilst now a paler hue the foxglove takes
And chequers still with red the dusky brakes:
When odours which declined repelling day,
Thro' temperate air uninterrupted stray;
When darken'ed groves their softest shadows wear
And falling waters we distinctly hear; 20
When through the gloom more venerable shows
Some ancient Fabric, awful in repose,
While sunburnt hills their swarthy looks conceal,
And swelling hay-cocks thicken up the vale:
When the loos'd horse now, as his pasture leads,
Comes slowly grazing through the adjoining meads,
Whose stealing pace, and lengthened shade we fear
'Till torn-up forage in his teeth we hear:
When nibbling sheep at large pursue their food,
And unmolested kine re-chew the cud; 30
When curlews cry beneath the village walls.
And to her straggling brood the partridge calls;
Their short-lived jubilee the creatures keep.