A POEM.
55
Where down at once the foaming waters pour,
And tottering rocks repel the deafening roar:
Viewed from below, it seems from heaven they fell!
Seen from above, they seem to sink to hell!
But when the deluge pours from every hill,
And Clyde's wide bed ten thousand torrents fill,
His rage the murmuring mountain streams augment:
Redoubled rage, in rocks so closely pent: 430
Then shattered woods, with ragged roots uptorn,
And herds and harvests down the wave are borne;
Huge stones heaved upward through the boiling deep,
And rocks enormous thundering down the steep,
In swift descent, fixed rocks encountering, roar,
Crash as from slings discharged, and shake the shore.
From that drear grot which bears thy sacred name,
Heroic Wallace! ever dear to fame,
Did I the terrors of the scene behold;
I saw the liquid snowy mountains rolled 440
Prone down the awful steep; I heard the din
That shook the hill, from caves that boiled within:
Then wept the rocks and trees, with dropping hair,
Thick mists ascending loaded all the air,
Blotted the sun, obscured the shining day,
And washed the blazing noon at once away.
And tottering rocks repel the deafening roar:
Viewed from below, it seems from heaven they fell!
Seen from above, they seem to sink to hell!
But when the deluge pours from every hill,
And Clyde's wide bed ten thousand torrents fill,
His rage the murmuring mountain streams augment:
Redoubled rage, in rocks so closely pent: 430
Then shattered woods, with ragged roots uptorn,
And herds and harvests down the wave are borne;
Huge stones heaved upward through the boiling deep,
And rocks enormous thundering down the steep,
In swift descent, fixed rocks encountering, roar,
Crash as from slings discharged, and shake the shore.
From that drear grot which bears thy sacred name,
Heroic Wallace! ever dear to fame,
Did I the terrors of the scene behold;
I saw the liquid snowy mountains rolled 440
Prone down the awful steep; I heard the din
That shook the hill, from caves that boiled within:
Then wept the rocks and trees, with dropping hair,
Thick mists ascending loaded all the air,
Blotted the sun, obscured the shining day,
And washed the blazing noon at once away.
