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Gloomy and dark art thou—the crowded firs
Tower from thy shores, and stretch across thy bed,
Making thee doleful as a cavern-well:
Save when the shy king-fishers build their nest
On thy steep banks, no loves hast thou, wild stream!
This be my[errata 1] chosen haunt—emancipate
From passion's dreams, a freeman, and alone,
I rise and trace its devious course. O lead,
Lead me to deeper shades and lonelier glooms.
Lo! stealing through the canopy of firs
How fair the sunshine spots that mossy rock,
Isle of the river, whose disparted waters
Dart off asunder with an angry sound,
How soon to re-unite! And see! they meet,
Each in the other lost and found: and, see!
Placeless, as spirits, one soft Water-sun
Throbbing within them, Heart at once and Eye!
With its soft neighbourhood of filmy Clouds,
The Stains and Shadings of forgotten Tears,
Dimness o'erswum with lustre!—Such the hour
Of deep enjoyment, following Love's brief feuds![errata 2]
Of deep enjoyment, following love's brief feuds!
And hark, the noise of a near waterfall!
I come[errata 3] out into light—I find myself
Beneath a weeping birch (most beautiful
Of forest-trees, the Lady of the woods),
Hard by the brink of a tall weedy rock
That overbrows the cataract. How bursts
The landscape on my sight! Two crescent hills
Errata
- ↑ Original: thy was amended to my: detail
- ↑ Original: How soon to re-unite! They meet, they join
In deep embrace, and open to the Sun
Lie calm and smooth. Such the delicious hour was amended to How soon to re-unite! And see! they meet,
Each in the other lost and found: and, see!
Placeless, as spirits, one soft Water-sun
Throbbing within them, Heart at once and Eye!
With its soft neighbourhood of filmy Clouds,
The Stains and Shadings of forgotten Tears,
Dimness o'erswum with lustre!—Such the hour
Of deep enjoyment, following Love's brief feuds!: detail - ↑ Original: came was amended to come: detail
