Page:The Pleasures of Imagination - Akenside (1744).djvu/58

The brown woods wav'd, while ever trickling springs
Wash'd from the naked roots of oak and pine,
The crumbling soil; and still at every fall280
Down the steep windings of the channel'd rock,
Remurm'ring rush'd the congregated floods
With hoarser inundation; till at last
They reach'd a grassy plain, which from the skirts
Of that high desart spread her verdant lap,285
And drank the gushing moisture, where confin'd
In one smooth current, o'er the lilied vale
Clearer than glass it flow'd. Autumnal spoils
Luxuriant spreading to the rays of morn,
Blush'd o'er the cliffs, whose half-incircling mound290
As in a sylvan theatre inclos'd
That flow'ry level. On the river's brink
I spy'd a fair pavilion, which diffus'd
Its floating umbrage 'mid the silver shade
Of osiers. Now the western sun reveal'd295
Between two parting cliffs his golden orb,
And pour'd across the shadow of the hills,
On rocks and floods, a yellow stream of light
That chear'd the solemn scene. My list'ning pow'rs
Were aw'd, and every thought in silence hung,300
And wond'ring expectation. Then the voice
Of that cœlestial pow'r, the mystic show
Declaring, thus my deep attention call'd.

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