XVII. CAPTIVITY. "As the cold aspect of a sunless way Strikes through the Traveller's frame with deadlier chill, Oft as appears a grove, or obvious hill, Glistening with unparticipated ray, Or shining slope where he must never stray; blind!" XVIII. BROOK! whose society the Poet seeks And whom the curious Painter doth pursue XIX. COMPOSED ON THE BANKS OF A ROCKY STREAM. DOGMATIC Teachers, of the snow-white fur! Press the point home, or falter and demur, - Checked in your course by many a teasing burr; These natural council-seats your acrid blood Might cool; and, as the Genius of the flood Stoops willingly to animate and spur Each lighter function slumbering in the brain, With subtle speculations, haply vain, But surely less so than your far-fetched themes ! XX. THIS, AND THE TWO FOLLOWING, WERE SUGGESTED BY MR. W. WESTALL'S VIEWS OF THE CAVES, ETC. IN YORKSHIRE. PURE element of waters! wheresoe'er Thou dost forsake thy subterranean haunts, Green herbs, bright flowers, and berry-bearing plants, And, through the sunny portion of the year, spear, Languish and droop together. Nor unfelt Of central earth, where tortured Spirits pine For grace and goodness lost, thy murmurs melt Their anguish, and they blend sweet songs with thine.* * Waters (as Mr. Westall informs us in the letter-press prefixed to his admirable views) are invariably found to flow through these caverns. XXI. MALHAM COVE. WAS the aim frustrated by force or guile, (Giants the same who built in Erin's isle That Causeway with incomparable toil!) No mightier work had gained the plausive smile Vain earth!-false world!-Foundations must be laid In Heaven; for, mid the wreck of is and was, Make sadder transits o'er truth's mystic glass Than noblest objects utterly decayed. |