[Having been prevented by the lateness of the season, in 1831, fron. visiting Staffa and Iona, the author made these the principal objects of a short tour in the summer of 1833, of which the following series of sonnets is a Memorial. The course pursued was down the Cumberland river Derwent, and to Whitehaven; thence (by the Isle of Man, where a few days were passed) up the Frith of Clyde to Greenock, then to Oban, Staffa, Iona; and back towards England, by Loch Awe, Inverary, Loch Goil-head, Greenock, and through parts of Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, and Dumfriesshire to Carlisle, and thence up the river Eden, and homewards by Ullswater.] THIRD SERIES. Composed or suggested during a Tour chiefly in Scotland, &c., 1833. And spread as if ye knew that days might come On this fair Mount, a Poet of your own— To cheer the Itinerant on whom she pours Or musing sits forsaken halls among. II. WHY should the Enthusiast, journeying through this Isle Antiquity salutes him with a smile, Mid fruitful fields that ring with jocund toil, Fair land! by Time's parental love made free, For eye and mind, the present and the past; With golden prospect for futurity, If what is rightly reverenced may last. THEY called Thee MERRY ENGLand, in old time; A happy people won for thee that name With envy heard in many a dištant clime ; To the heart's fond belief; though some there are Which foolish birds are caught with. Can, I ask, For discontent, and poverty, and crime; IV. TO THE RIVER GRETA, NEAR KESWICK, GRETA, what fearful listening! when huge stones For thy worst rage, forgotten. Oft as Spring R |