THE RIVER DUDDON. 1. Nor envying Latian shades if yet they throw. The Sabine Bard was moved her praise to sing; Round the moist marge of Persian fountains cling; Through ice-built arches radiant as heaven's bow- CHILD of the clouds! remote from every taint Thine are the honours of the lofty waste; And Desolation is thy Patron-saint! She guards thee, ruthless Power! who would not spare Those mighty forests, once the bison's screen, Where stalked the huge deer to his shaggy lair Through paths and alleys roofed with sombre green ; Was pierced by whizzing shaft of hunter keen! The deer alluded to is the Leigh, a gigantic species long since extinct. How shall I paint thee ?—Be this naked stone TAKE, cradled Nursling of the mountain, take A Protean change seems wrought while I pursue Starts instantly enrobed in snow-white foam; Else let the dastard backward wend, and roam, Seeking less bold achievement, where he will! SOLE listener, Duddon! to the breeze that played U |