The Poetical Works of Anna Seward With Extracts from her Literary Correspondence. Edited by Walter Scott ... In Three Volumes |
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HOYLE LAKE,
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The Poetical Works of Anna Seward | ||
HOYLE LAKE,
A POEM,
WRITTEN ON THAT COAST, AND ADDRESSED TO ITS PROPRIETOR. SIR JOHN STANLEY.
Since life's first good for us thy efforts gain,
Who, habitants of Albion's inland vales,
Reside far distant from her circling main.
Arose, the lawny scene's convivial boast,
While at thy voice clear-cheek'd Hygeia rears
Her aqueous altars on this tepid coast.
That green Britannia's watry zone displays,
Now gives the drooping frame a cheerful dome,
Whose Lares smile, and promise lengthen'd days.
Falling in heavy, deep, continual rain,
If, ere the sun sink shrouded in the deep,
His crystal rays pervade the vapoury train,
O'er the light surface of the sandy mound,
Where e'en the languid form may safely tread,
Drink the pure gale, and eye the blue profound.
Of Deva, and of Mersey, meets the main,
And when the sun-gilt day illumes its charms,
Boasts of peculiar grace, nor boasts in vain.
Reposes sullen in the watry way,
Hears round her rocks the tides, returning, boil,
And o'er her dusky sandals dash their spray.
Her curtain'd mountains rising o'er the floods;
While seas on Orm's beak'd promontory burst,
Blue Deva swells her mirror to the woods.
Vast Moel-y-Fammau towers upon the sight,
Lifts her maternal bosom to the storms,
And screens her filial mountains from their blight.
In pallid distance, glimmer thro' the sky,
Tho', hid by jutting rocks, thy splendid fanes,
Commercial Liverpool, elude the eye.
Amid whose restless billows guardian Hoyle,
To screen her azure Lake when tempests howl,
Spreads the firm texture of her amber Isle.
Roll, day, and night, its level surface o'er,
Tho' the skies darken, and the whirlwind raves,
They froth,—but rush innoxious to the shore.
Hear thundering Shipwreck yell her dire decrees,
See her pale arm rend every sail, and shroud,
And o'er the high mast lift her whelming seas,
The shatter'd navy thro' the tempest flies,
Each joyous mariner forgets his toil,
And carols to the vainly angry skies.
And curl its billows on the shelly floor,
Yet, in despite of Fancy's timid dream,
Age, and infirmity, may plunge secure.
Or Summer-noons illume the grassy mound,
When anchor'd navies crowd the peopled Lake,
Or deck the distant ocean's skiey bound!
Rise the tall masts;—or spreading wide their sails,
Silvering, and shining in the solar beam,
Stand on that last blue line, and court the gales.
And boatswain's whistle bears the jovial sound;
While rosy pennants, floating on the air,
Tinge the soft seas of glass, that sleep around.
His ardent legions in auspicious hours,
Ere to Ierne's hostile shores he led
To deathless glory their embattled powers.
That stemm'd with dauntless breast the Granic flood,
His victor-sword immortal William whirl'd,
And Boyne's pale waters dyed with rebel blood.
Breathes renovation in its foamy wave,
For the kind Donor shall each heart implore,
The good his energies to others gave.
And long on all he loves, serene may shine,
Who from thy sparkling coast, benignant Hoyle,
Diffused the blessings of her crystal shrine.
The large and handsome Hotel, built in the year 1792, by Sir John Stanley, and which converts these pleasant Downs into a commodious sea-bathing place.
Deva, the classical name of the Dee.
“Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream.”Milton's Lycidas.
Also Prior, in Henry and Emma.
“Him, great in peace and wealth, fair Deva knows.”Milton probably uses the epithet wizard, in allusion to the rites and mysteries performed on the banks of the Deva, or Dee. In Spencer, the river is made the haunt of magicians. That fine poetic scholar and critic, the late Mr T. Warton, observes, in his Edition of Milton's lesser Poems, that Merlin used to visit old Timon in a green valley, at the foot of the mountain, Rauran-Vaur, in Merionethshire, from which mountain the river Deva springs. See Fairy Queen, B.1.C.ix.V.4. In Drayton, an old poet, with whose works Milton was familiar, it is styled “the hallowed, the holy, the ominous flood.”
The first word spoken as one syllable, as if spelt Mole. The name signifies in Welch, Mother of Mountains. It is seen in the Hoyle-Lake prospect, behind the Flintshire Hills, and considerably higher than any of them.
The Poetical Works of Anna Seward | ||