University of Virginia Library

V.

With free elastic hearts that shone
In joy as fresh as morning's own—
Each seated in a light canoe
The kind Lake-villagers supplied—
Amo's the lighter—gayer too,
With snowy tufts of feathers tied
In rows along each ruddy side,—
The pair went paddling, fancy-led;
For here no wond'rous sights of dread
Or beauty lurked to guide their quest
As at Mahana—nothing strange,
Or out of Nature's wonted range.

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Yet Ranolf marked with lively zest
What charms the changeful scene possest:
The billowy-tumbling hills—the crags—
The smooth green slopes fern-carpeted;
Low cliffs with feathery foliage graced;
Rock-palisades emerging pale
And grey; and precipices faced
With head-stones—close-set armour-scale
Of gothic-pointed bristling flags;
Flat islets crowned with wood—cliff-bound;
And lake-side bowers and canopies;
And caves and grottoes within these!
And lichened rocks that singly stand
Detached from green umbrageous land,
Mere pedestals for single trees;
Or, jutting out with jagged arms
All plumed and fair with greenery, bear
Into the Lake the forest's charms;
And with the bank that proudly swells,
A wooded wall without a strand,
Make niches, nooks, and liquid cells,
With interlacing boughs o'erspanned.