Gleams, streaked or dappled, hid from Slow travelling down the western hills, to fold [gold; Its green-tinged margin in a blaze of From thickly-glittering spires, the matin bell

Calling the woodman from his desert cell, A summons to the sound of oars, that pass, Spotting the steaming deeps, to early mass; Slow swells the service, o'er the water borne, [of morn. While fill each pause the ringing woods Farewell those forms that in thy noonude shade, [glade; Rest, near their little plots of wheaten Those charms that bind the soul in powerless trance,

Lip-dewing song, and ringlet-tossing dance. Where sparkling eyes and breaking smiles illume

The sylvan cabin's lute-enlivened gloom. -Alas! the very murmur of the streams Breathes o'er the failing soul voluptuous dreams, [dwell While slavery, forcing the sunk mind to On joys that might disgrace the captive's cell, [marge, Her shameless timbrel shakes on Como's And winds, from bay to bay, the vocal barge.

Yet arts are thine that soothe the unquiet heart,

And smiles to solitude and want impart.
I loved by silent cottage-doors to roam,
The far-off peasant's day-deserted home;
And once I pierced the mazes of a wood,
Where, far from public haunt, a cabin
stood;

There by the door a hoary-headed sire Touched with his withered hand an ancient lyre:

Beneath an old gray oak, as violets lie, Stretched at his feet with steadfast upward eye, [sound: His children's children joined the holy -A hermit with his family around!

But let us hence, for fair Locarno smiles Embowered in walnut slopes and citron isles;

Or seek at eve the banks of Tusa's stream,* While, 'mid dim towers and woods, her waters gleam;

The river along whose banks you descend in crossing the Alps by the Simplon Pass.

retire

The dull-red steeps, and, darkening, still aspire,

To where afar rich orange lustres glow Round undistinguished clouds, and rocks,

and snow,

A giant moan along the forest swells Protracted, and the twilight storm foretells,

And, ruining from the cliffs, their deafening load [abroad; Tumbles, -the wildering thunder slips On the high summits darkness comes and goes, [snows;

Hiding their fiery clouds, their rocks, and The torrent, traversed by the lustre broad,

Starts like a horse beside the flashing road;

In the roofed bridge,t at that terrific hour, She seeks a shelter from the battering -Fierce comes the river down; the crashshower. [ing wood Gives way, and half its pines torment the flood;

+ Most of the bridges among the Alps are of wood and covered; these bridges have a heavy appearance, and rather injure the effect of the scenery in some places.

Fearful, beneath the water-spirits call, And the bridge vibrates, tottering to its fall.

Heavy, and dull, and cloudy is the night; No star supplies the comfort of its light, Glimmer the dim-lit Alps, dilated round, And one sole light shifts in the vale profound:

While opposite, the waning moon hangs still

And red, above the melancholy hill. By the deep gloom appalled, the gipsy sighs, [eyes. Stoops her sick head, and shuts her weary She hears, upon the mountain-forest's brow, [below; The death-dog, howling loud and long, On viewless fingers counts the valley-clock, Followed by drowsy crow of midnight cock. The dry leaves stir as with a serpent's walk, And, far beneath, banditti voices talk; Behind her hill, the moon, all crimson, rides,

And his red eyes the slinking water hides. -Vexed by the darkness, from the piny gulf

Ascending, nearer howls the famished wolf, While through the stillness scatters wild dismay [prey. Her babe's small cry, that leads him to his

On as we move, a softer prospect opes, Calm huts, and lawns between, and sylvan slopes. [gale, While mists, suspended on the expiring Moveless o'erhang the deep secluded vale, The beams of evening slipping soft between, Gently illuminate a sober scene; Winding its dark-green wood and emerald glade,

The still vale lengthens underneath the shade; [recede, While in soft gloom the scattering bowers Green dewy lights adorn the freshened mead, On the low brown wood-huts § delighted sleep

Along the brightened gloon reposing deep. While pastoral pipes and streams the landscape lull,

And bells of passing mules that tinkle dull, In solemn shapes before the admiring eye Dilated hang the misty pines on high, Huge convent domes with pinnacles and [showers. And antique castles seen through drizzling

towers,

cliff.

Where'er below amid the savage scene
Peeps out a little speck of smiling green,
A garden-plot the desert air perfumes,
'Mid the dark pines a little orchard blooms;
A zig-zag path from the domestic skiff,
Threading the painful crag, surmounts the
[know
-Before those hermit doors, that never
The face of traveller passing to and fro,
No peasant leans upon his pole, to tell
For whom at morning tolled the funeral
bell;
[foregoes,
Their watch-dog ne'er his angry bark
Touched by the beggar's moan of human
[shade
The grassy seat beneath their casement
The pilgrim's wistful eye hath never stayed.
-There, did the iron genius not disdain
The gentle power that haunts this myrtle
plain,
[chide
There might the love-sick maiden sit, and
The insuperable rocks and severing tide;
There watch at eve her lover's sun-gilt sail
Approaching, and upbraid the tardy gale;
There list at midnight till is heard no more,
Below, the echo of his parting oar.

woes;

Eastward, in long perspective glittering, shine [recline; The wood-crowned cliffs that o'er the lake Wide o'er the Alps a hundred streams unfold, [gold: At once to pillars turned that flame with Behind his sail the peasant strives to hun The west that burns like one dilated sun, Where in a mighty crucible expire

The mountains, glowing-hot, like coals of fire.

tears.

But lo! the boatman, overawed, before The pictured fane of Tell suspends his oar; Confused the Marathonian tale appears, While burn in his full eyes the glorious [days And who that walks where men of ancient Have wrought with godlike arm the deeds of praise, Feels not the spirit of the place control, Exalt, and agitate his labouring soul? Say, who, by thinking on Canadian hills, Or wild Aosta lulled by Alpine rills, On Zutphen's plain; or where, with softened gaze, [veys;

The old gray stones the plaided chief surCan guess the high resolve, the cherished pain,

of him whom passion rivets to the plain, Where breathed the gale that caught Wolfe's happiest sigh,

And the last sunbeam fell on Bayard's eye; Where bleeding Sidney from the cup retired, And glad Dundee in "faint huzzas" expired!

But now with other mind I stand alone Upon the summit of this naked cone, And watch, from peak to peak amid the sky Small as a bird the chamois chaser fly,* Through vacant worlds where nature never

Then the milk-thistle bade those herds de-
mand
[hand.
Three times a day the pail and welcome
But human vices have provoked the rod
Of angry nature to avenge her God.
Thus does the father to his sons relate,
On the lone mountain top, their changed

estate.

Still, nature, ever just, to him imparts
Joys only given to uncorrupted hearts.

"Tis morn: with gold the verdant mountain glows, [rose. More high, the snowy peaks with hues of Far-stretched beneath the many-tinted hills A mighty waste of mist the valley fills, A solemn sea! whose vales and mountains round

rear;

Stand motionless, to awful silence bound.
A gulf of gloomy blue, that opens wide
And bottomless, divides the midway tide.
Like leaning masts of stranded ships appear
The pines that near the coast their summits
[shore
Of cabins, woods, and lawns a pleasant
Bounds calm and clear the chaos still and
hoar:
[sound
Loud through that midway gulf ascending,
Unnumbered streams with hollow roar pro-
found:
[of birds,
Mount through the nearer mist the chant
And talking voices, and the low of herds,
The bark of dogs, the drowsy tinkling bell,
And wild-wood mountain lutes of saddest
swell.

Think not, suspended from the cliff on high,
He looks below with undelighted eye.
-No vulgar joy is his, at eventide
Stretched on the scented mountain's purple

side.

And, as his native hills encircle ground For many a wondrous victory renowned, The work of freedom daring to oppose, With few in arms,* innumerable foes, When to those glorious fields his steps are led, [dead. An unknown power connects him with the For images of other worlds are there; Awful the light, and holy is the air. Uncertain through his fierce uncultured soul [roll; Like lighted tempests troubled transports To viewless realms his spirit towers amain, Beyond the senses and their little reign.

And oft, when passed that solemn vision by,

[high, He holds with God himself communion Where the dread peal of swelling torrents fills

The sky-roofed temple of the eternal hills; Or, when upon the mountain's silent brow Reclined, he sees, above him and below, Bright stars of ice and azure fields of

snow;

While needle peaks of granite shooting bare Tremble in ever-varying tints of air: -Great joy, by horror tamed, dilates his heart, [impart. And the near heavens their own delights -When the sun bids the gorgeous scene farewell,

sure s urn,

[return. Binds her wild wreaths, and whispers his

Once Man, entirely free, alone and wild. Was blest as free-for he was nature's child.

He, all superior but his God disdained, Walked none restraining, and by none restrained, [taught, Confessed no law but what his reason Did all he wished, and wished but what he ought.

Lift, all serene, their still, illumined forms, In sea-like reach of prospect round him spread,

Tinged like an angel's smile all rosy red.

Alluding to several battles which the Swiss in very small numbers have gained over their oppressors, the house of Austria.

As Schreck-Horn, the pike of terror; Wetter-Horn, the pike of storms, &c. &c.