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But an inexorable law forbade,
And each resigned the oar which he had seized.
Whereat, with willing hand I undertook
The needful labour; grateful task!—to me
Pregnant with recollections of the time
When, on thy bosom, spacious Windermere!
A Youth, I practised this delightful art;
Tossed on the waves alone, or mid a crew
Of joyous Comrades.—Now the reedy marge
Cleared, with a strenuous arm I dipped the oar,
Free from obstruction; and the Boat advanced
Through crystal water, smoothly as a Hawk,
That, disentangled from the shady boughs
Of some thick wood, her place of covert, cleaves
With correspondent wings the abyss of air.
—"Observe," the Vicar said, "yon rocky Isle
With birch-trees fringed; my hand shall guide the helm,
While thitherward we bend our course; or while
We seek that other, on the western shore,—
Where the bare Columns of those lofty Firs,
Supporting gracefully a massy Dome
Of sombre foliage, seem to imitate
A Grecian Temple rising from the Deep."
