第12章 XII.

Boon nature scattered, free and wild, Each plant or flower, the mountain's child.

Here eglantine embalmed the air, Hawthorn and hazel mingled there;The primrose pale and violet flower Found in each cliff a narrow bower;Foxglove and nightshade, side by side, Emblems of punishment and pride, Grouped their dark hues with every stain The weather-beaten crags retain.

With boughs that quaked at every breath, Gray birch and aspen wept beneath;Aloft, the ash and warrior oak Cast anchor in the rifted rock;And, higher yet, the pine-tree hung His shattered trunk, and frequent flung, Where seemed the cliffs to meet on high, His boughs athwart the narrowed sky.

Highest of all, where white peaks glanced, Where glistening streamers waved and danced, The wanderer's eye could barely view The summer heaven's delicious blue;So wondrous wild, the whole might seem The scenery of a fairy dream.