[Page 21]

STANZAS. [How smooth that lake expands its ample breast!]

1 How smooth that lake expands its ample breast!
2 Where smiles in soften'd glow the summer sky:
3 How vast the rocks that o'er its surface rest!
4 How wild the scenes its winding shores supply!
5 Now down the western steep slow sinks the sun,
6 And paints with yellow gleam the tufted woods:
7 While here the mountain-shadows, broad and dun,
8 Sweep o'er the crystal mirror of the floods.
9 Mark how his splendour tips with partial light
10 Those shatter'd battlements! that on the brow
11 Of yon bold promontory burst to sight
12 From o'er the woods that darkly spread below.
[Page 22]
13 In the soft blush of light's reflected power,
14 The ridgy rock, the woods that crown its steep,
15 Th' illumin'd battlement, and darker tower,
16 On the smooth wave in trembling beauty sleep.
17 But lo! the sun recalls his fervid ray,
18 And cold and dim, the wat'ry visions fail;
19 While o'er yon cliff, whose pointed craggs decay,
20 Mild Evening draws her thin empurpled veil!
21 How sweet that strain of melancholy horn!
22 That floats along the slowly ebbing wave;
23 And up the far-receding mountains borne,
24 Returns a dying close from Echo's cave!
25 Hail! shadowy forms of still, expressive Eve!
26 Your pensive graces stealing on my heart,
27 Bid all the fine-attun'd emotions live,
28 And fancy all her loveliest dreams impart.

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About this text

Title (in Source Edition): STANZAS. [How smooth that lake expands its ample breast!]
Author: Ann Radcliffe (née Ward)
Themes: nature
Genres:

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Source edition

Radcliffe, Ann Ward, 1764-1823. The Poems of Mrs. Ann Radcliffe. London: printed by and for J. Smith, Princes Street, 1816, pp. 21-22. 118p. [Radcliffe's poems only, pp. 1-95] (Page images digitized from a copy held at the National Library of the Netherlands.)

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