STANZAS. [How smooth that lake expands its ample breast!] Ann Radcliffe (née Ward) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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]

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