Holiday studies of Wordsworth by rivers, woods, and Alps; the Wharfe, the Duddon, and the Stelvio Pass
F. A. Malleson
Paperback
(RareBooksClub.com, March 6, 2012)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 Excerpt: ...with flowers, ferns, and pretty cottages at Bank End embowered in shade; while looking up the placid sheet of Duddon, and just above the bridge, is a finished landscape of wood and water, mountain and fell, seen by the writer a thousand times with undiminished love and interest. "So may thy poet, cloud-born stream! be free--The sweets of earth contentedly resigned, And each tumultuous working left behind At seemly distance--to advance like thee; Prepared in peace of heart, in calm of mind And soul, to mingle with Eternity." Soon after this, Duddon enters the staid and sober stage of his later existence. His gambols and his merry pranks are ended, and, now that the last bridge is passed, he soon spreads widely over the sandy estuary. "Not hurled precipitous from steep to steep; Lingering no more 'mid flower-enamelled lands And blooming thickets; nor by rocky bands Held; but in radiant progress towards the Deep Where mightiest rivers into powerless sleep Sink, and forget their nature--now expands Majestic Duddon, over smooth flat sands, Gliding in silence with unfettered sweep! Beneath an ampler sky a region wide Is opened round him: hamlets, towers, and towns, And blue-topped hills, behold him from afar." What a contrast to the origin of the stream, only sixteen miles above! This child of the cloudy heavens enjoys a bright and happy youth, and dies young, entering the sea still clear and bright, and not yet sullied or impure. So might our childhood, so might our manhood, and even our old age, run sparkling and unsullied, till it enters into its rest in the all-embracing arms of the Everlasting Father. "We, the brave, the mighty, and the wise, We Men, who in our morn of youth defied The elements, must vanish;--be it so! Enough, if som...