Lady of the Lake

Then through the dell his horn resounds,
From vain pursuit to call the hounds. 
Back limped, with slow and crippled pace,
The sulky leaders of the chase;

Close to their master's side they pressed,
With drooping tail and humbled crest;
But still the dingle's hollow throat 
Prolonged the swelling bugle-note.

The owlets started from their dream,
The eagles answered with their scream,
Round and around the sounds were cast,
Till echo seemed an answering blast; 

And on the Hunter hied his way,
To join some comrades of the day;
Yet often paused, so strange the road,
So wondrous were the scenes it showed.

XI

The western waves of ebbing day 
Rolled o'er the glen their level way;
Each purple peak, each flinty spire,
Was bathed in floods of living fire.

But not a setting beam could glow
Within the dark ravines below, 
Where twined the path in shadow hid,
Round many a rocky pyramid,
Shooting abruptly from the dell
Its thunder-splintered pinnacle;

Round many an insulated mass, 
The native bulwarks of the pass,
Huge as the tower which builders vain
Presumptuous piled on Shinar's plain.

The rocky summits, split and rent,
Formed turret, dome, or battlement, 
Or seemed fantastically set
With cupola or minaret,
Wild crests as pagod ever decked,
Or mosque of Eastern architect.

Nor were these earth-born castles bare, 
Nor lacked they many a banner fair;

For, from their shivered brows displayed,
Far o'er the unfathomable glade,
All twinkling with the dewdrops sheen,
The brier-rose fell in streamers green, 
And creeping shrubs, of thousand dyes,
Waved in the west-wind's summer sighs.

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;

Fox-glove and night-shade, 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,
Grey birch and aspen wept beneath;
Aloft, the ash and warrior oak 
Cast anchor in the rifted rock;