SHROPSHIRE LANDSCAPE.

Vague, in a silver sheen

Rayed from their armour green,

Some aged limes upstand;

Nigh fields kindle and shine:

Beauty incarnadine!

What thrill of what Uranian wine

So flushed the placid land?

All tints of a broken wave

Light the leafy architrave,

Far up the cloudy spring;

And the ploughed soil ruddier glows

Than the ruby or the rose,

Or the moon, when the harvest goes

Beneath her blazing wing.

Trees keep the broad outpost;

Dusk, by their dusky host,

Long-loved Severn glides.

Thence, towards the hilly south,

Like a queen, battle-wroth,

Upon a vermeil saddle-cloth,

The three-spired city rides.