MALHAM COVE
Composed 1819.—Published 1819
One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."—Ed.
Was the aim frustrated by force or guile,
When giants scooped from out the rocky ground,
Tier under tier, this semicirque profound?
(Giants—the same who built in Erin's isle
That Causeway with incomparable toil!)—
O, had this vast theatric structure wound[349][DL]
With finished sweep into a perfect round,
No mightier work had gained the plausive smile
Of all-beholding Phœbus! But, alas,
Vain earth! false world! Foundations must be laid
In Heaven; for, 'mid the wreck of IS and WAS,
Things incomplete and purposes betrayed
Make sadder transits o'er thought's optic glass[350]
Than noblest objects utterly decayed.[DM]
Malham Cove is a noble amphitheatre of perpendicular limestone rock, lying in regular strata, the height being 300 feet in the centre. The Aire issues from the rock at the base of the cliff, a considerable stream. Possibly Westall's picture of Malham Cove suggested to Wordsworth the Giant's Causeway in Ireland, and its legend. They have the same columnar appearance; although the former is limestone, and the latter basalt.—Ed.
VARIANTS:
[349] 1820.
Oh! had the Crescent stretched its horns, and wound
Blackwood's Magazine, January 1819.
[350] 1837.
1819.
. . . o'er truth's mystic glass,
FOOTNOTES:
[DL] Compare the Fenwick note to The Excursion.—Ed.
[DM] Compare the Fenwick note to The Excursion.—Ed.