'Oh, dreadful thought, that all our sires and we
Are but foundations of a race to be—
Stones which are thrust in earth, to build thereon
Some white delight, some Parian Parthenon!'

THE VIEW FROM HELVELLYN

'There to the north the silver Solway shone,
And Criffel, by the hazy atmosphere
Lifted from off the earth, did then appear
A nodding island or a cloud-built throne.
And there, a spot half fancied and half seen,
Was sunny Carlisle; and by hillside green
Lay Penrith with its beacon of red stone.
'Southward through pale blue steam the eye might glance
Along the Yorkshire fells, and o'er the rest,
My native hill, dear Ingleboro's crest,
Rose shapely, like a cap of maintenance.
The classic Duddon, Leven, and clear Kent
A trident of fair estuaries sent,
Which did among the mountain roots advance.
'Westward, a region of tumultuous hills,
With here and there a tongue of azure lake
And ridge of fir, upon the eye did break.
But chiefest wonder are the tarns and rills
And giant coves, where great Helvellyn broods
Upon his own majestic solitudes,
Which even now the sunlight barely fills.'
Frederick William Faber: Poems.

Photo by Brunskill, Bowness

VIEW OF WINDERMERE.

'Summer Lake and Copse-wood Green.'—Faber.

[Enlarge image]