The old inventive Poets, had they seen,

Or rather felt, the entrancement that detains

Thy waters, Duddon! 'mid these flowery plains;

The still repose, the liquid lapse serene,

Transferred to bowers imperishably green,

Had beautified Elysium! But these chains

Will soon be broken;—a rough course remains,[452]

Rough as the past; where Thou, of placid mien,

Innocuous as a firstling of the flock,

And countenanced like a soft cerulean sky,