Or watch, with mutual teaching,
The current as it plays 30
In flashing leaps and stealthy creeps
Adown a rocky maze;
Or note (translucent summer’s happiest chance!)
In the slope-channel floored with pebbles bright,
Stones of all hues, gem emulous of gem, 35
So vivid that they take from keenest sight
The liquid veil that seeks not to hide them.[254]
[254] Compare Wordsworth’s description of the Duddon as “diaphanous, because it travels slowly,”—Ed.