Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
View from the Top of Black Comb
By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)T
For from the summit of Black Comb (dread name
Derived from clouds and storms!) the amplest range
Of unobstructed prospect may be seen
That British ground commands:—low dusky tracts,
Where Trent is nursed, far southward! Cambrian hills
To the southwest, a multitudinous show;
And, in a line of eyesight linked with these,
The hoary peaks of Scotland that give birth
To Teviot’s stream, to Annan, Tweed, and Clyde:—
Crowding the quarter whence the sun comes forth,
Gigantic mountains rough with crags; beneath,
Right at the imperial station’s western base,
Main ocean, breaking audibly, and stretched
Far into silent regions blue and pale;—
And visibly engirding Mona’s Isle,
That, as we left the plain, before our sight
Stood like a lofty mount, uplifting slowly
(Above the convex of the watery globe)
Into clear view the cultured fields that streak
Her habitable shores, but now appears
A dwindled object, and submits to lie
At the spectator’s feet.—Yon azure ridge,
Is it a perishable cloud? or there
Do we behold the line of Erin’s coast?
Land sometimes by the roving shepherd-swain
(Like the bright confines of another world)
Not doubtfully perceived.—Look homeward now!
In depth, in height, in circuit, how serene
The spectacle, how pure!—Of Nature’s works,
In earth, and air, and earth-embracing sea,
A revelation infinite it seems;
Display august of man’s inheritance,
Of Britain’s calm felicity and power!