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Is hard and hoar; crystalline dew congeal'd
Hath tipt the spiry grass; the waters, bound
In sluggish ice, transparency have lost;
No flock is bleating on the rigid lawn,

No rural pipe attunes th' inclement air;
No youths and damsels trip the choral round
Beneath bare oaks, whose frost-incrusted boughs
Drop chilling shadows; icicles invest

The banks of rills, which, grating harsh in strife
With winter's fetters, to their dreary sides

No passenger invite."

In the following, also, there is much suavity of versification, as well as great beauty of local description:

"In native windings from his Lydian fount
As various flow'd Meander, here along
A level champaign, daisy-painted meads,
Or golden fields of Ceres, here through woods
In green arcades projecting o'er his banks,
There shut in rock, which irritates the stream,
Here by low hamlets, there by stately towns,
Till he attained the rich Magnesian seat;
Thence with augmented fame and prouder floods
Roll'd down his plenteous tribute to the main :
So through the mazes of his fortune winds
In artless eloquence th' expressive strain
Of Haliartus, from his peasant state

To scenes heroic."

This is, also, a most highly poetical night-piece; the scene of which lies between the two hostile camps of Greece and Persia.

"The Sun was set; th' unnumber'd eyes of Heav'n

Thin clouds envelop'd; dusky was the veil

Of night, not sable; placid was the air;

The low-ton'd current of Asopus held
No other motion than his native flow,
Alluring Aristides in a walk
Contemplative to pace the stable verge
Attir'd in moss. The hostile camp he views,
Which by Masistius' vigilance and art
With walls of wood and turrets was secur'd.
For this the groves of Jupiter supreme
On Hypatus were spoil'd, Teumessian brows,

Mesabius, Parnes, were uncover'd all.
Square was th' enclosure, ev'ry face emblaz'd
With order'd lights. Each elevated tent
Of princely satraps, and, surmounting all,
Mardonius, thine, from coronets of lamps
Shot lustre, soft'ning on the distant edge
Of wide Plataan fields. A din confus'd,
Proclaim'd barbarians; silent was the camp
Of Greece."

The beauty of the following landscape is of so fine an order, as almost to make us repent of our characterization of Glover's feelings for the beauties of nature, as in some sort suburban:

"Silver Phoebe spreads

A light, reposing on the quiet lake,
Save where the snowy rival of her hue,
The gliding Swan, behind him leaves a trail
In luminous vibration.* Lo! an isle

* Mr. Wordsworth most probably had his eye on the first lines of the above obscure quotation, in composing the following lovely and majestic passage. We do not mean to compare the two extracts; for it will be observed, that the Swan of Glover is only one object among many, lightly touched off in the landscape, though with a pen of real genius; while the noble "creature" of the other poet is an elaborate and finished picture.

"Fair is the swan, whose majesty prevailing
O'er breezeless water, on Locarno's lake,
Bears him on, while proudly sailing
He leaves behind a moon-illumin'd wake:
Behold! the mantling spirit of reserve
Fashions his neck into a goodly curve;
An arch thrown back between luxuriant wings
Of whitest garniture, like fir-tree boughs
To which, on some unruffled morning, clings
A flaky weight of winter's purest snows!
Behold! as with a gushing impulse, heaves
That downy prow, and softly cleayes
The mirror of the crystal flood,

Vanish inverted hill, and shadowy wood,
And pendant rocks, where'er, in gliding state,
Winds the mute creature without visible mate
Or rival, save the Queen of night

Swells on the surface. Marble structures there
New gloss of beauty borrow from the Moon
To deck the shore. Now silence gently yields
To measur'd strokes of oars. The orange groves,
In rich profusion round the fertile verge,
Impart to fanning breezes fresh perfumes
Exhaustless, visiting the sense with sweets,
Which soften ev'n Briareus; but the son
Of Gobryas, heavy with devouring care,
Uncharm'd, unheeding sits."

The whole description of Mardonius' visit to the cave of Trophonius, is, also, admirably executed, and contains much of that species of local painting in which Glover excels.

that

Mardonius determinates to consult the oracle; he is told,

"Rueful is the mode

Of consultation, though from peril free:"

he, however, perseveres; and we shall begin our extract with his navigation down the Cephissus, in search of the cave. We would gladly introduce the whole episode, if our limits did not forbid. Against the influx of Cephissus, down

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Lebadian vales in limpid flow convey'd,

The rowers now are lab'ring. O'er their heads
Huge alders weave their canopies, and shed
Disparted moonlight through the lattic'd boughs;
Where Zephyr plays, and whisp'ring motion breathes
Among the pliant leaves. Now roseate tints.
Begin to streak the orient verge of Heav'n,
Foretok'ning day. The son of Gobryas lands,
Where in soft murmur down a channell❜d slope
The stream Hercyna, from Trophonian groves,
Fresh bubbling meets Cephissus. He ascends

Showering down a silver light

From heaven, upon her chosen favorite."

Indeed, this piece of glorious poetic beauty seems compounded, with a few additional and exquisite touches of the poet's own, of the passage in Glover, and that in Milton on this favoured bird:

above

"The swan with arched neck

Between her white wings mantling, proudly rows

Her state with oary feet."- -Seventh Book, Par. Lost.

With all his train. Th' enclosure, which begirds
The holy purlieus, through a portal hung
With double valves on obelisks of stone,
Access afforded to the steps of none
But suppliants. Hegesistratus accosts

One in pontific vesture station'd there."

Mardonius is admitted alone, and conducted by the priest into a dome, where the gloomy chief' bows before the statue of a 'genius good,' whose lineaments recal his lost Masistius forcibly to his recollection: an incident, which gives occasion to an address in a tender vein of poetry, but which we must pass over. Forsaking the dome,

"Along Hercyna's bank they now proceed,
To where the river parts. One channel holds
A sluggish, creeping water, under vaults
Of ebon shade, and soporific yew,
The growth of ages on the level line
Of either joyless verge. The satrap here,
Nam'd and presented by his former guide,
A second priest receives, conductor new
Through night-resembling shadows, which obscure
The sleepy stream, unmoving to the sight,
Or moving mute."

After drinking of the Lethean fount, they proceed:
"Ascending thence, a mazy walk they tread,
Where all the Season's florid children show
Their gorgeous raiment, and their odours breathe
Unspent; while musical in murmur flows

Fast down a deep declivity of bed

Hercyna, winding in a channel new,

Apparent often to the glancing eye

Through apertures, which pierce the loaden boughs

Of golden fruit Hesperian, and th' attire

Of myrtles green, o'ershadowing the banks.

In alabaster's variegated hues,

To bound the pleasing avenue, a fane

Its symmetry discover'd on a plat,

Thick-set with roses, which a circling skreen

Of that fair ash, where cluster'd berries glow,
From ruffling gusts defended."

After undergoing a variety of ceremonies; at length,
"Fresh from ablution, lo! Mardonius comes

In linen vesture, fine and white, as down
Of Paphian doves. A sash of tincture bright,
Which rivall'd Flora's brilliancy of dye,
Engirds his loins; majestical his brows
A wreath sustain; Lebadian sandals ease
His steps. Exchanging thus his martial guise,
Like some immortal, of a gentler mould

Than Mars, he moves. So Phoebus, when he sets,
Lav'd by the nymphs of Tethys in their grot
Of coral after his diurnal toil,

Repairs his splendours, and his rosy track
Of morn resumes."

"Next through a winding cavity and vast
He guides the prince along a mossy vault,
Rough with protuberant and tortuous roots
Of ancient woods, which, clothing all above,
In depth shoot downward equal to their height;
Suspended lamps, with livid glimpse and faint,
Direct their darkling passage. Now they reach
The further mouth unclosing in a dale

Abrupt; there shadow, never-fleeting, rests.
Rude-featur'd crags, o'erhanging, thence expel
The blaze of noon. Beneath a frowning cliff
A native arch, of altitude which tempts
The soaring eagle to construct his nest,
Expands before an excavation deep,
Unbowelling the hill. On either side
This gate of nature, hoary sons of time,
Enlarg❜d by ages to protentous growth,
Impenetrable yews augment the gloom.

In height two cubits, on the rocky floor
A parapet was rais'd of marble white,
In circular dimension; this upholds
The weight of polish'd obelisks, by zones
Of brass connected, ornamental fence.
A wicket opens to th' advancing prince;
Steps moveable th' attentive priest supplies;
By whom instructed, to the awful chasm
Below, profound but narrow, where the god
His inspiration breathes, th' intrepid son
His nether limbs
Up to the loins he plunges. Downward drawn,
As by a whirlpool of some rapid flood,

Of Gobryas firm descends.

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