64
CLYDE;
The rattling leaves through all the forests found, 640
The corn, opprest, lies prostrate on the ground:
Red rush the roaring torrents down the hills,
And Clyde's wide bed a foaming deluge fills;
The mound he bursts, and down the rampart bears,
Sweeps the broad village, ancient woods uptears;
And proudly lifts on high the ravaged spoil
Of the improver's art and labourer's toil;
With ruin marking all his wasteful way,
He spreads his conquest with resistless sway.
Wild desolation far and wide prevails, 650
And ruin floats triumphant o'er the dales.
All nature mourns, till Phœbus' cheerful ray
Dispels the darkness, and restores the day.
Then nature smiles; wide flow from every grove
The fragrant gales of health, and songs of love.
Earth wears a livelier green: Cerulean skies
Smile soft; the wood-flowers glow with brighter dies.
Their silver smoothness Clyde's fair floods resume,
And groves and fields with fresher lustre bloom.
On shaggy rocks exalted, wildly sweet, 660
Ascends Craignethan's gay romantic seat;
And Milntown, bending o'er his subject woods,
His image views in the surrounding floods.
The corn, opprest, lies prostrate on the ground:
Red rush the roaring torrents down the hills,
And Clyde's wide bed a foaming deluge fills;
The mound he bursts, and down the rampart bears,
Sweeps the broad village, ancient woods uptears;
And proudly lifts on high the ravaged spoil
Of the improver's art and labourer's toil;
With ruin marking all his wasteful way,
He spreads his conquest with resistless sway.
Wild desolation far and wide prevails, 650
And ruin floats triumphant o'er the dales.
All nature mourns, till Phœbus' cheerful ray
Dispels the darkness, and restores the day.
Then nature smiles; wide flow from every grove
The fragrant gales of health, and songs of love.
Earth wears a livelier green: Cerulean skies
Smile soft; the wood-flowers glow with brighter dies.
Their silver smoothness Clyde's fair floods resume,
And groves and fields with fresher lustre bloom.
On shaggy rocks exalted, wildly sweet, 660
Ascends Craignethan's gay romantic seat;
And Milntown, bending o'er his subject woods,
His image views in the surrounding floods.
