72
CLYDE;
Then all the sand, (a true, though wondrous thing!)
Begins to move as in a bubbling spring.
Swarming with life, the weltering bottom heaves,
And glittering swarms crowd the encumbered waves:
Broad shoals, on shoals in youthful prime, are rolled;
Their azure armour shines with studs of gold;
Bedropt with purple hues, and scarlet bright,
They shoot amidst the foods, a glorious fight.
Where these high walls round wide inclosures run, 840
Forbid the winter, and invite the sun,
Wild strays the race of bisons, white as snow,
Hills, dales and woods re-echo when they low.
No houses lodge them, and no milk they yield,
Save to their calves; nor turn the furrowed field:
At pleasure through the spacious pastures stray;
No keeper know, nor any guide obey;
Nor round the dairy with swelled udders stand,
Or, lowing, court the milkmaid's rosy hand.
But, mightiest of his race, the bull is bred; 850
High o'er the rest he rears his armed head,
The monarch of the drove, his sullen roar,
Shakes Clyde with all his rocks from shore to shore.
The murdered sounds in billowy surges come,
Deep, dismal as the death-denouncing drum,
Begins to move as in a bubbling spring.
Swarming with life, the weltering bottom heaves,
And glittering swarms crowd the encumbered waves:
Broad shoals, on shoals in youthful prime, are rolled;
Their azure armour shines with studs of gold;
Bedropt with purple hues, and scarlet bright,
They shoot amidst the foods, a glorious fight.
Where these high walls round wide inclosures run, 840
Forbid the winter, and invite the sun,
Wild strays the race of bisons, white as snow,
Hills, dales and woods re-echo when they low.
No houses lodge them, and no milk they yield,
Save to their calves; nor turn the furrowed field:
At pleasure through the spacious pastures stray;
No keeper know, nor any guide obey;
Nor round the dairy with swelled udders stand,
Or, lowing, court the milkmaid's rosy hand.
But, mightiest of his race, the bull is bred; 850
High o'er the rest he rears his armed head,
The monarch of the drove, his sullen roar,
Shakes Clyde with all his rocks from shore to shore.
The murdered sounds in billowy surges come,
Deep, dismal as the death-denouncing drum,
