Lo! Cintra's glorious Eden intervenes[1]
In variegated maze of mount and glen.
Ah, me! what hand can pencil guide, or pen,
To follow half on which the eye dilates
Through views more dazzling unto mortal ken[2]
Than those whereof such things the Bard relates,
Who to the awe-struck world unlocked Elysium's gates.
XIX.
The horrid crags, by toppling convent crowned,[3]
The cork-trees hoar that clothe the shaggy steep,
The mountain-moss by scorching skies imbrowned,
The sunken glen, whose sunless shrubs must weep,
The tender azure[4] of the unruffled deep,
The orange tints that gild the greenest bough,
The torrents that from cliff to valley leap,[5]
The vine on high, the willow branch below,
Mixed in one mighty scene, with varied beauty glow.
- ↑ [For a fuller description of Cintra, see letter to Mrs. Byron, dated August 11, 1808 (Life, p. 92; Letters, 1898, i. 237). Southey, not often in accord with Byron, on his return from Spain (1801) testified that "for beauty all English, perhaps all existing, scenery must yield to Cintra" (Life and Corr. of R. Southey, ii. 161).]
- ↑ —— views too sweet and vast ——.—[MS. erased.]
- ↑ —— by tottering convent crowned.—[MS. erased.]
Alcornoque.—[Note (pencil).] - ↑
"The sky-worn robes of tenderest blue."
Collins' Ode to Pity [MS. and D.] - ↑ The murmur that the sparkling torrents keep.—[MS. erased.]
