From this deep chasm, where quivering sunbeams play
Upon its loftiest crags, mine eyes behold
A gloomy NICHE, capacious, blank, and cold;
A concave free from shrubs and mosses grey;
In semblance fresh, as if, with dire affray,
Some Statue, placed amid these regions old
For tutelary service, thence had rolled,
Startling the flight of timid Yesterday!
Was it by mortals sculptured?–weary slaves
Of slow endeavour! or abruptly cast
Into rude shape by fire, with roaring blast
Tempestuously let loose from central caves?
Or fashioned by the turbulence of waves,
Then, when o’er highest hills the Deluge pass’d?
Read all of William Wordsworth's poems · About William Wordsworth
More by William Wordsworth
- The River Duddon - A Series Of Sonnets, 1820. - XVI - American Tradition
- The River Duddon - A Series Of Sonnets, 1820. - XVII - A Dark Plume Fetch Me From Yon Blasted Yew
- The River Duddon - A Series Of Sonnets, 1820. - XVIII - Seathwaite Chapel
- The River Duddon - A Series Of Sonnets, 1820. - XIX - Tributary Stream
- The River Duddon - A Series Of Sonnets, 1820. - XX - The Plain Of Donnerdale
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