Where, mixed with graceful birch, the sombrous pine
  And yew-tree [41] o’er the silver rocks recline;
  I love to mark the quarry’s moving trains,
  Dwarf panniered steeds, and men, and numerous wains:  160
  How busy all [42] the enormous hive within,
  While Echo dallies with its [43] various din! 
  Some (hear you not their chisels’ clinking sound?) [44]
  Toil, small as pigmies in the gulf profound;
  Some, dim between the lofty [45] cliffs descried, 165
  O’erwalk the slender [46] plank from side to side;
  These, by the pale-blue rocks that ceaseless ring,
  In airy baskets hanging, work and sing.[47]

    Just where a cloud above the mountain rears [48]
  An [49] edge all flame, the broadening sun appears; 170
  A long blue bar its aegis orb divides,
  And breaks the spreading of its golden tides;
  And now that orb has touched the purple steep
  Whose softened image penetrates the deep.[50]

  ’Cross the calm lake’s blue shades the cliffs aspire, 175
  With towers and woods, a “prospect all on fire”; [N]
  While [51] coves and secret hollows, through a ray
  Of fainter gold, a purple gleam betray. 
  Each slip of lawn the broken rocks between
  Shines in the light with more than earthly green:  [52] 180
  Deep yellow beams the scattered stems [53] illume,
  Far in the level forest’s central gloom: 
  Waving his hat, the shepherd, from [54] the vale,
  Directs his winding dog the cliffs to scale,—­
  The dog, loud barking, ’mid the glittering rocks, 185
  Hunts, where his master points, the intercepted flocks. [55]
  Where oaks o’erhang the road the radiance shoots
  On tawny earth, wild weeds, and twisted roots;
  The druid-stones a brightened ring unfold; [56]
  And all the babbling brooks are liquid gold; 190
  Sunk to a curve, the day-star lessens still,
  Gives one bright glance, and drops [57] behind the hill. [P]

    In these secluded vales, if village fame,
  Confirmed by hoary hairs, belief may claim;
  When up the hills, as now, retired the light, 195
  Strange apparitions mocked the shepherd’s sight. [58]

    The form appears of one that spurs his steed
  Midway along the hill with desperate speed; [59]
  Unhurt pursues his lengthened flight, while all
  Attend, at every stretch, his headlong fall. 200
  Anon, appears a brave, a gorgeous show
  Of horsemen-shadows moving to and fro; [60]
  At intervals imperial banners stream, [61]
  And now the van reflects the solar beam; [62]
  The rear through iron brown betrays a sullen gleam. 205
  While silent stands the admiring crowd below,
  Silent the visionary warriors go,
  Winding in ordered pomp their upward way