In one of those excursions (may they ne’er
  Fade from remembrance!) through the Northern tracts
  Of Cambria ranging with a youthful friend, [A]
  I left Bethgelert’s huts at couching-time,
  And westward took my way, to see the sun 5
  Rise from the top of Snowdon.  To the door
  Of a rude cottage at the mountain’s base
  We came, and roused the shepherd who attends
  The adventurous stranger’s steps, a trusty guide;
  Then, cheered by short refreshment, sallied forth. 10

    It was a close, warm, breezeless summer night,
  Wan, dull, and glaring, with a dripping fog
  Low-hung and thick that covered all the sky;
  But, undiscouraged, we began to climb
  The mountain-side.  The mist soon girt us round, 15
  And, after ordinary travellers’ talk
  With our conductor, pensively we sank
  Each into commerce with his private thoughts: 
  Thus did we breast the ascent, and by myself
  Was nothing either seen or heard that checked 20
  Those musings or diverted, save that once
  The shepherd’s lurcher, who, among the crags,
  Had to his joy unearthed a hedgehog, teased
  His coiled-up prey with barkings turbulent. 
  This small adventure, for even such it seemed 25
  In that wild place and at the dead of night,
  Being over and forgotten, on we wound
  In silence as before.  With forehead bent
  Earthward, as if in opposition set
  Against an enemy, I panted up 30
  With eager pace, and no less eager thoughts. 
  Thus might we wear a midnight hour away,
  Ascending at loose distance each from each,
  And I, as chanced, the foremost of the band;
  When at my feet the ground appeared to brighten, 35
  And with a step or two seemed brighter still;
  Nor was time given to ask or learn the cause,
  For instantly a light upon the turf
  Fell like a flash, and lo! as I looked up,
  The Moon hung naked in a firmament 40
  Of azure without cloud, and at my feet
  Rested a silent sea of hoary mist. 
  A hundred hills their dusky backs upheaved
  All over this still ocean; and beyond,
  Far, far beyond, the solid vapours stretched, 45
  In headlands, tongues, and promontory shapes,
  Into the main Atlantic, that appeared
  To dwindle, and give up his majesty,
  Usurped upon far as the sight could reach. 
  Not so the ethereal vault; encroachment none 50
  Was there, nor loss; only the inferior stars
  Had disappeared, or shed a fainter light
  In the clear presence of the full-orbed Moon,
  Who, from her sovereign elevation, gazed
  Upon the billowy ocean, as it lay 55