AND ANGLING SONGS. 2 I 



LXXII. 



Those massive cisterns hewn of old 

 When the retiring Deluge roll'd 



Back on its desolations, 

 Leaving in margins broad and rife 

 Memorials of some mighty strife 



Which bared the 'old earth's' foundations. 



LXXII I. 



With few ambitions stretching out 

 Beyond the capture of the trout, 



In a long life of dreaming, 

 I've made my study to delight \ 



The thousand hoards of water-might 



Among our mountains gleaming. 



LXXIV. 



Poets have link'd them with their song 

 To deeds of rapine and of wrong 



To elements of mystery 

 To the fierce feuds of clan with clan, 

 And the wild wails of Ossian 



The cradle-s^ngs of history. 



LXXV. 



Painters have studied, soul and heart, 

 Beside them, the enrapturing art 



Which, at their happiest blending, 

 Or darkest strife, perpetuates, 

 Of heaven and earth, the loves and hates, 



The union and the rending. 



