390 SYLVAN SKETCHES. 



" Concava vallis erat : qua se demittere rivi 

 Assuerant pluvialis aquae. Tenet ima lacunae 

 Lenta salix, ulvaeque leves, juncique palustres, 

 Viminaque, et longa parvae sub arundine cannae." 



OVID, Met. lib. viii. 



" A hollow vale, where watery torrents gush, 

 Sinks in the plain ; the osier, and the rush, 

 The marshy sedge, and bending willow nod 

 Their trailing foliage o'er its oozy sod." 



Dr. ORGER'S Ovid. 



" Through all, a streamlet from its mountain source, 

 Seen but by stealth, pursued its willowy course." 



MONTGOMERY. 



" Odours abroad the winds of morning breathe, 

 And fresh with dew the herbage sprang beneath : 

 Down from the hills that gently sloped away 

 To the broad river shining into day, 

 They passed ; along the brink the path they kept 

 Where high aloof o'erarching willows wept : 

 Whose silvery foliage glistened in the beam, 

 And floating shadows fringed the chequered stream." 



MONTGOMERY. 



Virgil remarks the hoary leaf of the Willow : 



" Populus, et glauca canentia fronde salicta." 



Georgic ii. 

 Which Martyn renders 



" The poplar, and the willow with hoary bluish leaves." 



Shakespeare beautifully describes the scene of Ophelia's 

 death : 



" There is a willow grows ascant the brook, 



That shows his hoar leaves in the grassy stream ; 

 There with fantastic garlands did she make, 

 Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, 

 That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, 



