Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
III. The Lake in CalmProfessor John Wilson (17851854)
I
Where silence never tames the mountain-roar,
Where poets fear their self-created forms,
Or, sunk in trance severe, their God adore?
Is this the lake, forever dark and loud
With wave and tempest, cataract and cloud?
Wondrous, O Nature! is thy sovereign power,
That gives to horror hours of peaceful mirth;
For here might beauty build her summer-bower!
Lo! where yon rainbow spans the smiling earth,
And, clothed in glory, through a silent shower
The mighty sun comes forth, a godlike birth;
While, ’neath his loving eye, the gentle Lake
Lies like a sleeping child too blest to wake!