The Visions of England

fraught with iron strength and freshening brine,
And these with lustral waves, to sweeten and refine.

15

Now calm as strong, and clear as summer air,
Blessing and blest of earth and sky, he glides:
Now on some rock-ridge rends his bosom fair,
And foams with cloudy wrath and hissing tides:
Then with full flood of level-gliding force,
His discord-blended melody murmurs low

Down the long seaward course:--
So through Time's mead, great River, greatly glide:
Whither, thou may'st not know:--but He, who knows, will guide.

St. 3 Sketches Prehistoric England. St. 4 Mile-paths; old English name for Roman roads. St. 5 Tree and flower; such are reported to have been naturalized in England by the Romans.--Northern ramparts; that of Agricola and Lollius Urbicus from Forth to Clyde, and the greater work of Hadrian and Severus between Tyne and Solway. St. 6, 7 The Arthurian legends,--now revivified for us by Tennyson's magnificent _Idylls