WRITTEN ON WALKING IN THE WOODS OF GREGYNOG IN MONTGOMERYSHIRE

Ye sweetly varied scenes, that rise
With pow’r to charm the gloomiest soul,
Ah! had ye bless’d my ravish’d eyes,
Er my mind bent to care’s control;
When youthful Fancy’s vivid glow
Banish’d the family of woe,
Then, cheerful as the linnet’s strain,
My song had echo’d o’er the plain.

And sure these hills, these bow’rs and groves,
Where Peace resides, and Virtue roves,
Roves in their owner’s form benign,
May bid misfortune cease to pine;
Give calm suspension to each care,
Cheer the dull features of despair,
Bid fancy reassume her reign,
And pleasure gild each smiling plain.

Hail! ye majestic wilds! sweet Cambria, hail!
Music and magic float in ev’ry gale:
The mellow black-bird chants his ev’ning lay,
And the sweet red-breast warbles from the spray;
The pensive stock-dove pours his soothing tale,
And soft responses sigh thro’ ev’ry vale:
Corroding grief here sinks to soft repose,
And healing balm the wounded spirit knows.

See the mountains, tow’ring high,
Lift their summits to the sky,
While many a dew-charg’d, fleecy cloud,
Brooding show’rs, their tops enshroud:
Brown and sterile here they frown,-
There their steepy sides adown
Graze the shepherd’s bleating care,-
There the flow’ry pasture fair:

Lower, down their fertile sides
The patient hind his plough-share guides,
Where future harvests waving smile,
And health and plenty crown his toil.
Distant, the tall rock rough and hoar
Nods o’er Sabrina’s rapid wave,
Where her shelving sedge-crown’d shore
Invites the blue-ey’d numph to lave;

While the whisp’ring zephyrs breathe
Thro’ the woody dell beneath.
Now, the placid orb of night
Sheds o’er the grove her soften’d light,
Gilds the smooth lake with silv’ry beam,
And adds new beauties to the stream,
As murm’ring to the breeze it flows,
And sooths all nature to repose.

O! Care, when with thy train I’ve toil’d all day,
Give me at eve thro’ these lov’d haunts to stray,-
Woo peace and contemplation to my breast,
While ev’ry jarring thought is charm’d to rest.

Written by
Mary Darwall

Mary Darwall (formerly Mary Whateley) wrote this poem in 1794. It was one of the poems published in her collection 'Poems on Several Occasions.'