Windermere

Afloat! afloat! on sunny Windermere, With Bowness gleaming on the wooded shore, And all the high hills rising bright and clear, As in my dreams I pictured them of yore! Fair lake! thou art among the sights that bring No sad conviction how the fancy cheats! I read of thee in life's romantic spring, And even now my sober'd spirit greets Thy deep abiding loveliness, and drinks, In rapt delight, a gushing tide of joy: No more my heart in secret sorrow sinks,— It throbs! it bounds! I am again a boy! And like fresh youth, even when my leaf is sere, Will come the thought of thee—bright, glorious Windermere!