Aerial Rock--Whose Solitary Brow

Composed 1819.--Published 1819

[A projecting point of Loughrigg, nearly in front of Rydal Mount. Thence looking at it, you are struck with the boldness of its aspect; but walking under it, you admire the beauty of its details. It is vulgarly called Holme-scar, probably from the insulated pasture by the waterside below it.--I. F.]

One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED.

Aerial Rock--whose solitary brow From this low threshold daily meets my sight; When I step forth to hail the morning light; Or quit the stars with a lingering farewell--how Shall Fancy pay to thee a grateful vow? How, with the Muse's aid, her love attest? --By planting on thy naked head the crest Of an imperial Castle, which the plough Of ruin shall not touch. Innocent scheme! That doth presume no more than to supply A grace the sinuous vale and roaring stream Want, through neglect of hoar Antiquity. Rise, then, ye votive Towers! and catch a gleam Of golden sunset, ere it fade and die.

Compare the sonnet No. XXVII. of the Duddon Series, beginning "Fallen, and diffused into a shapeless heap," as it was evidently written with reference to the old (traditional) Hall of Rydal. If an

... embattled House, whose massy Keep Flung from yon cliff a shadow large and cold,

stood in "the sinuous vale" of Rydal, there was no "neglect of hoar Antiquity."--ED.

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