Gordale

Composed 1819.--Published 1819

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

At early dawn, or rather when the air Glimmers with fading light, and shadowy Eve Is busiest to confer and to bereave; Then, pensive Votary! let thy feet repair To Gordale-chasm, terrific as the lair Where the young lions couch; for so, by leave Of the propitious hour, thou may'st perceive The local Deity, with oozy hair And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn, Recumbent: Him thou may'st behold, who hides His lineaments by day, yet there presides, Teaching the docile waters how to turn, Or (if need be) impediment to spurn, And force their passage to the salt-sea tides!

There are many legendary stories connected with the Yorkshire caves, particularly in the Giggleswick district; but I have been unable to trace any legend about the "local Deity" of Gordale. There is nothing in the letterpress of Westall's views, or in the "addenda" to West's Guide to the Lakes in Cumberland, about these legends. The chasm is a very remarkable cleft in the limestone rock, near Malham. Gray's description of Gordale, in his Journal (1796), may be referred to.--ED.

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