POETRY
WALNA PASS
WHEN Coniston Old Man was younger
And his deep-quarried sides were stronger, Goats may have leapt about Goat's Water ; But why that tarn that looks like her young daughter Though lying high under the fell Should be called Blind Tarn, who can tell ?
When from Dow Crag I passed it by, It looked up with round open eye, Black, ominous and evil, Like the great eye of an earth-devil Or the unblinded eye of a Cyclops, The mountain torrents bound with their bright ropes.
And in that water's sullen rage
I saw a dark presage ; And soon I knew. that I was not mistaken Hearing the thunder the loose echoes waken About Seafell and Scafell Pike
And feeling the slant raindrops strike.
Then when I came to Walna Pass
With hail that hissed and hopped among the grass The thunder-storm exploded close beside me ; Snatching the least shelter that would hide me Between two stones I laid my head
And lay like one awaking from the dead.
A. J. YouNG.
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