Sonnet II Written on the Banks of Wastwater, During a Calm
Is this the Lake, the cradle of the storms,
Where silence never tames the mountain-roar,
Where poets fear their self-created forms,
Or, sunk in trance severe, their God adore?
Is this the Lake, for ever dark and loud
With wave and tempest, cataract and cloud?
Wondrous, O Nature! is thy sovereign power,
That gives to horror hours of peaceful mirth:
For here might beauty build her summer-bower!
Lo! where you rainbow spans the smiling earth,
And, clothed in glory, through a silent shower
The mighty Sun comes forth, a godlike birth;
While, ’neath his loving eye, the gentle Lake
Lies like a sleeping child too blest to wake!