Page:Ainsworth's Magazine - Volume 1.djvu/39
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THE THREE SISTERS.
"Loch Awe. Three large ash trees by the road side are known by the name of 'The Three Sisters,' from the persons who planted them, and this was all we heard. A more durable monument these sisters, whoever they were, might have left behind them, but not a more appropriate or a more affecting one, under whatever circumstances may have been planted the trees that have so long survived them. Whether in the joyousness of childhood, with no forethought, and no forefeeling to disturb their enjoyment; or, perhaps, with too much of that feeling when they were about to be separated for the first time or for ever."—R. S. Unpublished Journal, p. 247.
Stop, traveller! rest and contemplate,
A moment on thy way,
Those three fair-spreading ashen trees,
That graceful in the noonday breeze,
Wave light their feathery spray.
Thou walkest on thy worldly way,
And seek'st the crowded mart;
Yet pause—thou never wilt repent
(Stolen from the world) these moments spent
In quietness of heart.
"The world is too much with us all;"[1]
It is a blessed thing,
To find a little resting-place,
A secret nook, a charmed space,
Safe from its entering.
Where hoarded thoughts, pure, spiritual,
Imaginative, holy,
(Released awhile from clinging clay,)
May revel, innocently gay,
Or mildly melancholy.
Where memory's inward eye may dwell
On consecrated treasures,
Too precious to be gazed upon,
Where life's cold, common round runs on,
Of heartless cares and pleasures.
Where Fancy may in cloud-land build,
Or small material space,
As here—and so we come at last
To an old story of the past,
Connected with this place.
Yet not a story—just a sketch—
LA shadowy outline rude;
Such as methinks 'twere pleasant play,
To sit and fill this summer's day,
With apt similitude.
These ash trees,—(mark their number well;
Their equal growth you see;
Their equal ages; vigorous, green,
As their first leafy prime was seen,)—
Are called "The Sisters Three."
- ↑ Wordsworth.