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UPON the sides of Latmos was outspread | |
| A mighty forest; for the moist earth fed | |
| So plenteously all weed-hidden roots | |
| Into o’erhanging boughs and precious fruits. | |
| And it had gloomy shades, sequestered deep, | 5 |
| Where no man went; and if from shepherd’s keep | |
| A lamb strayed far adown those inmost glens, | |
| Never again saw he the happy pens | |
| Whither his brethren, bleating with content, | |
| Over the hills at every nightfall went. | 10 |
| Among the shepherds ’t was believéd ever, | |
| That not one fleecy lamb which thus did sever | |
| From the white flock, but passed unworried | |
| By any wolf, or pard with prying head, | |
| Until it came to some unfooted plains | 15 |
| Where fed the herds of Pan: ay, great his gains | |
| Who thus one lamb did lose. Paths there were many, | |
| Winding through palmy fern, and rushes fenny, | |
| And ivy banks; all leading pleasantly | |
| To a wide lawn, whence one could only see | 20 |
| Stems thronging all around between the swell | |
| Of turf and slanting branches: who could tell | |
| The freshness of the space of heaven above, | |
| Edged round with dark tree-tops? through which a dove | |
| Would often beat its wings, and often too | 25 |
| A little cloud would move across the blue. | |
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