  [See Note on "Fidelity."] I've been charmed by many a picture, That has brought its master renown; I have looked on beautiful valleys From the mountain's lofty crown; I have gazed on the sky at evening, When the heavens were all aglow, But they fail to charm me so fully As this scene in the waters below. Fair Trinity lay in her beauty, Not a ripple was on her breast, Her borders of hemlocks and mosses With beautiful flowers were dressed; Clear as the air on her bosom Were her waters so pure and deep, They seemed like the magical mirror That Flora and Nereus keep. Where the rocks and trees bend over The marge of her western shore, The boat glided slowly onward Without the aid of the oar; When glancing the eye at the shadows Reflected from shore near at hand, There appeared a bright panorama, Most charming—exquisitely grand. Down, down, far down in the waters, And touching the brink of the lake, Was a picture no master painter With pencil or brush could make; Gray rocks, green trees, and bright flowers, Inverted and magnified, too, Seemed perfect in all but proportion And their upturned chimerical view. It seemed like a fairy enchantment Inviting to feasts down below, Where grottoes and caverns of beauty Illumine the flowers that grow To charm the nymphs of the water, And beguile all the sylvan elves To the table of old Oceanus, Where guests ever help themselves. Some spirit seemed calling me sweetly, Inviting me then to partake Of the fanciful pleasures reflected Far down in the clear, placid lake. O, beautiful scene of reflection! So perfect, so grand, and so pure, In my mind that mirror enchantment To the end of my days must endure. |
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