The paddle steamer Waverley continues to charm visitors and locals as she plies the Firth of Clyde this summer. Amazing to think that William Wordsworth took a trip “doon the watter” in a predecessor paddle steamer almost two centuries ago.
Here is his description of the not-altogether-pleasurable experience in 1833. Ailsa Craig also caught his eye. The spelling is the poet’s!
ON THE FRITH OF CLYDE
(In a Steamboat)
Arran! a single-crested Teneriffe,
A St Helena next – in shape and hue,
Varying her crowded peaks and ridges blue;
Who but must covet a cloud-seat, or skiff
Built for the air, or winged Hippogriff?
That he might fly, where no man could pursue,
From this dull Monster and her sooty crew;
And, as a God, light on thy topmost cliff.
Impotent wish! which reason would despise
If the mind knew no union of extremes,
No natural bond between the boldest schemes
Ambition frames and heart-humilities.
Beneath stern mountains many a soft vale lies,
And lofty springs give birth to lowly streams.
from IN THE FRITH OF CLYDE, AILSA CRAG
(During an eclipse of the Sun, July 17)
Since risen from the ocean, ocean to defy,
Appeared the Crag of Ailsa, ne’er did morn
With gleaming lights more gracefully adorn
His sides, or wreathe with mist his forehead high:
Now, faintly darkening with the sun’s eclipse
Still is he seen, in lone sublimity,
Towering above the sea and little ships;
For dwarfs the tallest seem while sailing by,
Each for her haven; with her freight of Care,
Pleasure, or Grief, and Toil that seldom looks
Into the secret of to-morrow’s fare. . .
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