Message #191864

[Victoria Liss]

I.


[The prospect of the western plains.]


The hills have on their royal robes
        Of purple and of gold,
And over their tops the autumn clouds
        In heaps are onward rolled;
Below them spreads the fairest plain
        That British eye may see--
From Quantock to the Mendip range,
        A broad expanse and free.1

II.


[An invocation of Time, to open the days past.]


As from those barriers, grey and vast,
        Rolled off the morning mist,
Leaving the eyesight unrestrained
        To wander where it list,
So roll, thou ancient chronicler,
        The ages' mist away;
Give me an hour of vision clear,
        A dream of the former day.

III.


[A vision is vouchsafed.]