Sonnet LXXXVI. To The Lake Of Killarney[1].

Pride of Ierne's Sea-encircled bound,         Rival of all Britannia's Naiads boast,         Magnificent Killarney! - from thy coast         Tho' mountains rise with noblest woods embrown'd;      Tho' ten-voiced Echos send the cannon's sound         In thunders bursting the vast rocks around,         Till startled Wonder and Delight exhaust         In countless repercussion - Isles embost      Upon thy liquid glass; their bloomy veil         Sorbus and [=a]rbutus; - yet not for thee         So keenly wakes our local ecstacy,      As o'er the narrow, barren, silent Dale,         Where deeply sleeps, rude circling Rocks among,         The Love-devoted Fount enamour'd PETRARCH sung.     1: This Sonnet was written on having read a description of the Killarney Scenery immediately after that of the Vale of Vaucluse, uncultivated and comparatively desert as the latter has been through more than the present Century.