LD 352 " A steady view upon the top "

For some reason it is becoming poetry week.   

Looking out at the misty hill and cliff opposite the house, which looms over Loch Riddon, I suddenly thought of that cliff which is such a memorable feature of what remains one of my favourite parts of a poem by one of my favourite poets.

Here is Wordsworth, and "The Prelude"

And now, as suited one who proudly row’d
With his best skill, I fix’d a steady view
Upon the top of that same craggy ridge,
The bound of the horizon, for behind
Was nothing but the stars and the grey sky.
She was an elfin Pinnace; lustily
I dipp’d my oars into the silent Lake,
And, as I rose upon the stroke, my Boat
Went heaving through the water, like a Swan;
When from behind that craggy Steep, till then
The bound of the horizon, a huge Cliff,
As if with voluntary power instinct,
Uprear’d its head …