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Poems of Places Oceana 1 V.; England 4; Scotland 3 V (1877)
Poems of Places Oceana 1 V England 4 Scotland 3 V - 1877 Author:Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ENGLAND. Aldborough. THE FENS. ON rode Orlando, counting all the while The miles he passed, and every coming mile; Like all attracted things, he quicker... more » flies, The place approaching where the attraction lies; When next appeared a dam — so call the place — Where lies a road confined in narrow space; A work of labor, for on either side Is level fen, a prospect wild and wide, With dikes on either hand by ocean's self supplied: Far on the right the distant sea is seen, And salt the springs that feed the marsh between; Beneath an ancient bridge, the straitened flood Rolls through its sloping banks of slimy mud; Near it a sunken boat resists the tide, That frets and hurries to the opposing side; The rushes sharp, that on the borders grow, Bend their brown flowerets to the stream below, Impure in all its course, in all its progress slow: Here a grave Flora scarcely deigns to bloom, Nor wears a rosy blush, nor sheds perfume; The few dull flowers that o'er the place are spread Partake the nature of their fenny bed; Here on its wiry stem, in rigid bloom, Grows the salt lavender that lacks perfume; Here the dwarf sallows creep, the septfoil harsh, And the soft slimy mallow of the marsh; Low on the ear the distant billows sound, And just in view appears their stony bound; No hedge nor tree conceals the glowing sun, Birds, save a watery tribe, the district shun, Nor chirp among the reeds where bitter waters run. George Cralbe. THE RIVER. YITITH ceaseless motion comes and goes the tide, ' Flowing, it fills the channel vast and wide; Then back to sea, with strong majestic sweep It rolls, in ebb yet terrible and deep; Here samphire-banks and salt-wort bound the flood, There stakes and sea-weeds withering on the mud; And higher up, a ridge of all things base, Which some str...« less