Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
Brecon Bridge
By Francis Turner Palgrave (18241897)L
While soft his dusky waters run,
With ripple calm as infant’s breath,
An ancient song Usk murmureth,
By the bridge of Aberhonddu.
Llewellyn’s fate, or Gwalia’s wrong;
But how, while we have each our day
And then are not, he runs for aye.
Within his limpid waters sweet;
And hears when youth and passion speak
What strikes to flame the maiden’s cheek.
With his fair child the father gay:
And then Old Age, who creeps to view
The stream his feet in boyhood knew.
Of Roman legions rent the sky,
Since man with wolf held brutish strife,
Usk sees the flow and ebb of life.
Orb after orb, each other chase,
And gleam and intersect and die,
Our little circles eddy by.
While to himself,—Where’er they stray,
All footsteps lead at last to Death,
His ancient song, Usk murmureth
By the bridge of Aberhonddu.