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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.

Glastonbury

Glastonbury

By Henry Alford (1810–1871)

ON thy green marge, thou vale of Avalon,

Not for that thou art crowned with ancient towers

And shafts and clustered pillars many an one,

Love I to dream away the sunny hours;

Not for that here in charméd slumber lie

The holy relics of that British king

Who was the flower of knightly chivalry,

Do I stand blest past power of uttering;—

But for that on thy cowslip-sprinkled sod

Alit of old the olive-bearing bird,

Meek messenger of purchased peace with God;

And the first hymns that Britain ever heard

Arose, the low preluding melodies

To the sweetest anthem that hath reached the skies.