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

Malvern

Malvern Hills

By Henry Alford (1810–1871)

EREWHILE I saw ye faintly through far haze

Spread many miles above the fields of sea;

Now ye rise glorious, and my steps are free

To wander through your valleys’ beaten ways,

And climb above, threading the rocky maze;

And trace this stream alive with shifting light,

With whose successive eddies silver-bright

Not without pleasant sound the moonbeam plays.

My dear, dear bride, two days had made thee mine,

Two days of waxing hope and waning fear,

When under the night-planet’s lavish shine

We stood in joy, and blessed that rillet clear;

Such joy unwarning comes and quickly parts,

But lives deep-rooted in our “heart of hearts.”