Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
Rydal Mount
By Maria Jane Jewsbury (18001833)L
Are its walls for mantling green;
Not a window lets in light
But through flowers clustering bright;
Not a glance may wander there
But it falls on something fair:
Garden choice and fairy mound,
Only that no elves are found;
Winding walk and sheltered nook,
For student grave and graver book;
Or a bird-like bower, perchance,
Fit for maiden and romance.
Then, far off, a glorious sheen
Of wide and sunlit waters seen;
Hills that in the distance lie
Blue and yielding as the sky;
And nearer, closing round the nest,
The home,—of all the “living crest”;
Other rocks and mountains stand
Rugged, yet a guardian band,
Like those that did in fable old
Elysium from the world enfold.