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

Rylstone Hall

Rylstone

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)


’T IS night: in silence looking down,

The moon from cloudless ether sees

A camp, and a beleaguered town,

And castle like a stately crown

On the steep rocks of winding Tees;

And southward far, with moor between,

Hill-top, and flood, and forest green,

The bright moon sees that valley small

Where Rylstone’s old sequestered Hall

A venerable image yields

Of quiet to the neighboring fields,

While from one pillared chimney breathes

The smoke, and mounts in silver wreaths.

The courts are hushed; for timely sleep

The greyhounds to their kennel creep;

The peacock in the broad ash-tree

Aloft is roosted for the night,—

He who in proud prosperity

Of colors manifold and bright

Walked round, affronting the daylight;

And higher still, above the bower

Where he is perched, from yon lone tower

The hall-clock in the clear moonshine

With glittering finger points at nine.