Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Introductory to Sweden

Scandinavia

By James Thomson (1834–1882)

(From Liberty)

THENCE the laud Baltic passing, black with storm,

To wintry Scandinavia’s utmost bound;

There I the manly race, the parent hive

Of the mixed kingdoms, formed into a state

More regularly free. By keener air

Their genius purged, and tempered hard by frost,

Tempest and toil their nerves, the sons of those

Whose only terror was a bloodless death,

They wise and dauntless still sustain my cause.