Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
The Cliffs of Dover
By Felicia Hemans (17931835)R
Your crested heights array,
And rise ye like a fortress proud
Above the surge and spray!
Breasting the billow’s foam:
O, thus forever guard the land,
The severed land of home!
Lighting up classic shrines,
And music in the southern wind,
And sunshine on the vines.
Have floated o’er my way;
The pilgrim’s voice, at vesper hours,
Hath soothed me with its lay.
The purple heavens of Rome,—
Yes, all are glorious; yet again
I bless thee, land of home!
And thine the guarded hearth;
And thine the dead,—the noble band
That make thee holy earth.
Their steps are on thy plains;
Their names, by old majestic trees,
Are whispered round thy fanes.
Of thine exulting sea;
O, be it still a joy, a pride,
To live and die for thee!