Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Russia: Vol. XX. 1876–79.

Don, the River

The Don

By Edna Dean Proctor (1829–1923)

O PLACID Don! I see thee flow

With shallow, snowy-sanded stream,

While light the steppe-winds o’er thee blow,

And cranes and gray-winged herons dream,—

Safe as beside some dark lagoon,—

Along thy banks in breezeless noon.

The Cossack wanders from thy shore,

But never finds a wave so fair;

Thy summer lapse, thy winter roar,

Still greet him in remotest air;

And death is sweet if he may lie,

With cross above, thy waters by.