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

Isis, the River

The Isis

By John Bruce Norton (1815–1883)

RIVER, who with thy two soul-stirring names

Speak’st, one of Rhedicyna’s youthful dream,

And one of Commerce’, Empire’s mighty stream

At proud Augusta’s foot,—Isis, and Thames,—

From Godstow, where the fairest of frail dames,

Ros’mund, with epitaph uncourteous lies,

Down to the reach where the tired skiffer ties

His boat for Newnham’s summer feast and games,

These are the limits of my Isis: there,

Or up or down, I cleft my swift-oared way

Nightly, alone, with little heed or care,

Through the full stream with racing cutters gay;

Oft laughing at the imperious steersman’s shout,

As from his very bows I glided out!