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

Wales: Clwyd, the River

The River Clwyd

By Michael Drayton (1563–1631)

From “Poly-Olbion”

DEAR Cluyd, the abundant sweets that from thy bosom flow,

When with my active wings into the air I throw,

Those hills whose hoary heads seem in the clouds to dwell,

Of aged become young, enamored with the smell

Of the odoriferous flowers in thy most precious lap;

Within whose velvet leaves, when I myself enwrap,

They suffocate with scents; that (from my native kind)

I seem some slow perfume, and not the swiftest wind

With joy, my Dyffren Cluyd, I see thee bravely spread,

Surveying every part, from foot up to thy head;

Thy full and youthful breasts, which in their meadowy pride

Are branched with rivery veins, meander-like that glide.