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, in North Wales

By Felicia Hemans (1793–1835)

O CAMBRIAN river! with slow music gliding

By pastoral hills, old woods, and ruined towers;

Now midst thy reeds and golden willows hiding;

Now gleaming forth by some rich bank of flowers;

Long flowed the current of my life’s clear hours

Onward with thine, whose voice yet haunts my dream,

Though time and change and other mightier powers

Far from thy side have borne me. Thou, smooth stream!

Art winding still thy sunny meads along,

Murmuring to cottage and gray hall thy song,

Low, sweet, unchanged. My being’s tide hath passed

Through rocks and storms; yet will I not complain,

If, thus wrought free and pure from earthly stain,

Brightly its waves may reach their parent deep at last.