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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  The River Eden, Cumberland

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

Eden, the River

The River Eden, Cumberland

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

EDEN! till now thy beauty had I viewed

By glimpses only, and confess with shame

That verse of mine, whate’er its varying mood,

Repeats but once the sound of thy sweet name:

Yet fetched from Paradise that honor came,

Rightfully borne; for Nature gives thee flowers

That have no rival among British bowers,

And thy bold rocks are worthy of their fame.

Measuring thy course, fair Stream! at length I pay

To my life’s neighbor dues of neighborhood;

But I have traced thee on thy winding way

With pleasure sometimes by this thought restrained,

For things far off we toil, while many a good

Not sought, because too near, is never gained.