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

Rotha, the River

The Rotha

By Robert Southey (1774–1843)

(From Lines Written in the Album of Rotha Q.)

LOVELIER river is there none

Underneath an English sun;

From its source it issues bright

Upon hoar Helvellyn’s height,

Flowing where its summer voice

Makes the mountain herds rejoice;

Down the dale it issues then,

Not polluted there by men;

While its lucid waters take

Their pastoral course from lake to lake,

Please the eye in every part,

Lull the ear, and soothe the heart,

Till into Windermere sedate

They flow and uncontaminate.