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

Avon, the River (Upper)

To the Avon

By Anonymous

FLOW on, sweet river! like his verse

Who lies beneath this marble hearse,

Nor wait beside the churchyard wall

For him who cannot hear thy call.

Thy playmate once;—I see him now

A boy with sunshine on his brow,

And hear in Stratford’s quiet street

The patter of his little feet.

I see him by thy shallow edge

Wading knee-deep amid the sedge;

And lost in thought, as if thy stream

Were the swift river of a dream.

He wonders whitherward it flows;

And fain would follow where it goes,

To the wide world, that shall erelong

Be filled with his melodious song.

Flow on, fair stream! That dream is o’er;

He stands upon another shore;

A vaster river near him flows,

And still he follows where it goes.