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

Arun, the River

To the River Arun

By Charlotte Smith (1749–1806)

ON thy wild banks, by frequent torrents worn,

No glittering fanes or marble domes appear:

Yet shall the weeping muse thy course adorn,

And still to her thy rustic waves be dear.

For with the infant Otway lingering here

Of early woes she bade her votary dream,

While thy low murmurs soothed his pensive ear;

And still the poet consecrates the stream.

Beneath the oak and birch that fringe thy side,

The first-born violets of the year shall spring;

And in thy hazels, bending o’er the tide,

The earliest nightingales delight to sing:

While kindred spirits pitying shall relate

Thy Otway’s sorrows, and lament his fate.