Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Norway: Loffoden Islands

Winter in Norway

By Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

(From Ode to Winter)

BUT howling Winter fled afar,

To hills that prop the polar star,

And loves on deer-borne car to ride

With barren darkness by his side,

Round the shore where loud Loffoden

Whirls to death the roaring whale,

Round the hall where Runic Odin

Howls his war-song to the gale;

Save when adown the ravaged globe

He travels on his native storm,

Deflowering Nature’s grassy robe,

And trampling on the faded form;

Till light’s returning lord assume

The shaft that drives him to his polar field,

Of power to pierce his raven plume

And crystal-covered shield.

O sire of storms! whose savage ear

The Lapland drum delights to hear,

When Frenzy with her bloodshot eye

Implores thy dreadful deity;

Archangel! power of desolation!

Fast descending as thou art,

Say, hath mortal invocation

Spells to touch thy stony heart?