Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.

Middle States: Wyoming, Pa.

Wyoming

By Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

(From Gertrude of Wyoming)

ON Susquehanna’s side, fair Wyoming!

Although the wild-flower, on thy ruined wall

And roofless homes a sad remembrance bring

Of what thy gentle people did befall,

Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of all

That see the Atlantic wave their morn restore.

Sweet land! may I thy lost delights recall,

And paint thy Gertrude in her bowers of yore,

Whose beauty was the love of Pennsylvania’s shore.

Delightful Wyoming! beneath thy skies

The happy shepherd swains had naught to do,

But feed their flocks on green declivities,

Or skim, perchance, thy lake with light canoe,

From morn, till evening’s sweeter pastime grew,

With timbrel, when beneath the forests brown,

The lovely maidens would the dance renew;

And aye those sunny mountains half-way down

Would echo flageolet from some romantic town.

Then, where on Indian hills the daylight takes

His leave, how might you the flamingo see

Disporting like a meteor on the lakes,

And playful squirrel on his nut-grown tree:

And every sound of life was full of glee,

From merry mock-bird’s song, or hum of men,

While hearkening, fearing naught their revelry,

The wild deer arched his neck from glades, and then

Unhunted, sought his woods and wilderness again.

And scarce had Wyoming of war or crime

Heard but in transatlantic story sung,

For here the exile met from every clime,

And spoke in friendship every distant tongue:

Men from the blood of warring Europe sprung,

Were but divided by the running brook;

And happy where no Rhenish trumpet rung,

On plains no sieging mine’s volcano shook,

The blue-eyed German changed his sword to pruning-hook.