Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. IV. The Nineteenth Century: Wordsworth to Rossetti

Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864)

‘Say ye, that years roll on’

SAY ye, that years roll on and ne’er return?

Say ye, the Sun who leaves them all behind,

Their great creator, cannot bring one back

With all his force, tho’ he draw worlds around?…

Witness me, little streams! that meet before

My happy dwelling; witness, Africo

And Mensola! that ye have seen at once

Twenty roll back, twenty as swift and bright

As are your swiftest and your brightest waves,

When the tall cypress o’er the Doccia

Hurls from his inmost boughs the latent snow.

Go, and go happy, pride of my past days

And solace of my present, thou whom Fate

Alone hath severed from me! One step higher

Must yet be mounted, high as was the last;

Friendship, with faltering accent, says Depart!

And take the highest seat below the crowned.