dots-menu
×

Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  A Tradition of Oker Hill in Darley Dale, Derbyshire

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

Darley Dale

A Tradition of Oker Hill in Darley Dale, Derbyshire

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

’T IS said that to the brow of yon fair hill

Two brothers clomb, and, turning face from face,

Nor one look more exchanging, grief to still

Or feed, each planted on that lofty place

A chosen tree; then, eager to fulfil

Their courses, like two new-born rivers, they

In opposite directions urged their way

Down from the far-seen mount. No blast might kill

Or blight that fond memorial;—the trees grew,

And now entwine their arms; but ne’er again

Embraced those brothers upon earth’s wide plain;

Nor aught of mutual joy or sorrow knew,

Until their spirits mingled in the sea

That to itself takes all, Eternity.