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

Donnerdale

The Plain of Donnerdale

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

THE OLD inventive poets, had they seen,

Or rather felt, the enhancement that detains

Thy waters, Duddon! mid these flowery plains,

The still repose, the liquid lapse serene,

Transferred to bowers imperishably green,

Had beautified Elysium! But these chains

Will soon be broken;—a rough course remains,

Rough as the past; where thou, of placid mien,

Innocuous as a firstling of the flock,

And countenanced like a soft cerulean sky,

Shalt change thy temper, and, with many a shock

Given and received in mutual jeopardy,

Dance, like a Bacchanal, from rock to rock,

Tossing her frantic thyrsus wide and high!