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

Eden, the River

The Monument

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

Commonly Called Long Meg and Her Daughters, near the River Eden

A WEIGHT of awe, not easy to be borne,

Fell suddenly upon my spirit,—cast

From the dread bosom of the unknown past,

When first I saw that family forlorn.

Speak thou, whose massy strength and stature scorn

The power of years,—pre-eminent, and placed

Apart, to overlook the circle vast,—

Speak, giant-mother! tell it to the Morn

While she dispels the cumbrous shades of night;

Let the Moon hear, emerging from a cloud;

At whose behest uprose on British ground

That sisterhood, in hieroglyphic round

Forth-shadowing, some have deemed, the infinite,

The inviolable God, that tames the proud!