Monastic Ruins. William Wordsworth (1770-1850). Emont (Eamont), the River. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. England: Vols. I-IV

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

Emont (Eamont), the River

Monastic Ruins

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)


From “The Prelude” THE VARIED banks
Of Emont, hitherto unnamed in song,
And that monastic castle, mid tall trees,
Low standing by the margin of the stream,
A mansion visited (as fame reports)	5
By Sidney, where, in sight of our Helvellyn,
Or stormy Cross-fell, snatches he might pen
Of his Arcadia, by fraternal love
Inspired,—that river and those mouldering towers
Have seen us side by side, when, having clomb	10
The darksome windings of a broken stair,
And crept along a ridge of fractured wall,
Not without trembling, we in safety looked
Forth, through some Gothic window’s open space,
And gathered with one mind a rich reward	15
From the far-stretching landscape, by the light
Of morning beautified, or purple eve;
Or, not less pleased, lay on some turret’s head,
Catching from tufts of grass and hare-bell flowers
Their faintest whisper to the passing breeze,	20
Given out while midday heat oppressed the plains.