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

Gordale

Gordale

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

AT early dawn, or rather when the air

Glimmers with fading light, and shadowy eve

Is busiest to confer and to bereave;

Then, pensive votary! let thy feet repair

To Gordale chasm, terrific as the lair

Where the young lions couch; for so, by leave

Of the propitious hour, thou mayst perceive

The local deity, with oozy hair

And mineral crown, beside his jagged urn

Recumbent: him them mayst behold, who hides

His lineaments by day, yet there presides,

Teaching the docile waters how to turn,

Or, if need be, impediment to spurn,

And force their passage to the salt-sea tides!