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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  On Entering Douglas Bay

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

Isle of Man

On Entering Douglas Bay

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

“Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori.”

THE FEUDAL keep, the bastions of Cohorn,

Even when they rose to check or to repel

Tides of aggressive war, oft served as well

Greedy ambition, armed to treat with scorn

Just limits; but yon tower, whose smiles adorn

This perilous bay, stands clear of all offence:

Blest work it is of love and innocence,—

A tower of refuge to the else forlorn.

Spare it, ye waves, and lift the mariner,

Struggling for life, into its saving arms!

Spare, too, the human helpers! Do they stir

Mid your fierce shock like men afraid to die?

No; their dread service nerves the heart it warms,

And they are led by noble Hillary.