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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  Cloudless Stanage

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

Stanage

Cloudless Stanage

By Ebenezer Elliott (1781–1849)

WHY, shower-loved Derwent! have the rainbows left thee?

Mam-Tor! Win-Hill! a single falcon sails

Between ye; but no airy music wails.

Who, mountains! of your soft hues hath bereft ye,

And stolen the dewy freshness of your dales?

Dove-stone! thy cold drip-drinking fountain fails;

Sun-darkened shadows, motionless, are on ye;

Silence to his embrace of fire hath won ye;

And light, as with a shroud of glory, veils

The Peak and all his marvels. Slowly trails

One streak of silver o’er the deep dark blue

Its feathery stillness, while of whispered tales

The ash, where late his quivering shade he threw,

Dreams o’er the thoughtful plant that hoards its drop of dew.