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

Wales: Caerleon-upon-Usk

Caerleon

By Michael Drayton (1563–1631)

  • From “Poly-Olbion”
  • Perhaps Caerleon, like Chepstow and Tintern Abbey, should have come under England, as Monmouthshire is now an English county. But as these poems refer to a period when this was not so, their proper place seems to be here.


  • THEN sing they how he first ordained the circled board,

    The knights whose martial deeds far famed that Table Round;

    Which, truest in their loves, which, most in arms renowned:

    The laws which long upheld that order, they report;

    The Pentecosts prepared at Carleon in his court,

    That table’s ancient seat; her temples and her groves,

    Her palaces, her walks, baths, theatres, and stoves:

    Her academy, then, as likewise they prefer:

    Of Camilot they sing, and then of Winchester.