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

Brockley Coomb

Lines

By Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

Composed While Climbing the Left Ascent of Brockley Coomb, Somersetshire, May, 1795

WITH many a pause and oft-reverted eye

I climb the Coomb’s ascent; sweet songsters near

Warble in shade their wildwood melody;

Far off the unvarying cuckoo soothes my ear.

Up scour the startling stragglers of the flock

That on green plots o’er precipices browse;

From the deep fissures of the naked rock

The yew-tree bursts! Beneath its dark-green boughs

(Mid which the May-thorn blends its blossoms white)

Where broad smooth stones jut out in mossy seats,

I rest;—and now have gained the topmost site.

Ah! what a luxury of landscape meets

My gaze! Proud towers, and cots more dear to me,

Elm-shadowed fields, and prospect-bounding sea!

Deep sighs my lonely heart: I drop the tear:

Enchanting spot! O, were my Sara here!