Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Rivers of Scotland

Rivers of Scotland

By William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649)

(From The River of Forth Feasting)

AND you, my nymphs, rise from your moist repair,

Strew all your springs and grots with lilies fair:

Some swiftest-footed get her hence and pray

Our floods and lakes come keep this holiday;

Whate’er beneath Albania’s hills do run,

Which see the rising or the setting sun,

Which drink stern Grampius’ mists, or Ochills’ snows;

Stone-rolling Tay, Tyne tortoise-like that flows,

The pearly Don, the Dees, the fertile Spey,

Wild Nevern which doth see our longest day,

Ness smoking sulphur, Leave with mountains crowned,

Strange Lomond for his floating isles renowned,

The Irish Rian, Ken, the silver Ayr,

The snaky Dun, the Ore with rushy hair,

The crystal-streaming Nid, loud-bellowing Clyde,

Tweed, which no more our kingdoms shall divide,

Rank-swelling Annan, Lid with curled streams,

The Esks, the Solway where they lose their names:

To every one proclaim our joys and feasts,

Our triumphs, bid all come, and be our guests;

And as they meet in Neptune’s azure hall,

Bid them bid sea-gods keep this festival.