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

Staffa, the Island

Flowers on the Top of the Pillars at the Entrance of the Cave

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

HOPE smiled when your nativity was cast,

Children of summer! Ye fresh flowers that brave

What summer here escapes not, the fierce wave,

And whole artillery of the western blast,

Battering the temple’s front, its long-drawn nave

Smiting, as if each moment were their last.

But ye, bright flowers, on frieze and architrave

Survive, and once again the pile stands fast:

Calm as the universe, from specular towers

Of heaven contemplated by spirits pure

With mute astonishment, it stands sustained

Through every part in symmetry, to endure,

Unhurt, the assault of Time with all his hours,

As the Supreme Artificer ordained.