Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Spain, Portugal, Belgium, and Holland: Vols. XIV–XV. 1876–79. | | | | Belgium: Waterloo | | The Field of Battle | | Robert Southey (1774–1843) |
| | (From The Poet’s Pilgrimage)
SOUTHWARD from Brussels lies the field of blood, | |
| Some three hours’ journey for a well-girt man; | |
| A horseman who in haste pursued his road | |
| Would reach it as the second hour began. | |
| The way is through a forest deep and wide, | 5 |
| Extending many a mile on either side. | |
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| No cheerful woodland this of antic trees | |
| With thickets varied and with sunny glade; | |
| Look where he will, the weary traveller sees | |
| One gloomy, thick, impenetrable shade | 10 |
| Of tall straight trunks, which move before his sight, | |
| With interchange of lines of long green light. | |
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| Here, where the woods receding from the road | |
| Have left on either hand an open space | |
| For fields and gardens and for man’s abode, | 15 |
| Stands Waterloo; a little lowly place, | |
| Obscure till now, when it hath risen to fame, | |
| And given the victory its English name. | | | | |
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