Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Duddon, the River | | The River Duddon | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | | FROM this deep chasm, where quivering sunbeams play | |
| Upon its loftiest crags, mine eyes behold | |
| A gloomy niche, capacious, blank, and cold; | |
| A concave free from shrubs and mosses gray; | |
| In semblance fresh, as if, with dire affray, | 5 |
| Some statue, placed amid these regions old | |
| For tutelary service, thence had rolled, | |
| Startling the flight of timid yesterday! | |
| Was it by mortals sculptured?—weary slaves | |
| Of slow endeavor! or abruptly cast | 10 |
| Into rude shape by fire, with roaring blast | |
| Tempestuously let loose from central caves? | |
| Or fashioned by the turbulence of waves, | |
| Then when o’er highest hills the deluge passed? | | | | |
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