Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Preston | | Filial Piety | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | On the Wayside between Preston and Liverpool
UNTOUCHED through all severity of cold; | |
| Inviolate, whate’er the cottage hearth | |
| Might need for comfort or for festal mirth; | |
| That pile of turf is half a century old: | |
| Yes, traveller! fifty winters have been told | 5 |
| Since suddenly the dart of death went forth | |
| ’Gainst him who raised it,—his last work on earth: | |
| Thence has it, with the son, so strong a hold | |
| Upon his father’s memory, that his hands, | |
| Through reverence, touch it only to repair | 10 |
| Its waste. Though crumbling with each breath of air, | |
| In annual renovation thus it stands,— | |
| Rude mausoleum! but wrens nestle there, | |
| And redbreasts warble when sweet sounds are rare. | | | | |
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