Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79. | | | | Mesopotamia: Euphrates, the River | | The Euphrates | | James Montgomery (1771–1854) |
| | (From The World before the Flood)
THERE on Euphrates, in its ancient course, | |
| Three beauteous rivers rolled their confluent force, | |
| Whose streams, while man the blissful garden trod, | |
| Adorned the earthly Paradise of God. | |
| But since he fell, within their triple bound | 5 |
| Fenced a lone region of forbidden ground; | |
| Meeting at once, where high athwart their bed | |
| Repulsive rocks a curving barrier spread, | |
| The embattled floods, by mutual whirlpools crossed, | |
| In hoary foam and surging mist were lost; | 10 |
| Thence, like an Alpine cataract of snow, | |
| White down the precipice they dashed below; | |
| There in tumultuous billows broken wide, | |
| They spent their rage, and yoked their fourfold tide; | |
| Through one majestic channel, calm and free, | 15 |
| The sister-rivers sought the parent-sea. | | | | |
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