Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79. | | | | Liddel, the River | | The Liddel River | | John Armstrong (1709–1779) |
| | (From The Art of Preserving Health)
BUT if the breathless chase o’er hill and dale | |
| Exceed your strength, a sport of less fatigue, | |
| Not less delightful, the prolific stream | |
| Affords. The crystal rivulet, that o’er | |
| A stony channel rolls its rapid maze, | 5 |
| Swarms with the silver fry. Such, through the bounds | |
| Of pastoral Stafford, runs the brawling Trent; | |
| Such Eden, sprung from Cumbrian mountains; such | |
| The Esk, o’erhung with woods; and such the stream | |
| On whose Arcadian banks I first drew air, | 10 |
| Liddel; till now, except in Doric lays | |
| Tuned to her murmurs by her love-sick swains, | |
| Unknown in song: though not a purer stream, | |
| Through meads more flowery, more romantic groves, | |
| Rolls toward the western main. Hail, sacred flood! | 15 |
| May still thy hospitable swains be blessed | |
| In rural innocence; thy mountains still | |
| Teem with the fleecy race; thy tuneful woods | |
| Forever flourish; and thy vales look gay | |
| With painted meadows, and the golden grain! | 20 | | | |
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