Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79. | | | | Durance, the River | | Sir Reginald | | Mary Russell Mitford (1787–1855) |
| | (From Gaston de Blondeville)
’T IS a gay summer morn, and the sunbeams dance | |
| On the glittering waves of the rapid Durance, | |
| Where Sir Reginald’s castle its broad shadow throws | |
| O’er the bay and the linden, the cypress and rose. | |
| And in that rosy bower a lady so bright | 5 |
| Sits telling her beads for her own absent knight, | |
| Whilst her little son plays round the fond mother’s knee, | |
| And the wandering stock-dove is scared by his glee. | |
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| ’T is a calm summer eve, and the moonbeams dance | |
| On the glittering waves of the rapid Durance, | 10 |
| Where Sir Reginald’s castle its broad shadow throws | |
| O’er the bay and the linden, the cypress and rose. | |
| But the pitiless spoiler is master there, | |
| For gone is the lady, and gone the young heir; | |
| The good knight hath perished beyond the salt sea, | 15 |
| And they, like the stock-dove, poor wanderers be. | | | | |
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