Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79. | | | | Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) | | Aix-la-Chapelle | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | | WAS it to disenchant, and to undo, | |
| That we approached the seat of Charlemagne? | |
| To sweep from many an old romantic strain | |
| That faith which no devotion may renew? | |
| Why does this puny church present to view | 5 |
| Her feeble columns? and that scanty chair; | |
| This sword that one of our weak times might wear; | |
| Objects of false pretence, or meanly true? | |
| If from a traveller’s fortune I might claim | |
| A palpable memorial of that day, | 10 |
| Then would I seek the Pyrenean Breach | |
| That Roland clove with huge two-handed sway, | |
| And to the enormous labor left his name, | |
| Where unremitting frosts the rocky crescent bleach. | | | | |
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