Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Lowther | | Stanzas Written in Lady Lonsdale’s Album, at Lowther Castle | | Robert Southey (1774–1843) |
| | | SOMETIMES in youthful years, | |
| When in some ancient ruin I have stood, | |
| Alone and musing, till with quiet tears | |
| I felt my cheeks bedewed, | |
| A melancholy thought hath made me grieve | 5 |
| For this our age, and humbled me in mind, | |
| That it should pass away, and leave | |
| No monuments behind. | |
| |
| Not for themselves alone | |
| Our fathers lived; nor with a niggard hand | 10 |
| Raised they the fabrics of enduring stone, | |
| Which yet adorn the land: | |
| Their piles, memorials of the mighty dead, | |
| Survive them still, majestic in decay; | |
| But ours are like ourselves, I said, | 15 |
| The creatures of a day. | |
| |
| With other feelings now, | |
| Lowther! have I beheld thy stately walls, | |
| Thy pinnacles, and broad, embattled brow, | |
| And hospitable halls. | 20 |
| The sun those wide-spread battlements shall crest, | |
| And silent years unharming shall go by, | |
| Till centuries in their course invest | |
| Thy towers with sanctity. | |
| |
| But thou the while shalt bear | 25 |
| To after-times an old and honored name, | |
| And to remote posterity declare | |
| Thy founder’s virtuous fame. | |
| Fair structure, worthy the triumphant age | |
| Of glorious England’s opulence and power! | 30 |
| Peace be thy lasting heritage, | |
| And happiness thy dower! | | | | |
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