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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  Bamborough Castle

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.

Bamborough

Bamborough Castle

By William Lisle Bowles (1762–1850)

YE holy towers that shade the wave-worn steep,

Long may ye rear your aged brows sublime,

Though, hurrying silent by, relentless Time

Assail you, and the winds of winter sweep

Round your dark battlements; for far from halls

Of Pride, here Charity hath fixed her seat,

Oft listening, tearful, when the tempests beat

With hollow bodings round your ancient walls;

And Pity, at the dark and stormy hour

Of midnight, when the moon is hid on high,

Keeps her lone watch upon the topmost tower,

And turns her ear to each expiring cry;

Blessed if her aid some fainting wretch may save,

And snatch him cold and speechless from the wave.