Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Penshurst | | For a Tablet at Penshurst | | Robert Southey (1774–1843) |
| | | ARE days of old familiar to thy mind, | |
| O Reader? Hast thou let the midnight hour | |
| Pass unperceived, whilst thou in fancy lived | |
| With high-born beauties and enamored chiefs, | |
| Sharing their hopes, and, with a breathless joy | 5 |
| Whose expectation touched the verge of pain, | |
| Following their dangerous fortunes? If such lore | |
| Hath ever thrilled thy bosom, thou wilt tread | |
| As with a pilgrim’s reverential thoughts | |
| The groves of Penshurst. Sidney here was born,— | 10 |
| Sidney, than whom no gentler, braver man | |
| His own delightful genius ever feigned, | |
| Illustrating the vales of Arcady | |
| With courteous courage and with loyal loves. | |
| Upon his natal day an acorn here | 15 |
| Was planted; it grew up a stately oak, | |
| And in the beauty of its strength it stood | |
| And flourished, when his perishable part | |
| Had mouldered dust to dust. That stately oak | |
| Itself hath mouldered now, but Sidney’s fame | 20 |
| Endureth in his own immortal works. | | | | |
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