Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.
Plymouth
By Michael Drayton (1563–1631)Corineus and Gogmagog
A
Upon that lofty place at Plymouth called the Hoe,
Those mighty wrestlers met; with many an ireful look
Who threatened, as the one hold of the other took:
But, grappled, glowing fire shines in their sparkling eyes.
And whilst at length of arm one from the other lies,
Their lusty sinews swell like cables, as they strive:
Their feet such trampling make, as though they forced to drive
A thunder out of earth, which staggered with the weight:
Thus either’s utmost force urged to the greatest height,
Whilst one upon his hip the other seeks to lift,
And the adverse (by a turn) doth from his cunning shift,
Their short-fetched troubled breath a hollow noise doth make
Like bellows of a forge. Then Corin up doth take
The giant ’twixt the grains; and voiding of his hold
(Before his cumberous feet he well recover could)
Pitched headlong from the hill; as when a man doth throw
An axtree, that with slight delivered from the toe
Roots up the yielding earth; so that his violent fall
Strook Neptune with such strength, as shouldered him withal;
That where the monstrous waves like mountains late did stand,
They leaped out of the place, and left the bared sand
To gaze upon wide Heaven: so great a blow it gave.
For which the conquering brute on Corineus brave
This horn of land bestowed, and marked it with his name;
Of Corin, Cornwal called, to his immortal fame.