Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79. | | | | Wales: Introductory | | A Farewell to Wales | | Felicia Hemans (1793–1835) |
| | On Leaving That Country with My Children
THE SOUND of thy streams in my spirit I bear,— | |
| Farewell, and a blessing be with thee, green land! | |
| On thy hearths, on thy halls, on thy pure mountain air, | |
| On the chords of the harp, and the minstrel’s free hand, | |
| From the love of my soul with my tears it is shed, | 5 |
| As I leave thee, green land of my home and my dead! | |
| |
| I bless thee!—yet not for the beauty which dwells | |
| In the heart of thy hills, on the rocks of thy shore; | |
| And not for the memory set deep in thy dells, | |
| Of the bard and the hero, the mighty of yore; | 10 |
| And not for thy songs of those proud ages fled,— | |
| Green land, poet land of my home and my dead! | |
| |
| I bless thee for all the true bosoms that beat | |
| Where’er a low hamlet smiles up to thy skies; | |
| For thy cottage hearths burning the stranger to greet, | 15 |
| For the soul that shines forth from thy children’s kind eyes! | |
| May the blessing, like sunshine, about thee be spread, | |
| Green land of my childhood, my home, and my dead! | | | | |
|
|
