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

Wales: Anglesea (Mona)

East and West

By Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)

IN the bare midst of Anglesey they show

Two springs which close by one another play,

And, “thirteen hundred years agone,” they say,

“Two saints met often where those waters flow.

“One came from Penmon, westward, and a glow

Whitened his face from the sun’s fronting ray.

Eastward the other, from the dying day;

And he with unsunned face did always go.”

“Seiriol the Bright, Kybi the Dark,” men said.

The Seer from the East was then in light,

The Seer from the West was then in shade.

Ah! now ’t is changed. In conquering sunshine bright

The man of the bold West now comes arrayed;

He of the mystic East is touched with night.