To the Torrent at the Devil's Bridge, North Wales, 1824. William Wordsworth (1770-1850). Wales: Devil's Bridge. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. 1876-79. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes. England: Vols. I-IV

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

Wales: Devil’s Bridge

To the Torrent at the Devil’s Bridge, North Wales, 1824

William Wordsworth (1770–1850)


HOW art thou named? In search of what strange land,
From what huge height, descending? Can such force
Of waters issue from a British source,
Or hath not Pindus fed thee, where the band
Of patriots scoop their freedom out, with hand	5
Desperate as thine? Or come the incessant shocks
From that young stream that smites the throbbing rocks
Of Viamala? There I seem to stand,
As in life’s morn; permitted to behold,
From the dread chasm, woods climbing above woods,	10
In pomp that fades not; everlasting snows;
And skies that ne’er relinquish their repose:
Such power possess the family of floods
Over the minds of poets, young or old!