Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Russia: Vol. XX. 1876–79. | | | | Volga, the River | | The Volga | | Edna Dean Proctor (1829–1923) |
| | | AND still we kept the Volga’s tide, | |
| The Volga rolling gray and wide; | |
| While the gulls of the Caspian over it flew, | |
| A flash of silver and jet in the sun, | |
| And, chill though the blast from the Oural blew, | 5 |
| Circled and hovered till day was done. | |
| |
| Faint, in the lulls of the wind, from shore | |
| Came the lowing of herds that roved the plain; | |
| And the bells rang over the water’s roar | |
| Calling the hamlet to holy fane. | 10 |
| And slowly the fishers of Astrakhan | |
| Stemmed the current with laden keel; | |
| While the barges the Kama peasants man, | |
| And the barks of the Oka past them ran, | |
| Heaped with iron and wheat and steel; | 15 |
| And as far as the wind could wander free, | |
| On either side was the grassy sea. | | | | |
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