Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79. | | | | Western States: Madison, Wis. | | The Four Lakes of Madison | | Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) |
| | | FOUR limpid lakes,—four Naiades | |
| Or sylvan deities are these, | |
| In flowing robes of azure dressed; | |
| Four lovely handmaids that uphold | |
| Their shining mirrors, rimmed with gold, | 5 |
| To the fair city in the West. | |
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| By day the coursers of the Sun | |
| Drink of these waters as they run | |
| Their swift, diurnal round on high; | |
| By night the constellations glow | 10 |
| Far down the hollow deeps below, | |
| And glimmer in another sky. | |
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| Fair lakes, serene and full of light, | |
| Fair town, arrayed in robes of white, | |
| How visionary ye appear! | 15 |
| All like a floating landscape seems | |
| In cloud-land or the land of dreams, | |
| Bathed in a golden atmosphere! | | | | |
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