The Two Rivers

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

Slowly the hour hand of the clock moves round;

So slowly that no human eye hath power To see it move. Slowly in shine or shower

The painted ship above it, homeward bound,

Sails, but seems motionless, as if aground; Yet both arrived at last; and in his tower The slumberous watchman wakes and strikes the hour,

A mellow, measured, melancholy sound. Midnight! the outpost of advancing day! The frontier town and citadel of night! The watershed of Time, from which

streams

Of Yesterday and Tomorrow take their way, One to the land of promise and of light, One to the land of darkness and of dreams!

Composed upon Westminster Bridge1

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH

Earth has not anything to show more fair.
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty.

This city now doth like a garment wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie
Open unto the fields and to the sky;

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
Never did sun more beautifully steep
In his first splendor valley, rock, or hill;
Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!

1. Westminster Bridge crosses the Thames in London near the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

This finishes for the present the study of lyric poetry. A backward glance will show the general outline on which the work has been conducted. It is as follows: