Avon! why runnest thou away so fast? <br />Rest thee before that Chance! where repose <br />The bones of him whose spirit moves the world. <br />I have beheld thy birthplace, I have seen <br />Thy tiny ripples where they played amid <br />The golden cups and ever-waving blades. <br />I have seen mighty rivers, I have seen <br />Padus, recovered from his firy wound, <br />And Tiber, prouder than them all to bear <br />Upon his tawny bosom men who crusht <br />The world they trod on, heeding not the cries <br />Of culprit kings and nations many-tongued. <br />What are to me these rivers, once adorn'd <br />With crowns they would not wear but swept away? <br />Worthier art thou of worship, and I bend <br />My knees upon thy bank, and call thy name, <br />And hear, or think I hear, thy voice reply.<br /><br />Walter Savage Landor<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-river-avon/
