Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Switzerland and Austria: Vol. XVI. 1876–79. | | | | Switzerland: St. Gothard | | On Hearing the Ranz des Vaches on the Top of the Pass of Saint Gothard | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | | I LISTEN,—but no faculty of mine | |
| Avails those modulations to detect, | |
| Which, heard in foreign lands, the Swiss affect | |
| With tenderest passion; leaving him to pine | |
| (So fame reports) and die,—his sweet-breathed kine | 5 |
| Remembering, and green Alpine pastures decked | |
| With vernal flowers. Yet may we not reject | |
| The tale as fabulous.—Here while I recline, | |
| Mindful how others by this simple strain | |
| Are moved, for me,—upon this mountain named | 10 |
| Of God himself from dread pre-eminence,— | |
| Aspiring thoughts, by memory reclaimed, | |
| Yield to the music’s touching influence; | |
| And joys of distant home my heart enchain. | | | | |
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