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1770–1850

TO THE RIVER GRETA, NEAR KESWICK

William Wordsworth

Greta, what fearful listening! when huge stones Rumble along thy bed, block after block: Or, whirling with reiterated shock, Combat, while darkness aggravates the groans:

But if thou ( like Cocytus from the moans Heard on his rueful margin ) thence wert named The Mourner, thy true nature was defamed, And the habitual murmur that atones

For thy worst rage, forgotten. Oft as Spring Decks, on thy sinuous banks, her thousand thrones, Seats of glad instinct and love's carolling, The concert, for the happy, then may vie

With liveliest peals of birth-day harmony: To a grieved heart, the notes are benisons.

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TO THE RIVER GRETA, NEAR KESWICK · William Wordsworth · Poetry Cove