Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Russia: Vol. XX. 1876–79.
Bessarabia
By Edna Dean Proctor (1829–1923)H
The Austrian Kaiser’s towns,
Close-watched by dogs alert to leap
If but the herder frowns;
And here the shepherd tends his flock
While the long days go by,—
Now couched beside them in the plain,
Now on the khourgans high.
The plover calls across the steppe;
The stork, with snowy breast,
Flies northward to the kindly roof
That holds her summer nest;
But nothing stirs his drowsy blood
Unless a lamb should stray,
Then woe to wolf or gypsy thief
That lurks beside the way.