Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.

Wales: Caerleon-upon-Usk

Caerleon

By Michael Drayton (1563–1631)

From “Poly-Olbion”

Perhaps Caerleon, like Chepstow and Tintern Abbey, should have come under England, as Monmouthshire is now an English county. But as these poems refer to a period when this was not so, their proper place seems to be here.

THEN sing they how he first ordained the circled board,

The knights whose martial deeds far famed that Table Round;

Which, truest in their loves, which, most in arms renowned:

The laws which long upheld that order, they report;

The Pentecosts prepared at Carleon in his court,

That table’s ancient seat; her temples and her groves,

Her palaces, her walks, baths, theatres, and stoves:

Her academy, then, as likewise they prefer:

Of Camilot they sing, and then of Winchester.