Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Black Forest, the (Schwarz-Wald)

The Source of the Danube

By William Wordsworth (1770–1850)

NOT, like his great compeers, indignantly

Doth Danube spring to life! The wandering stream

(Who loves the cross, yet to the crescent’s gleam

Unfolds a willing breast) with infant glee

Slips from his prison walls: and Fancy, free

To follow in his track of silver light,

Reaches, with one brief moment’s rapid flight,

The vast encincture of that gloomy sea

Whose waves the Orphean lyre forbade to meet

In conflict; whose rough winds forgot their jars

To waft the heroic progeny of Greece;

When the first ship sailed for the golden fleece,—

Argo,—exalted for that daring feat

To fix in heaven her shape distinct with stars.