Poems . THE BELFRY OF BRUGES. In the market-place of Bruges stands the belfry old and brown;Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches oer the town. As the summer morn was breaking, on that lofty tower I stood,And the world threw off the darkness, like the weeds of widowhood. K K 278 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. Thick with towns and hamlets studded, and with streams and vapours gray,Like a shield embossed with silver, round and vast the landscape lay. At my feet the city slumbered. From its chimneys, here and there,Wreaths of snow-white smoke, ascending-, vanished, ghost-likeinto air. Not

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Poems . THE BELFRY OF BRUGES. In the market-place of Bruges stands the belfry old and brown;Thrice consumed and thrice rebuilded, still it watches oer the town. As the summer morn was breaking, on that lofty tower I stood,And the world threw off the darkness, like the weeds of widowhood. K K 278 MISCELLANEOUS POEMS. Thick with towns and hamlets studded, and with streams and vapours gray,Like a shield embossed with silver, round and vast the landscape lay. At my feet the city slumbered. From its chimneys, here and there,Wreaths of snow-white smoke, ascending-, vanished, ghost-likeinto air. Not a sound rose from the city at that early morning hour,But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower. From their nests beneath the rafters sang the swallows, wild and high;And the world, beneath me sleeping, seemed more distant than the sky. Then most musical and solemn, bringing back the olden times,With their strange, unearthly changes rang the melancholy chimes, Like the psalms from some old

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Keywords: ., bookauthorlongfellowhenrywadswo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850