Pont Hafren over the Severn River between Monmouthshire and South Gloucestershire (United Kingdom)

The Severn was brown and the Severn was blue –
not this-then-that, not either-or,
no mixture. Two things can be true.
The hills were clouds and the mist was a shore.

The Severn was water, the water was mud
whose eddies stood and did not fill,
the kind of water that’s thicker than blood.
The river was flowing, the flowing was still,

the tide-rip the sound of dry fluttering wings
with waves that did not break or fall.
We were two of the world’s small particular things.
We were old, we were young, we were no age at all,
...

From Severn Song

for Philip Gross

Pont Hafren spanning the River Severn between Monmouthshire (Wales) and South Gloucestershire (England) in the United Kingdom

Two lands at last connected
Across the waters wide,
And all the tolls collected
On the English side.

Ode on the Severn Bridge

Harrie Webb

Iron Bridge across the River Severn in Shropshire (United Kingdom)

"... a blacker cloud issued from a tower in which was a forge; and smoke arose from a mountain of burning coals which burst out into turbid flame.In the midst of this gloom I descended towards the Severn, which runs slowly between two high mountains, and after leaving which passed under a bridge, constructed entirely of iron. It appeared as a gate of mystery, and night already falling, added to the impressiveness of the scene, which could only be compared to the regions so powerfully described by Virgil."

Excerpt from the magazine 

Wolverhampton Chronicle, in 1787 

about this bridge

English Bridge crossing the River Severn in Shrewsbury (United Kingdom)

 High in the Black Mountains, on the windswept slopes of Mount Plynlimon, three sisters met to discuss the weighty problem of what was the best way to the sea - for, being water spirits, they were fond of the oceans. The first decided to take the direct route, and headed westward. She became the river Ystwith, and was the first to mingle with salty waters. The second sister had a taste for landscape, and made her way through purple hills and golden valleys - her name was Wye. The remaining sister decided against short-cuts and it took her 180 miles to reach the sea, The Severn.

Legend of river Severn

Coalbrookdale Bridge or Iron Bridge across the River Severn in Shropshire (United Kingdom)

 "Steel is inextricably bound up in the Western culture of violence. Cast-iron cannon cost much less than bronze and, along with muskets and steel armor, led directly to Europe's colonial expansion into the New World and Asia."

David Morse

Author of the novel The Iron Bridge 
about the construction of this bridgee