[Page 8]

BAMBOROUGH CASTLE.
7 This ancient castle, with its extensive domains, heretofore the property of the family of Forster, whose heiress married Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, is appropriated by the will of that pious prelate to many benevolent purposes; particularly to that of administering instant relief to such shipwrecked mariners as may happen to be cast upon this dangerous coast; for whose preservation and that of their vessels every possible assistance is contrived, and is at all times ready. The estate is in the hands of trustees appointed under the Bishop's will.

1 Ye holy Towers that shade the wave-worn steep,
2 Long may ye rear your aged brows sublime,
3 Though, hurrying silent by, relentless Time
4 Assail you, and the winds of winter sweep
5 Round your dark battlements; for far from halls
6 Of Pride, here Charity hath fixed her seat,
7 Oft listening, tearful, when the tempests beat
8 With hollow bodings round your ancient walls;
9 And Pity, at the dark and stormy hour
10 Of midnight, when the moon is hid on high,
11 Keeps her lone watch upon the topmost tower,
12 And turns her ear to each expiring cry;
13 Blessed if her aid some fainting wretch may save,
14 And snatch him cold and speechless from the wave.

Text

  • TEI/XML (XML - 98K / ZIP - 8.6K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 647 / ZIP - 579 )

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy held at the University of California Libraries.)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 294K)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): BAMBOROUGH CASTLE.
Themes:
Genres: sonnet

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Bowles, William Lisle, 1762-1850. The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles, Vol. I. With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes by George Gilfillan. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 9 North Bank Street..., 1855, p. 8.  (Page images digitized from a copy held at the University of California Libraries.)

Editorial principles

Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Other works by William Lisle Bowles