[Page 11]

TO THE RIVER ITCHIN.
11 The Itchin is a river running from Winchester to Southampton, the banks of which have been the scene of many a holiday sport. The lines were composed on an evening in a journey from Oxford to Southampton, the first time I had seen the Itchin since I left school.

1 Itchin! when I behold thy banks again,
2 Thy crumbling margin, and thy silver breast,
3 On which the self-same tints still seem to rest,
4 Why feels my heart a shivering sense of pain!
5 Is it, that many a summer's day has past
6 Since, in life's morn, I carolled on thy side!
7 Is it, that oft since then my heart has sighed,
8 As Youth, and Hope's delusive gleams, flew fast!
9 Is it, that those who gathered on thy shore,
10 Companions of my youth, now meet no more!
11 Whate'er the cause, upon thy banks I bend,
12 Sorrowing; yet feel such solace at my heart,
13 As at the meeting of some long-lost friend,
14 From whom, in happier hours, we wept to part.

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Title (in Source Edition): TO THE RIVER ITCHIN.
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Genres: sonnet

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

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