TO THE RIVER ITCHIN. William Lisle Bowles Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. 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.

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